Low text-HTML ratios

[Kingalan1]

Are low text-HTML ratios still a negative SEO ranking factor?

Today I ran SEMRUSH site audit that showed 344 out of 345 pages on our website (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com) show an text-HTML ratio that ranges from 8% to 22%.  This is characterized as a warning on SEMRUSH. This error did not exist in April when the last SEMRUSH audit was conducted.

Is it worthwhile to try to externalize code in order to improve this ratio? Or to add  text (major project on a site of this size)? These pages generally have 200-400 words of text.

Certain URLs, for example www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/blog/nycofficespaceforlease more text, yet it still shows an text-HTML ratio of only 16%.

We recently upgraded to the WordPress 4.2.1. Could this have bloated the code (CSS etcetera)  to the detriment of the text-HTML ratio?

If Google has become accustomed to more complex code, is this a ratio that I can ignore.

Thanks, Alan

[Kevin-Moore]

Hi Cynthia,

A text-to-HTML ratio of between 15 and 70 percent is generally considered ideal.

Try this tool, http://tools.seochat.com/tools/code-to-text-ratio/

It is a pretty good tool, but like Andy stated, the best bet is to focus on improving the content on your site, followed by running these pages through https://validator.w3.org/ and follow whatever recommendations possible to reduce code bloat etc...

Cheers,

Kevin

[CSobus]

We have the same issues on two websites, and I have had difficulty determining what is actually wrong or causing this?  Is there another tool that may give more light to what SEMrush is "finding" as low text-html ratios?  I am not sure what to address on some of the pages that SEMrush has flagged that as a warning.

Thanks, Cindy

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi,

First of all, you should be aware that SEMRush changed their algorithm a week or so ago and a client of mine also saw the same issue. They have really set the bar low when it comes to showing this factor now, to the point I don't agree with it.

However, I would use this as a signal just to allow you to see if the content is lacking a little on the page, rather than worrying if it will affect SEO. Of course, if you have a page with no content, this is bad for both usability and SEO, but text / HTML ratio isn't a direct ranking signal. See it as more of an indicator to see if the code can be cleaned and to help increase page load times.

There is never any harm in trying to speed up your pages either. If you think that some of the code is slowing things down, then look at how this can be improved. You can always do more to better the user experience, and with that will come indirect SEO improvements.

Write amazing content for your pages (where possible) and don't worry too much about text / HTML ratio. I know which one Google will be paying more attention to

-Andy