text to code ratio

text, code, ratio, text to code

[steverose]

What ratio of text to code will stand otherwise good content pages in good stead with Yahoo, MSN and Google?

Any other aspects of a content page with no graphics currently important?

Best, S

[bufferzone]

First of all, forget Yahoo in this context, Yahoo is an index and the pages are evaluated by humans. The humans look at the content, not the code.

As for the SE’s (those that uses bot’s) I don’t think it’s quit a question about ratio, but more a question about how and where.

You need content, and the content needs to be placed prominently on the pages. If you have a lot of code before the text, it will hurt the value og the content by pushing it down on the page giving it less weight. I don’t think code after the content will hurt any, no matter how much code you place on the page. (I might be wrong her. Others hopefully will join in)

I create my content pages with the human reader prominently in mind. The content should not be to long (between 1 to 2 pages max) and written as reader friendly as possible. Better to create to different content articles then one long one. This way, you might get a fairly low content to code ratio, but if you code your pages carefully, placing as much code at the end på the page as possible, I don’t think it matters much

[goodroi]

Not really as much a ratio as general guideline - keep the code to a minimum. Search engine robots are set to read a set amount of kb per page. If your code is taking up 10kb that is 10kb less content that will be indexed. Also for usability you want fast loading pages and alot of code willl slow you down.

[steverose]

Most helpful people. Thanks. I must be doing something right as Yahoo is my biggest traffic source closely followed by MSN with Google a distant third, despite the fact that the pages are done with google in mind.

Cheers, S

[mack]

First of all, forget Yahoo in this context, Yahoo is an index and the pages are evaluated by humans. The humans look at the content, not the code.

In terms of the directory this is very true, but we also have to think in terms of the yahoo! search engine now.

Getting back to the origional question. You can also think along the lines of page size. Not literal size but byte size. If your page is very large it can work aginst you. The best thing you can do it to follow standards as much as possible. This will lead to less code bloat.

Mack.