Content vs. HTML code ratio

Has this been established yet?

[1script]

Hello everyone,

Just saw the subject matter casually discussed in another post here. I thought Google does not index the code, so what's the deal with the ratio? Is this largely a speculation or has the ratio been established as a ranking factor here?

[tedster]

I never really thought that the content to code ratio was DIRECTLY incorporated into the algorithm. But it is a good general practice to maximize the content and minimize the mark-up. Anecdotally, I have often seen rankings improve when code gets cleaned up and minimized this way, however that can be related to the disciplined approach that is needed to make the imporved ratio happen. Cause/effect is pretty hard to prove, but there often is some kind of correspondence between leaner mark-up and imporved rankings.

[wmuser]

"I never really thought that the content to code ratio was DIRECTLY incorporated into the algorithm. But it is a good general practice to maximize the content and minimize the mark-up. Anecdotally, I have often seen rankings improve when code gets cleaned up and minimized this way, however that can be related to the disciplined approach that is needed to make the imporved ratio happen. "

True

I have also heard that they will create "search for HTML code option"
As i remember there is a search engine offering it

[minnapple]

Try to keep excessive repeative code [ i.e. java, css, navigation code ] below unique content when possible, by calling java and css as an separate file and doing the row span fix for the navigation.

This reduces the html to content ratio and moves unique content higher within the code.

[Halfdeck]

Google doesn't index HTML, but HTML does influence how Google fetches snippets to use in SERPS when either no META descriptions are present or if a META description happens to be shorter than 50 chars. A TABLE-heavy page with content buried in the bottom of source can confuse Google (though I'm seeing Google get better at this). If your page is 90% links, you also may run into trouble; Google likes to ignore anchor text when building snippets unless there's nothing else to use.

These days when alot of webmasters like me are stressing out over trying to keep pages out of the supplemental index, you want to write a lengthy / unique META description for every page and/or clean up your HTML so the content is easy for Google to find.

[Quadrille]

Just adding to minnapple's note, it's also worth thinking about adding content to the page, and considering combining small-content pages. For example, if there's little that your target audience needs to know about green widgets and blue widgets, merging the pages into a 'widgets' page will make for fewer problems.

Also consider removing any shared item that really does not need to be on every page.

The more 'unique' the page is, the better.

A unique title (relevant to the page's content) is vital, and a unique meta description (also relevant to the page's content) will be helpful - at this stage it's not clear if the meta description is essential or simply good practice.

[texasville]

>>>>>A unique title (relevant to the page's content) is vital, and a unique meta description (also relevant to the page's content) will be helpful - at this stage it's not clear if the meta description is essential or simply good practice. <<<

It is quite interesting to note that site I manage that has had lots of problems, everything supplemental except the index page, has been showing up in the serps occassionally without it's meta description. Instead, it uses a tiny snipet from the meta and a snippet from the part of the page that reflects the keyword(s) used in the search term.

[Quadrille]

That will depend very much on the search terms used, and where they appear on the page or in the tags.

That's another reason why it is very important for the meta tags to relate to page content; that way search terms that find the page, also utilise the meta description.

This can never be 100%, of course. There will always be words/phrases on the page but not in the tags; serps in those cases cannot rely on the meta description. Chances are, the site will not feature too far up in such searches.

But in the key searches you want and anticipate, there should be a meta tags there to meet them :)