Your experience with "code bloat"

Is there any evidence it can impact rankings?

[snoob]

Sorry if this has been answered before, if so, please point me in the right direction.

I am just 'fine tuning' my SEO skills and something that I have neglected in the past and never tested is: Code Bloat

I have several questions regarding this topic:

*Does reducing code bloat have any effect on rankings?

*If so, on what search engines?

*Can anyone provide me with any solid evidence that reducing the amount of text to code has a positive effect on rankings.

Looking forward to your replys.

[Quadrille]

Code bloat is a major cause of 'duplicate content issues', because it makes page differences (relatively) smaller.

Sites that suffer most are CMS-based sites with tons of 'shared code' and very little unique.

It can be a major issue.

Plus it slows down page loading, and in excess may reduce effective spidering.

[netchicken1]

Folk wisdom is that you need to get the text as high up the code as possible as some engines only index the first 50 lines (so the story goes).

So I like to remove as much code as poissible from the top to get the text up there.

Besides there is the asthetic value, good code just feels nice to use and read, sort of slippery like an eel.