How does the toolbar caclulate text to code ratio?
-
I am seeing some very weird text to code ratios on a competitor site (over 100%) through the Analyze feature on the SEOmoz toolbar. I'm wondering how that's calculated, and what my competitors might be doing to raise that ratio so high artificially.
I need to turn in a report on this soon, any help is greatly appreciated!!
EHR
-
Hey Ryan! That's definitely weird. This is more of a customer service question than an SEO question, so I'm going to close this Q&A and open a customer service ticket for you at the email address associated with your account so I can do some research and get back to you. In the future, if you have a question about our site or tools, please email it to help@seomoz.org to get faster service. Thank you! Talk to you soon!
-
Hi Aaron.
Your explanation makes perfect sense, but I seem to be missing something. The below page shows over a 200% text to code ratio: http://www.screwfix.com/c/heating-plumbing/radiators/cat830960
The thing is, the page has very little text. Can you help me understand how the tool is working on this page?
-
Hey EHR!
The text to code ratio is actually as it sounds: the number of text characters divided by the number of code characters. So, if there are 200 characters in your text, but 1000 in your code, you would have a ratio of 20%. However, if you have 1000 text characters, but only 200 code characters, you would have a ratio of 500%. It's not common, but it does happen (especially on a text-heavy site like Amazon). I hope that helps! Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help. Cheers!
-
Any ideas on this post? Trying to figure out why Amazon's pages have such an artificially high text to code ratio.
Thanks!
EHR
-
It happens on several Amazon pages, listed below. In other tools the numbers are more normal, it's only with the SEOmoz toolbar that we get these aberrations.
80% - http://www.amazon.com/Happy-Birthday-Barbie-Princess-Doll/dp/B002UHJUUM
125% - http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Generation-without-iPhone-Software-Previous/dp/B001FA1NZK
119% - http://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach-33966-6-Quart-Programmable/dp/B000GHGKXS
Thanks for your help!
EHR
-
I've never heard of this happening, almost every time I have used the analyze feature I get between 20% and 40% on the text to code ration. Can you post the URL of the page that is showing over 100% so we can take a look at what might be causing this?
From a technical perspective, this ration is simply determined by comparing the number of characters in text to the number of characters not in text. You can never have a 100% simply by virtue of a section. Google for another free text to code ratio tool and see what it says for the page in question too.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How does ARIA-hidden text appear to search engines
I'm having trouble getting my accessibility team to add alt text to our site's images for SEO benefits as they feel some of it would add additional noise for screen readers. They proposed using ARIA-hidden attributes to hide the text but I'm wondering if will that be interpreted as a cloaking tactic to search engines? Also, I'm wondering if it the alt text will carry the same weight if ARIA-hidden is used. Has anyone had any experience with this? I'm having trouble finding any research on the topic.
Web Design | | KJ6001 -
How important is anchor text in your sitemap?
I've read in a few recent articles that using keyword anchor text in your HTML sitemap is a good idea i.e. important. How important do you think it is? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Example 1: Widgets: View All Colors: Red | Blue | Green | Yellow | Orange | Purple Types: Oversized | Large | Small | Miniature Example 2: Widgets: View All Widgets Colors: Red Widgets | Blue Widgets | Green Widgets | Yellow Widgets | Orange Widgets | Purple Widgets Types: Oversized Widgets | Large Widgets | Small Widgets | Miniature Widgets
Web Design | | Choice0 -
Cost Difference Between Coding Custom Theme or Coding Child Theme
Assuming there is an SEO advantage to coding a Wordpress custom theme (wondering if that assumption is correct) versus modifying a child theme, is there a very significant cost difference between the two choices? Competition in my niche (New York City commercial real estate is keen) and I am dealing with competitors such as www.wework.com, 42floors.com and squarefoot.com with optimized sites built with quality code. In the event that we modify a child theme, I am leaning in any case towards have wireframes and illustrations provided to present to the developer. Should I expect a custom theme to be double the cost, triple assuming the design is provided? I have read that code maintenance on a child theme is less costly as modifications get pushed to the parent theme. How substantial are maintenance costs (time to maintain) for a custom theme? Thanks!!!
Web Design | | Kingalan1
Alan0 -
Location of body text on page - at top or bottom - does it matter for SEO?
Hi - I'm just looking at the text on a redesigned homepage. They have moved all the text to the very bottom of the page (which is quite common with lots of designers, I notice - I usually battle to move the important text back up to the top). I have always ensured the important text comes at the top, to some extent - does it matter where on the page the text comes, for SEO? Are there any studies you can point me to? Thanks for your help, Luke
Web Design | | McTaggart2 -
Hidden Text w/ Java Script _ Is it Bad?
Just came across an article that stated that Google is looking negatively at sites that attempt to hide text or use javascripts to expand text on websites. We are about to launch our new website and believe we are using this technique but im not certain if what we are doing will hurt us. Our website tends to be a little heavy on the text so used a "read more" scrpit that will expand when clicked on. Three sections that use this on the new website Take a look and let me know your thoughts http://joomplateshop.com/demos/catdi.com/
Web Design | | ChopperCharlie0 -
Can white text over images hurt your SEO?
Hi everyone, I run a travel website that has about 30 pre-search city landing pages. In a redesign last year we added large "hero" images to the top of the page, and put our h1 headlines on top of them in white. The result is attractive, but I'm wondering if Google could be reading this page as "white text on white page", which is an obvious no-no, especially if it could seem that we're trying to hide text. Here's an example: http://www.eurocheapo.com/paris/ H1: Expert reviews of cheap hotels in Paris I should add that our SERPs for these city pages has dropped (for "Cheap hotels in X"), but it could obviously be related to other issues. Any advice would be appreciated. Many thanks! Tom
Web Design | | TomNYC0 -
Responsive design and Google analytics mobile tracking codes?
Hi all, We are currently rebuilding a site using responsive design, however i have just had a thought. On another site where we have a mobile site under a sub-directory we utilise mobile tracking codes as we found that this was far more accurate for recording visits. On a responsive design site evidently all pages, desktop and mobile, will be under the same URL, yet the content will adjust to the screen size of the device. Should we also change the tracking code to be mobile code on the lower resolutions or would the same code be sufficient?
Web Design | | Sarbs0 -
Duplicate H1 tag IF it holds SAME text?
Hello people, I know that majority of SEO gurus (?) claim that H1 tag should only be used once per page. In the landing page design I'm working with, we actually need to repeat our core message stated in H1 & H2 - at the bottom of the page. Now the question is: Can that in any way cause any ranking penalty from big G? In my eyes that is not attempt to over optimize page as it contains SAME info as the H1 & H2 at the top of the page. Confusing, so I'm hope that some SEO gurus here will share some light on this. Thanks in advance!
Web Design | | RetroOnline0