Code-to-text ratio measures the amount of code vs. visible text content on a webpage. It helps evaluate the efficiency of a page by determining the proportion of HTML code versus the text content that users can see and interact with.

A high code-to text-ratio may imply poor user experience (e.g., slow page loading speed). A low ratio may suggest potential difficulties for search engines to understand the webpage's content and surface it for relevant queries.

How is Code-to-Text Ratio Calculated?

The code-to-text ratio of a web page is calculated by following these steps:

  1. View and copy the entire source code of the web page.
  2. Paste the copied source code into a text editor.
  3. Remove all text content from the source code, leaving only HTML/CSS markup and code elements.
  4. Count the number of characters or bytes in the cleaned source code (let's call this value X).
  5. On the original web page, select and copy all visible raw text, including headers, paragraphs etc, but excluding text hidden in graphics.
  6. Paste the copied text into a text editor and count characters/bytes (value Y).
  7. The code-to-text ratio is then calculated with:

Code-to-Text Ratio = X / (X+Y)

So if copied code is 5000 bytes and copied text is 500 bytes, the ratio would be 5000 / (5000 + 500) = 0.91, or 91%.

An optimal balance between code and text depends on the nature of the website and its content goals. But excess structural code can negatively impact search engine optimization (SEO).