Code to Text Ratio Checker
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In the internet marketplace, one has to find every angle of being competitive. From using the best SEO services, to even complex structure algorithms. The code to text ratio checker is among one of these tools that many do not think of when it comes to making their site more popular. However, it is extremely reliable and will get your rankings up on the most popular search engines and much more.
The code to text ratio is a percentage that compares the percentage of text content on your web page to the amount of code used to create the actual web page. You might be thinking to yourself, “Why does this matter at all, when it comes to the popularity of a website?” Well to explain this, we have to go back to February of the year 2011. At the time, Google applied their now known “Google Panda” method to their search engine capabilities. They noticed that over time, many web sites were created with “low quality” and had redundant text, deemed only to satisfy search algorithms for a higher ranking site. Seeing a site with hardly any relevant text in the top ten search results not only would make Google look unreliable, but also would impact the user experience of finding certain information.
Let’s say, for example, you made a brand new website for your business. It looks great and has many extras to give it flair. You created a modern design with intense graphics, and not only is your site functional and user friendly, but it also has extra animations and more than necessary third party extensions that you aren’t using, but you leave in the code “just in case” you need it later when updating. However, since you desire a design that is limited, you don’t have a lot of text content on your website, with the logic of thinking that “less is more.” Using the code to text ratio checker would give you a score measuring your percentages, and you can use this data to make your website more code and text balanced. In this case, the score would most likely be lower than expected. That’s when you take action and perform the steps needed to minimize the heavy load of your site: Deleting unused plugins, opting for smaller sized graphics, and decreasing the animations used. What results is a web page in which the code to text ratio would most likely increase.
The above example reflected how many add-ons and extras can add heaviness to your site, which in turn would give a low code to text ratio ranking. We will go further into these factors later, however these are not the only factors to consider when trying to balance the code and text on your site. The foundational code development of the site itself is something very important to review when minimizing your site usage. Also the uniqueness of your content is an important factor as well regarding site quality. Let us turn our concerns away from “website extras” and focus on the two foundational topics that matter the most in determining the code to text ratio: The actual code and text.
The code
The amount of code in your site can come from a variety of languages. HTML and standard JavaScript are the most general of the languages used in web development, but one can also use many more languages and frameworks: Python, Angular JS and PHP just to name a few. Depending on the dependency of these languages, they can add a heavy amount to the size of your page. Another big factor to consider is if your page has multiple instances of repeated code. This is a common practice that not only increases your code size, but also is a poor coding practice. The solution would be to write a procedure or function that can store this repetitive code in one place, thus reducing the code dramatically, while also increasing the speed of your site as an extra.
A very important factor to consider is the accuracy of your code. It is absolutely necessary to make sure your code is valid. Invalid code will decrease a favorable code to text ratio score. There are various online tools that can help validate your code. You also want to make sure that if you are using multiple languages or frameworks, your code use is compatible with each other. For example, if you are using HTML5 and a JavaScript framework, make sure that the framework is compatible with HTML5. If it is not, then you might have compatibility errors that can give a lower code to text ratio score.
It is also a good idea to not overload your web page with extra code that can be placed in other files. JavaScript and CSS code can become very large, so it is optimal to place them in separate files. This not only helps your ratio score, but also helps with organization and neatness when developing code for your web site.
It’s important to note that not only is the code a factor when determining the ratio, but also the additional extras that a Web Developer adds to the code environment. In code development, whitespace (the extra spaces between words, paragraphs and pages) counts towards the code site within the code to text ratio. Having too much whitespace can work against you, so it’s best to minimize the usage of whitespace to when you absolutely need it. Leave whitespace for the necessary code breaks in a file and spacing between only important sections of code. Another big pulldown on the code to text ratio is comments. Comments are text which aren’t compiled when executing procedures for a web page. Web Developers use comments to “note” the purpose of a variable or component, or to summarize what a section of code means. These are very helpful when looking at developmental code that hasn’t been viewed at for a while, or turning the code over to a new Web Developer that will use the comments as guidance when getting to know the code files. Though helpful, comments are also added to the size of a file, and thus should only be used when necessary, and not to be over excessive. Any comment resembling a paragraph should be included in additional notes or documentation, aside from the actual code.
It is very comfortable for a programmer to have additional whitespace and comments when developing, however this needs to be minimized when pushing your site to a final production environment, which will help not only with the ratio, but also the speed as well.
The text
One of the reasons reducing the code is beneficial, is that it gives you the freedom to add less text content if necessary, in order to satisfy the code to text ratio tool and receive a high ranking.
A web page needs a nicely formed body of text content to not only draw a users attention but also for structure. Your content should be original, and not copied from another’s website. Having copied content from another site is called “duplicate content.” Search engines can tell the order of web pages, and which page came first. So if your site is determined to be “second” or later, that can lower the code to text ratio score. You should also make sure that your text content has correct spellings and punctuation. This can also count against you when you are scored for your text content. Irrelevant words might be seen as spam to a search engine.
Believe it or not, the quality of your text is determined by search algorithms that affect your ranking. And as time goes on, more and more tools are being developed that may be even more specific in checking your text content. So it is best to put your best food forward and create your original created content with great care.
Hidden Text – A Trick of the SEO trade
Some developers find various “tricks” that might help optimize the rank results of a web page. This leads us to the topic of “hidden text,” which is also sometimes called “invisible text” or “fake text.” Developers sometimes hide text for a small period of time if the program requires it, if information needs to be held for a web page. However, in many cases hidden text is used to trigger higher ranks for a website within search results. Note that hidden text is not seen by humans visiting a site, but to search engine spiders that crawl the world wide web. Initially hidden text was a common use and allowed on search sites. It consisted of grouping certain phrases together and repeatedly listing them on the bottom of a web page. These phrases are placed in a form, HTML tag, style sheet file or other types of web page elements that are unseen to a user. However, the overuse of this technique caused it to be banned by most search web sites. Hidden text is a trick that initially worked for many sites, however as time went on and technology evolved, search engines have been programmed to look for these hidden text occurrences, and lower a sites ranking. Not only is hidden text damaging to your code to text ratio, it can also be considered as “spam” to search engines, and your site can actually be banned from certain search sites if used excessively.
Design issues
When developing a website, one can get very excited with all of the possibilities. However, it is important to keep a level head and include only what you need on a website. Websites are not supposed to be large, elaborate pages of data with a design equivalent to software. Rather, it is a collection of information that should be friendly to users and not too overloaded. That said, you should keep the size of your page to about 300 kilobytes if possible. In addition, including too many tabs in your web pages also can increase the size of your web page.
With all of the factors discussed, the code to text ratio tool can be a perfect starting point in determining what needs to be minimized for your web page. A good starting plan is to use the code to text ratio tool to initially measure your web page. If the score is too low, then this signals that you need to review your developmental code and site content. It would be optimal to review your code environment first, and see if there are any sections that can be minimized, or unnecessary backend elements that can be eliminated. The next step is to review the text content of the site, making sure that not too many words are repeated, which might give a “hidden text” warning to a search engine. In addition, you should make sure your site content is unique as possible. Using the code to text ratio tool repeatedly after every revision of back-end code and front-end text content will greatly help in balancing your code developmental and text content environments.
In the world wide web, it is important for a web site to be competitive and leading edge. That said, it is difficult to not overdo things when developing. However, we must remember that most users don’t have super high speed connections, and search engines also consider this when their search spiders index sites. You have to be efficient and take the time to make sure your web page code is clean and organized on the back-end, and your text content is relevant and unique on the front-end So if you want a higher ranking, it is absolutely essential to use the code to text ratio tool to help review your web site.