Dealing with a Low Text-to-HTML Ratio in Semrush

Ever felt like your website’s code is just… too much? Like it’s a huge, complex machine but not enough of it is actually helping people understand what you’re trying to say? If Semrush has flagged your site for a “low text-to-HTML ratio,” you’re probably facing exactly that feeling. It basically means you have a big chunk of HTML code for a comparatively small amount of actual, readable text. And while Google’s John Mueller has said it’s not a direct ranking factor, in my experience, you definitely shouldn’t ignore it. This warning often points to deeper issues that do hurt your SEO, like slow loading times, a confusing user experience, and making it harder for search engines to really “get” what your pages are about.

Think of it like this: if you hand someone a book, and it’s mostly blank pages with just a few sentences scattered here and there, they’re probably going to get frustrated and put it down. Search engines kind of feel the same way about websites. They want to see valuable, informative content upfront. When your site has a low text-to-HTML ratio, it’s often a sign of “code bloat” – too much unnecessary technical stuff making your page heavier and harder to process. This can indirectly impact your search engine rankings by slowing down your site, making it less user-friendly, and even making it harder for Google to crawl and index your content efficiently.

So, don’t just dismiss that Semrush warning. It’s an opportunity to clean up your website’s backend, make it snappier, and ultimately improve the experience for both your human visitors and those all-important search engine bots. In this guide, we’re going to break down what this ratio means, why it matters even if it’s “indirectly”, how Semrush spots it, and most importantly, what practical steps you can take to fix it and get your site humming. Let’s get to it!

What is the Text-to-HTML Ratio, Anyway?

Let’s start with the basics. The text-to-HTML ratio is simply a measurement of how much actual, visible, readable text content is on a web page compared to the total amount of HTML code used to build and display that page. It’s usually expressed as a percentage.

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Imagine you have a single web page. That page has a bunch of elements: the words you read, images, videos, navigation menus, footers, and all the behind-the-scenes code HTML tags, CSS for styling, JavaScript for interactivity that makes it all work. The text-to-HTML ratio focuses on the relationship between the visible text like paragraphs, headings, alt text for images, and meta descriptions and everything else in the page’s source code.

For example, if your page has 500 characters of readable text and 1000 characters of HTML code, your text-to-HTML ratio would be 50% 500/1000 * 100. If that same 500 characters of text required 5000 characters of HTML, your ratio would drop to a mere 10%. See the difference? A low ratio means you’ve got a lot of code working to show very little actual content.

Now, what’s considered a “good” ratio? While there’s no single magic number, many SEO professionals aim for a text-to-HTML ratio between 25% and 70%. Some even suggest aiming for 50% or higher for content-heavy sites. If Semrush or other tools are flagging your pages, they often consider anything below 10% as a low ratio that needs attention. It’s about finding that sweet spot where your content is rich, and your code is lean.

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Why a Low Ratio is a Problem for Your Website Even Indirectly

As I mentioned earlier, Google’s John Mueller has publicly stated that the text-to-HTML ratio isn’t a direct ranking factor. That might make you think, “why should I bother?” But here’s the kicker: a low ratio is often a symptom of underlying technical issues that do absolutely affect your website’s performance and SEO. It’s less about the ratio itself and more about what that ratio implies.

Let’s break down the real problems a low text-to-HTML ratio can signal:

Crawl Budget Waste

Search engines, like Google, have a “crawl budget” for your website. This is basically the number of pages they’re willing to crawl and index within a given timeframe. If your pages are filled with excessive code and minimal text, search engine bots spend more time and resources processing all that code just to find very little actual content. This can lead to what’s called crawl budget waste. If they’re wasting time sifting through bloated code, they might not crawl as many of your important pages, or they might crawl them less frequently. This means new content or updates could take longer to get indexed, which is a major bummer for your visibility.

Perceived Content Thinness

When a page has a lot of code but not much text, search engines might interpret it as “thin content.” Google wants to provide users with high-quality, relevant, and comprehensive answers to their queries. Pages with very little text, even if they have stunning visuals, might not be seen as providing enough value to rank highly for specific search terms. This can lead to lower keyword density, making it harder for your pages to rank for relevant search queries. It’s crucial that any content you add provides value, simply adding “fluff” just to boost the ratio can actually be counterproductive.

User Experience UX Implications

This is a big one. A page heavy on code and light on text often translates to a slower loading website. Think about it: more code means more data for the browser to download, parse, and render. And we all know how frustrating a slow website can be, right? Studies have shown that even a one-second delay in page load time can significantly impact bounce rates, page views, and conversion rates. Master Your SEO Game: A Deep Dive into Semrush Keyword Manager

Google openly uses page load speed and user experience as significant ranking factors. If your site is slow, users are more likely to hit the back button, increasing your bounce rate. This sends a negative signal to search engines, suggesting your site isn’t providing a good experience. Pages with a higher text-to-HTML ratio are often more readable and engaging, which keeps users on your site longer.

Difficulty with Indexing and Keyword Optimization

A cleaner, leaner codebase with a higher text-to-HTML ratio makes it much simpler for search engines to crawl, understand, and index your content. More visible text also means more opportunities for you to naturally incorporate important keywords and phrases that are relevant to what people are searching for. If your pages are mostly code, you have fewer chances to signal your relevance through actual content.

In short, while the ratio itself isn’t a direct ranking factor, it’s a powerful indicator of overall site health. A good ratio is a happy side effect of having a well-optimized, user-friendly website. Focusing on improving it helps you tackle underlying technical debt that will affect your SEO and user satisfaction.

Common Causes of a Low Text-to-HTML Ratio

Now that we know why this ratio matters, let’s talk about how it gets low in the first place. Often, it’s not one single culprit but a combination of factors. Understanding these can help you pinpoint the issues on your own site. Optimizing Your SEO Strategy: A Practical Guide to Keyword Difficulty (KD)

Excessive Code and “Bloat”

This is probably the biggest reason. Your website’s code can get bloated for several reasons:

• Inline CSS and JavaScript: When styling <style> or scripts <script> are placed directly within your HTML file, especially within the <body> of individual pages, it adds a lot of characters to your HTML code without contributing to the visible text. It’s generally better practice to move these to external CSS and JavaScript files.
• Large JavaScript Frameworks: Using heavy JavaScript frameworks can significantly increase your page size and the amount of code that needs to be loaded, even if you’re only using a small portion of their functionality.
• Unnecessary HTML Elements: Sometimes, developers or even page builders create HTML with a lot of empty <div> tags, redundant <span> tags, or deeply nested structures that serve little to no purpose for the visible content. This adds to the code count without adding text.
• Commented-Out Code: Developers often leave commented-out code in the source for future reference. While useful during development, this can accumulate and add to your overall HTML size without affecting what users see.
• Obsolete or Invalid HTML: Using outdated or improperly structured HTML can lead to browsers having to work harder to render the page, and sometimes can add extra, unnecessary characters.

Heavy Navigation and Footers

Many websites have complex navigation menus, extensive footers with many links, social media icons, copyright information, and various widgets. While important for user experience and site structure, if these elements contain a lot of code relative to their visible text, they can drag down your overall text-to-HTML ratio, especially on pages with otherwise minimal content.

Image-Heavy Pages with Minimal Text

For certain types of pages, like product galleries, portfolios, or landing pages focused purely on visuals, you might naturally have a lot of images and very little descriptive text. Images themselves are represented by HTML <img> tags, and if you have many of these without much surrounding textual context like detailed descriptions, captions, or alt text, your ratio can plummet. Search engines can’t “see” images in the same way they read text, so context is key.

Thin or Boilerplate Content

Pages with genuinely little content, like a very short product description or a basic “contact us” page, will naturally have a lower text-to-HTML ratio. If your site has many such pages, or if you rely heavily on boilerplate text that appears across multiple pages without unique, substantial content, Semrush might flag them.

Embedded Elements and Third-Party Widgets

Embedding external content like YouTube videos, social media feeds, chat widgets, forms, or advertising banners often involves injecting a lot of JavaScript and HTML code into your page. These elements can significantly increase your HTML size without adding much, if any, unique textual content that Google can easily index. Mastering the Semrush Keyword Difficulty Scale: Your Guide to Smarter SEO

Bloated Themes and Page Builders Especially for WordPress/Shopify

If you’re using a Content Management System CMS like WordPress or an e-commerce platform like Shopify, the theme you choose and any page builders like Elementor for WordPress can contribute significantly to code bloat. Feature-rich themes often come with a lot of pre-built functionality and styling that adds to the code. Page builders, while great for design flexibility, can generate a ton of nested <div>s and extra markup to create layouts, making it hard to achieve a high text-to-HTML ratio.

Understanding these causes is the first step. Once you know why your ratio might be low, you can start tackling the problem strategically.

How Semrush Identifies Low Text-to-HTML Ratio

So, you’re running a Site Audit in Semrush, and suddenly you see that “Low text-to-HTML ratio” warning popping up. What’s going on behind the scenes?

Semrush’s Site Audit tool is designed to crawl your website just like a search engine bot would. It then analyzes various technical and on-page SEO factors, one of which is the text-to-HTML ratio. When Semrush flags this issue, it means it’s found pages where the amount of visible text is disproportionately small compared to the overall HTML code on that page. Demystifying Semrush Keyword Difficulty: Your Ultimate Guide to Smarter SEO

Typically, Semrush triggers this warning when your text-to-HTML ratio is 10% or less. It calculates this by comparing the size of the textual content in characters or bytes to the total size of the HTML document.

Where to Find the Report in Semrush

If you’re running a Site Audit, here’s how you’d usually find this report:

1. Run a Site Audit: First, you need to set up and run a Site Audit for your domain in Semrush.
2. Go to the ‘Issues’ Tab: Once the audit is complete, navigate to the “Issues” tab in your Site Audit dashboard.
3. Search for the Specific Warning: You can often find “Low text/HTML ratio” listed under “Content Quality” or “On-Page” issues, or simply use the search bar within the issues report. Semrush will show you a list of all the URLs that are affected by this specific warning.

Interpreting the Findings

When you see a page flagged, don’t panic immediately. It’s a warning, not necessarily a death sentence for your SEO. Semrush is giving you an indicator that something might be off.

• Look at the Affected Pages: Check which pages are being flagged. Are they important landing pages, blog posts, product pages, or less critical utility pages?
• Analyze the Context: For some pages, like a very visual “About Us” page with a single paragraph, or an e-commerce collection page designed to showcase product images rather than extensive text, a lower ratio might be somewhat expected. In these cases, as some sources suggest, you might take the warning “with a grain of salt,” as Google is often smart enough to understand the intent of such pages.
• Prioritize: If a critical content page like a cornerstone blog post or a key service page has a low ratio, that’s a higher priority to fix than, say, a very old, unindexed archive page.

The beauty of Semrush is that it highlights these potential issues, allowing you to investigate further. It’s a starting point for optimization, not the final word on your site’s quality.

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Checking Your Text-to-HTML Ratio Beyond Semrush

While Semrush is fantastic for comprehensive site audits, you might want to quickly check the ratio for a specific page or use alternative tools.

Manual Inspection View Page Source

This is the old-school way, but it gives you a raw look at what’s going on:

1. Open the Page in Your Browser: Go to the web page you want to check.
2. View Page Source: Right-click anywhere on the page and select “View Page Source” or “Inspect Element” and then navigate to the “Elements” tab for the HTML.
3. Copy and Analyze:
   • For Text: Copy all the visible text content from the rendered page just the words, headings, etc. into a plain text editor. Get a character count or word count.
   • For HTML: Copy the entire HTML source code from the “View Page Source” tab into a plain text editor. Get its character count.
   • Calculate: Divide the text character count by the HTML character count and multiply by 100 to get the percentage. This method is a bit rough, as “text size” can be interpreted differently e.g., does it include alt text, meta descriptions, comments?, but it gives you a general idea.

This manual method is mostly for understanding, not for precise, scalable analysis.

Online Text-to-HTML Ratio Checkers

There are plenty of free online tools that can quickly calculate this ratio for you. Just plug in a URL, and they’ll give you a percentage:

• SiteGuru: Offers simple explanations and insights.
• Sitechecker.pro: Has a Text to HTML Code Ratio Checker that provides an instant report.
• Prepostseo: Provides a straightforward tool to check the ratio for multiple pages.
• Mridul Tech: Offers a “lightning fast” Text-to-HTML Ratio Checker.
• Ralf van Veen: Another good option with recommendations for optimization.

These tools are great for quick spot checks or getting a second opinion. Mastering Keyword Research with Semrush Academy: Your Ultimate Guide to Unlocking Online Visibility

Other SEO Audit Tools

Many other SEO site audit tools, similar to Semrush, will also include a text-to-HTML ratio check in their reports. Tools like Ahrefs Site Audit or Screaming Frog free for up to 500 URLs can help you find pages with a low ratio by filtering content quality or on-page sections. Using a dedicated crawling tool like Netpeak Spider can also help you track performance and detect issues, including low text-to-HTML ratio.

Combining Semrush’s comprehensive audit with these other methods can give you a well-rounded view of your site’s text-to-HTML ratio health.

Practical Steps to Improve Your Text-to-HTML Ratio

Enough talk about what it is and why it matters. Let’s get to the good stuff: how to actually fix a low text-to-HTML ratio. The goal here isn’t just to hit an arbitrary number, but to make your website more efficient, user-friendly, and SEO-friendly.

You have two main levers to pull: add more relevant text or reduce the amount of unnecessary code. Often, a combination of both works best. Unlock Your Content’s Potential: A Deep Dive into Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool

1. Boost Your Content with High-Quality Text

This is usually the most impactful and SEO-beneficial step. If Semrush is flagging your pages, it often means there’s simply not enough valuable text.

• Expand Product Descriptions: For e-commerce sites, don’t just put a few bullet points. Write detailed, engaging product descriptions that cover features, benefits, materials, sizing, and usage. Think about what questions a customer might have and answer them thoroughly.
• Create Engaging Blog Posts: If you have a blog, make sure your articles are substantial and provide in-depth information. Aim for comprehensive guides, how-to articles, and detailed explanations that genuinely help your audience.
• Add Informative Sections: Think about adding FAQs, testimonials, case studies, “how it works” sections, or even an introductory paragraph to category pages or your homepage to provide more context for visitors and search engines.
• Use Alt Text for Images: While not visible on the page itself, descriptive alt text for images adds textual context to your HTML and helps search engines understand what your images are about. It also improves accessibility.
• Craft Compelling Meta Descriptions: These aren’t on-page content, but good meta descriptions and title tags are crucial for CTR in search results, and they show Google what the page is about.

Key takeaway: Don’t add text just for the sake of it “fluff” content is bad. Focus on adding valuable, relevant, high-quality content that genuinely serves your users and answers their questions.

2. Optimize Your HTML Code

This is where you trim the fat and make your code leaner and cleaner.

• Minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript: Minification is the process of removing all unnecessary characters from your code like spaces, line breaks, and comments without changing its functionality. Tools like minifier.org or many WordPress plugins can help with this. It directly reduces file sizes, making pages load faster.
• Move Inline Styles and Scripts to External Files: This is a big one. Instead of writing <style> tags or <script> blocks directly within your HTML, put your CSS in a separate .css file and your JavaScript in separate .js files. Your HTML then just links to these external files. This cleans up your HTML significantly and allows browsers to cache these files, leading to faster loading on subsequent page visits.
• Remove Unnecessary HTML Elements: Go through your code or ask your developer to and identify any empty <div>s, redundant <span>s, or unused HTML tags. These just add weight without providing value.
• Use Semantic HTML: HTML5 introduced semantic tags like <article>, <section>, <header>, <footer>, <nav>, and <aside>. Using these tags for their intended purpose provides better structure and meaning to your content, often leading to cleaner and more efficient code compared to endless generic <div>s.
• Clean Up Commented-Out Code: While helpful during development, commented-out code in your live production environment just adds to file size. Remove it if it’s no longer needed.
• Validate Your HTML: Use a tool like the W3C HTML Validator to check for and fix any errors in your HTML code. Valid code is generally cleaner and more efficient.

3. Optimize Media Files

Images and videos are great, but they can be heavy.

• Compress Images: Always optimize and compress your images before uploading them to your website. Use formats like WebP where possible.
• Lazy Load Media: Implement lazy loading for images and videos. This means they only load when a user scrolls to that part of the page, rather than all at once when the page initially loads. This reduces the initial page weight.
• Descriptive Alt Text: As mentioned, use meaningful alt attributes for your images. This adds indexable text and improves accessibility.

4. Address CMS-Specific Issues WordPress, Shopify, Elementor

If you’re using a CMS, specific issues and solutions often apply. Mastering Keyword Research with Semrush: Your Ultimate Guide for 2025

• WordPress:
  • Plugins: Review your WordPress plugins. Many plugins inject their own CSS and JavaScript, even on pages where they’re not strictly needed. Use plugins like Asset CleanUp or WP Optimize to selectively disable scripts and styles from loading on specific pages.
  • Themes: Some WordPress themes are notoriously “bloated”. Consider switching to a lightweight, optimized theme if your current one is causing significant code bloat.
  • Page Builders Elementor, Divi, etc.: Page builders can generate a lot of extra HTML. Try to simplify your layouts, avoid excessive nesting of elements, and if possible, use their built-in optimization features. For complex custom sections, sometimes coding them directly can be more efficient than relying on the page builder’s output.
• Shopify:
  • Product Descriptions: As mentioned, detailed product descriptions are key here.
  • Third-Party Apps: Just like WordPress plugins, Shopify apps can inject a lot of extra code. Regularly audit your installed apps and remove any that aren’t essential or are adding too much bloat.
  • Theme Optimization: Even default themes like Dawn are generally optimized, but if your product pages are very image-heavy with short descriptions, you might still get flagged. Consider working with a developer to optimize your current theme or explore more lightweight alternatives.
  • Collection Pages: If you have many products per collection page and short collection descriptions, this can easily lead to a low ratio. You could either lower the number of products displayed or increase the collection description length.

5. Regular Site Audits

Make text-to-HTML ratio a regular part of your SEO hygiene.

• Schedule Semrush Audits: Regularly run Semrush Site Audits to keep an eye on this metric and other technical issues. This helps you catch problems before they become major headaches.
• Monitor Progress: After implementing fixes, re-run your audits to see the improvement.

By systematically working through these steps, you won’t just improve a single metric. you’ll enhance your site’s overall technical health, page speed, user experience, and ultimately, its chances of ranking well in search results. Remember, clean code often leads to clearer results.

Does an “Ideal” Text-to-HTML Ratio Exist?

This is a question I get a lot, and it’s a bit nuanced. While many SEOs and tools throw around numbers like “25% to 70%” or “aim for 50% or higher”, it’s important not to get too hung up on a single, universally “perfect” ratio.

Here’s why: Mastering Keyword Difficulty with Semrush: Your Guide to Smarter SEO

• Context Matters: The “ideal” ratio can really depend on the type of page and the purpose of your website.
  • Content-heavy sites like blogs, news sites, or detailed resource pages will naturally have a higher text-to-HTML ratio because their primary purpose is to deliver extensive written content.
  • Design-heavy sites, e-commerce product pages focused on visuals, portfolios, or interactive landing pages might inherently have a lower ratio due to more design elements, scripts, or embedded media. Google generally understands this, as noted in the context of Shopify collection pages.
• It’s a Symptom, Not the Disease: As we’ve discussed, the ratio itself isn’t a direct ranking factor according to Google. It’s more of an indicator or a symptom of potential underlying issues like bloated code, slow page speed, or thin content – factors that do impact SEO.
• Focus on Value, Not Just Numbers: Simply adding a ton of “fluff” text to artificially inflate your ratio won’t help your SEO and can actually hurt your user experience. Google prioritizes high-quality, relevant content that provides value to users. So, if you’re adding text, make sure it’s meaningful.

My advice? Think of the recommended ranges 25-70% as a good guideline, especially for content-focused pages. If Semrush flags a page below 10%, it’s definitely a strong signal to investigate. However, don’t chase a specific percentage at the expense of good design, essential functionality, or, most importantly, user value.

The real goal is to strike a balance. You want enough relevant text to clearly communicate your message, provide value, and give search engines a good understanding of your page, without burying it under a mountain of inefficient or unnecessary code. A higher ratio is often a happy consequence of building a fast, clean, and user-friendly website.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does ‘low text to HTML ratio’ mean in Semrush?

When Semrush flags a “low text to HTML ratio,” it means that a particular web page has a significantly smaller amount of visible, readable text compared to the total volume of HTML code used to build and display that page. Semrush typically triggers this warning when the ratio is 10% or less. It suggests there might be excessive code, thin content, or other technical issues preventing search engines from easily understanding and valuing the page’s content.

Jessica Rand

Is text to HTML ratio a direct SEO ranking factor?

No, Google’s John Mueller has explicitly stated that the text to HTML ratio itself is not a direct ranking factor. However, a low ratio often correlates with underlying issues that do indirectly impact SEO. These include slower page loading times, poor user experience, inefficient crawling by search engines, and a perception of thin or unhelpful content. So, while not a direct factor, fixing issues that cause a low ratio is crucial for overall site health and SEO performance.

What is a good text to HTML ratio to aim for?

While there’s no single “perfect” number, many SEO professionals recommend aiming for a text-to-HTML ratio between 25% and 70%. For content-heavy sites like blogs, a higher ratio 50% or more is generally desirable. If your ratio falls below 10%, it’s usually a strong indicator that you need to investigate and optimize your pages. The goal is a healthy balance, ensuring ample valuable content without excessive code.

How can I check my website’s text to HTML ratio besides Semrush?

You can check your text to HTML ratio using several methods. For a quick spot check, you can use free online tools like Sitechecker.pro, Prepostseo, SiteGuru, Mridul Tech, or Ralf van Veen’s checker. Many of these allow you to simply enter a URL. For more comprehensive analysis, other SEO audit tools like Ahrefs Site Audit or Screaming Frog also include this metric. You can even do a rough manual check by comparing the visible text characters to the total HTML source code characters by right-clicking “View Page Source” in your browser, though this is less precise.

What are the main causes of a low text to HTML ratio?

Several common issues can lead to a low text-to-HTML ratio:

1. Excessive Code: Bloated HTML, inline CSS/JavaScript, large JavaScript frameworks, unnecessary HTML elements empty divs, redundant spans, and commented-out code.
2. Thin Content: Pages with very little unique or substantial text, such as short product descriptions or basic utility pages.
3. Image/Media Heavy Pages: Pages with many images or embedded videos that lack sufficient surrounding text.
4. Heavy Site Structure: Complex navigation menus and extensive footers that contribute a lot of code but little unique text to individual pages.
5. Bloated CMS Themes/Page Builders: Themes or page builders like Elementor for WordPress or certain Shopify themes that generate a lot of extra markup.

How do I fix a low text to HTML ratio on my website?

To improve a low text to HTML ratio, focus on two main strategies: adding more valuable content and optimizing your code. Unlocking Professional Insights: Finding and Understanding “Justin Barrett” on LinkedIn

1. Add More High-Quality Content: Expand product descriptions, write detailed blog posts, include FAQs, testimonials, or introductory paragraphs to category pages.
2. Optimize HTML Code: Minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. move inline styles and scripts to external files. remove unnecessary HTML elements and commented-out code. and use semantic HTML tags.
3. Optimize Media: Compress images, implement lazy loading, and use descriptive alt text.
4. Address CMS-Specific Issues: Review plugins and themes for bloat WordPress, or audit third-party apps and enhance product descriptions Shopify.
   By combining these approaches, you can significantly improve your site’s efficiency, user experience, and overall SEO.