Check your text-to-HTML ratio

SiteCurl finds the ratio of visible text to total HTML on each page in your scan. The visible text is all a user reads: headings, body text, list items, and captions. The total HTML includes all markup, scripts, styles, and layout code.

A good ratio is above 10%. Pages below this bar have very little visible content next to their code weight. SiteCurl flags these pages so you can add content or cut bloat.

The check helps spot pages that are mostly code: empty layouts, pages full of JavaScript, or pages with little text and heavy markup.

The text-to-HTML ratio is a rough measure of content density. A page that is 95% HTML tags and 5% readable text has very little for Google to index and very little for users to read.

Low ratios often point to one of three issues. First, the page may have too little content. A landing page with a heading and a button but no body text has a low ratio since there is barely any text for Google to work with.

Second, the page may have too much code. Inline CSS, embedded JS, deeply nested div blocks, and third-party widget code all grow the HTML size without adding visible content. A page builder that makes 200 lines of markup for a simple two-column layout inflates the total while the text stays the same.

Third, the page may rely on JS to render its content. If the visible text is loaded by JavaScript rather than included in the HTML, the ratio is low since the HTML holds code instead of content. Google crawlers may also miss JS-rendered content, making the issue worse.

Google pulls meaning from text. A page with a low text-to-HTML ratio gives Google less to work with. There are fewer keywords, fewer lines to grasp context, and less content to match against search queries.

Bloated HTML also hurts load time. Each byte of HTML must be fetched and parsed by the browser. Extra markup, inline styles, and embedded scripts slow down the first render, mainly on mobile links.

For users, a page with little text and lots of blank space feels empty. They came for info and found a page with a heading and nothing else. Low-content pages have higher bounce rates since users do not find what they need.

Sites built with page builders (Elementor, Divi, Wix) often have low ratios since the builders make verbose markup. A simple section that could be 10 lines of HTML becomes 100 lines with nested wrappers and inline styles.

Single-page apps that render content with JS may have very low ratios in their first HTML response. The page looks full in the browser but the HTML source is mostly script tags.

Landing pages with little text and large hero shots can have low ratios. The page may convert well for users who arrive with context, but Google sees very little content to index for organic traffic.

Step 1: Add more visible text. If the page has very little text, add useful content. Expand product write-ups, add body text, include benefits and details. More content gives Google more to index and gives users more reason to stay.

Step 2: Remove inline CSS and JS. Move inline styles to external stylesheets and inline scripts to external JS files. This cuts the HTML size without changing what the page shows.

Step 3: Clean up page builder markup. If you use a page builder, check if it offers a 'clean output' option. Some builders make too many wrapper divs that can be cut through settings or by switching to a lighter builder.

Step 4: Audit third-party widgets. Chat widgets, tracking scripts, A/B testing tools, and social embeds add code to each page. Move non-key scripts to load async so they do not inflate the first HTML response.

Fixating on the exact ratio number. The text-to-HTML ratio is a signal, not a ranking factor. A ratio of 9% versus 11% is not a real gap. Focus on whether your page has enough useful content for users and enough text for Google to grasp.

Adding filler text to boost the ratio. Adding low-value text to raise the ratio hurts more than it helps. Each word on the page should serve the user. Thin content that says nothing is worse than no content at all.

Skipping JS-rendered content. If your content loads via JS, the text-to-HTML ratio of the server response will be low. This also means Google may not see your content. Think about server-side rendering for key pages.

After your changes, run a new SiteCurl scan. The text-to-HTML ratio for changed pages should rise. For a manual check, view the page source and compare the readable text to the total markup. If the source is mostly code with little visible text, the ratio is low.

You can also check the page size before and after by running curl -s https://yoursite.com/page | wc -c to see total bytes, then compare with the visible text content.

A low text-to-HTML ratio means your page has more code than content. Add useful text, remove inline code, and clean up bloated markup. The goal is to give Google enough text to grasp your page and give users enough content to stay engaged.