undefined
Skip to content
Moz logo Menu open Menu close
  • Products
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Pro Home
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Home
    • STAT
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Home
    • Compare SEO Products
    • Moz Data
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis
    • Keyword Explorer
    • Link Explorer
    • Competitive Research
    • MozBar
    • More Free SEO Tools
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
    • SEO Learning Center
    • Moz Academy
    • SEO Q&A
    • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Agency Solutions
    • Enterprise Solutions
    • Small Business Solutions
    • Case Studies
    • The Moz Story
    • New Releases
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • Products
    • Moz Pro

      Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

    • Moz Local

      Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

    • STAT

      SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

    • Moz API

      Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

    • Compare SEO Products

      See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

    • Moz Data

      Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis

      Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

    • Keyword Explorer

      Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

    • Link Explorer

      Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

    • Competitive Research

      Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

    • MozBar

      See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

    • More Free SEO Tools

      Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

    What is your Brand Authority?
    Moz

    What is your Brand Authority?

    Check yours now
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO

      The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

    • SEO Learning Center

      Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

    • On-Demand Webinars

      Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

    • How-To Guides

      Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

    • Moz Academy

      Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

    • SEO Q&A

      Insights & discussions from an SEO community of 500,000+.

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
    Moz API

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

    Find your plan
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Small Business Solutions

      Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

    • Agency Solutions

      Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

    • Enterprise Solutions

      Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

    • The Moz Story

      Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

    • Case Studies

      Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

    • New Releases

      Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

    Surface actionable competitive intel
    New Feature

    Surface actionable competitive intel

    Learn More
  • Log in
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Dashboard
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Dashboard
    • Moz Academy
  • Avatar
    • Moz Home
    • Notifications
    • Account & Billing
    • Manage Users
    • Community Profile
    • My Q&A
    • My Videos
    • Log Out

The Moz Q&A Forum

  • Forum
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Ask the Community

Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. SEO Tactics
  3. On-Page Optimization
  4. Does Bolding Text Have Any Impact on SEO?

Moz Q&A is closed.

After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

Does Bolding Text Have Any Impact on SEO?

On-Page Optimization
7
8
12.4k
Loading More Posts
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as question
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
  • tryfantasy
    tryfantasy last edited by Jan 21, 2015, 3:11 PM

    Someone told me it does but I thought that was old school way of thinking.  Any thoughts?

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
    • JVRudnick
      JVRudnick last edited by Jan 22, 2015, 6:04 PM Jan 22, 2015, 6:04 PM

      Far as I know - no value at all for serps....but for searchers perhaps...depends on whether it might be a transactional query or a instructional one etc etc....

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • DonnaDuncan
        DonnaDuncan @tryfantasy last edited by Jan 21, 2015, 5:27 PM Jan 21, 2015, 5:27 PM

        There are some pretty good resources right here on Moz Christopher:

        • http://moz.com/blog/topic-modeling-semantic-connectivity-whiteboard-friday (whiteboard Friday)
        • http://moz.com/blog/semantic-seo-questions (blog)
        • http://moz.com/webinars/semantic-seo-for-the-people (webinar)
        • http://www.slideshare.net/MatthewBrownPDX/strings-to-things-the-move-to-semantic-seo-mozcon-2013 (Mozcon slide presentation)
        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
        • Toddfoster
          Toddfoster last edited by Jan 21, 2015, 5:10 PM Jan 21, 2015, 5:10 PM

          Hello Christopher,

          Bolding in and of itself confers no technical SEO advantage. However, it does have a "soft" SEO impact in that it can make content more accessible and readable from a user perspective. This might make it more likely to be shared, linked to, or otherwise cited, improving your potential reach and therefore helping with positive ranking signals to Google.

          Dry, basic text can make a reader bored and increase Bounce Rate.

          However, well-cited, original content with proper emphasis on relevant topics and words can make all the difference when it comes to user reception.

          See the difference? Google will too, over time.

          Hope this helps!

          Rob

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
          • mack-ayache
            mack-ayache last edited by Jan 21, 2015, 4:10 PM Jan 21, 2015, 4:10 PM

            I doubt it has direct impact on SEO but I have seen Amazon use all capitals in their product headers for the keywords.  I don't know if this is dynamically generated but to give you an example it can be something like:

            16oz. boxing 134895tp BOXING GLOVES for GIRLS

            My guess is the reason they do this is to make the keywords stand out on the SERP and increase their CTR but if it had direct impact to SEO everyone would be bolding and caps-locking.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • tryfantasy
              tryfantasy @Nobody1565908128979 last edited by Jan 21, 2015, 3:44 PM Jan 21, 2015, 3:44 PM

              Good response Jamie.  Any places to learn about the advanced topic modelling and semantic markup that you to refer to?

              DonnaDuncan 1 Reply Last reply Jan 21, 2015, 5:27 PM Reply Quote -1
              • TheZenAgency
                TheZenAgency last edited by Jan 21, 2015, 3:20 PM Jan 21, 2015, 3:20 PM

                Hi

                If it benefits the reader go for it!

                If it doesn't i wouldn't bother!

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • Nobody1565908128979
                  Nobody1565908128979 last edited by Jan 21, 2015, 3:45 PM Jan 21, 2015, 3:17 PM

                  I would not say it has massive impact, plus bolding keywords is a bit of an old school practice, but there is still some benefit / value I believe to using it, although does make content look unsightly if over used.

                  It's also worth mentioning that this tag **is redundant and has been for many years, you would need to use the following tag Keyword. Be careful to how much you use it and how perfect you make the SEO you do not want to get penalized for over optimisation. **

                  **Its best to think about this when writing content anyway

                  Focus content beyond basic keyword density and take into consideration advanced topic modelling - synonyms and close variants; keyword usage and intent; and semantic mark-up

                  Regards,**

                  tryfantasy 1 Reply Last reply Jan 21, 2015, 3:44 PM Reply Quote 3
                  • 1 / 1
                  1 out of 8
                  • First post
                    1/8
                    Last post

                  Got a burning SEO question?

                  Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                  Start my free trial


                  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.

                  • See all categories

                  Related Questions

                  • Popidev

                    H1 tag positioning impact

                    Hello, I am currently working with a dev team to develop a new site. We have designed the title tags to sit below a banner image on each page but the technical team are insisting the h1 title tags must come above the banner for maximum SEO impact. I am sceptical about this, can anybody please shed some light and/or share any up to date resource on this? I have attached a side by side wireframe to illustrate the pages with the h1 tags in both positions. Thank you! HnWcLTx

                    On-Page Optimization | Oct 30, 2018, 12:03 PM | Popidev
                    0
                  • Liquid2015

                    Will shortening down the amount of text on my pages affect it's SEO performance?

                    My website has several pages with a lot of text that becomes pretty boring. I'm looking at shortening down the amount of copy on each page but then within the updated, shortened copy, integrating more target keywords naturally. Will shortening down the current copy have a negative effect on my SEO performance?

                    On-Page Optimization | Jun 21, 2017, 4:34 PM | Liquid2015
                    0
                  • CosiCrawley

                    SEO audit on a beta site

                    HI there, Is there much point conducting an SEO site audit on a site that has not yet launched and is protected behind a login? Presumably none of the usual SEO tools (Moz, Screaming Frog etc) can crawl this site becuase it is all locked behind a login. Would it be better to launch it and then do a site audit? Thanks

                    On-Page Optimization | May 16, 2016, 8:51 AM | CosiCrawley
                    0
                  • MichaelGregory

                    Background Images and ALT text

                    We pretty much exclusively use background images for our sites. How do I add in alt text? I tried a Google search for this issue and the best answer I could find was "Use the 'title' tag in the containing div", but that was from 2010. Is there a better way to do it? And no, we're not going to switch to using standard images, because background images are way more slick for UX.

                    On-Page Optimization | Feb 17, 2016, 8:43 PM | MichaelGregory
                    0
                  • goperformancelabs

                    Does Hiding the article´s date in a blog affect SEO?

                    We are running a blog and would like to hide date, as users find the article less interesting if they are dated more than 2 years ago. Will hiding the article´s date in a blog affecto SEO? Thanks in advance u2cJxsr

                    On-Page Optimization | Dec 19, 2014, 10:47 PM | goperformancelabs
                    0
                  • cookie777

                    Bold & Italics Best Practice?

                    Hi All, Does anyone know the official best practice use of bold and italic fonts? If I have a long page of text- 800 words + I usually bold a few sentences to allow the user to be able to read only the bold on the page, and still make sense of the article. By reading all the bold it will kind of make sense and the user gets the point of the article. This wasn't really done for SEO purposes, but so the reader gets to the bottom of the page in a reasonable amount of time, and gets all the key points and facts of the article. I was advised not to do this and to just bold/italic the keyword/phrases the article was written to rank for. I would like to know anyone else's opinion/strategy on using bold/italics effectively and within best practices. What's the official word? Thank you for your help. Ian

                    On-Page Optimization | Sep 2, 2015, 4:18 PM | cookie777
                    0
                  • Bram76

                    The word "in" between 2 keywords influence on SEO

                    Does anybody know when you have the word "in" between two keywords has this a negative influence in Google? For example: "Holiday Home Germany" is the search term in Google
                    "Holiday Home in Germany"  as h1 on our website or do we have to use "Holiday Home Germany" on our website?

                    On-Page Optimization | May 22, 2013, 10:47 AM | Bram76
                    0
                  • goperformancelabs

                    HAVING A POPUP WINDOW ON HOMEPAGE AFFECTS SEO?

                    Good evening, I currently have a blog that uses a popup window after 15 seconds that is used to add visitor to my newsletter. My question is :  Does it have a negative effect in SEO? Thanks in advance Maria Jesus

                    On-Page Optimization | Nov 8, 2011, 7:53 AM | goperformancelabs
                    0

                  Get started with Moz Pro!

                  Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                  Start my free trial
                  Products
                  • Moz Pro
                  • Moz Local
                  • Moz API
                  • Moz Data
                  • STAT
                  • Product Updates
                  Moz Solutions
                  • SMB Solutions
                  • Agency Solutions
                  • Enterprise Solutions
                  Free SEO Tools
                  • Domain Authority Checker
                  • Link Explorer
                  • Keyword Explorer
                  • Competitive Research
                  • Brand Authority Checker
                  • MozBar Extension
                  • MozCast
                  Resources
                  • Blog
                  • SEO Learning Center
                  • Help Hub
                  • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                  • How-to Guides
                  • Moz Academy
                  • API Docs
                  About Moz
                  • About
                  • Team
                  • Careers
                  • Contact
                  Why Moz
                  • Case Studies
                  • Testimonials
                  Get Involved
                  • Become an Affiliate
                  • MozCon
                  • Webinars
                  • Practical Marketer Series
                  • MozPod
                  Connect with us

                  Contact the Help team

                  Join our newsletter
                  Moz logo
                  © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                  • Accessibility
                  • Terms of Use
                  • Privacy

                  Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.