How Bolded Text Can Improve SEO

Google’s John Mueller recently told site owners that using bold text can do wonders for one’s SEO content development strategy. This is because doing so can help the search engine better comprehend the SEO content.

Mueller discussed this topic in the Google Search Central SEO office-hours hangout on 12 November 2021. An SEO asked if it was advantageous to use bolded text in their content, wondering if it was purely a stylistic choice or beneficial for SEO.

Mueller said that it does help improve SEO, but the extent to which it helps is dependent on the entire page’s content. He responded to the question by basing on a video from former Googler Matt Cutts, in which he addressed the subject before.

According to Mueller, it was quite a common question. He double-checked before the session to find Matt Cutts’ video in 2012 about bolding and strong on pages. However, Cutts’ video was not necessarily about the benefits of bolded text on SEO. It focused more on the usage of <strong> and <b> tags and the difference between the two; the topic was far from what Mueller was discussing.

The Webmaster Trends Analyst explained that using bold text in SEO content can provide more value to a web page. As it turns out, Google’s crawlers search for italicised and bolded text in a piece of content to figure out what’s essential on that page. He also said that Google usually figures out the most important part of the content on its own, but emphasising the text makes the message clearer.

Mueller mentioned that Google looks at the bolded headings on a page to understand the context better. But it’s not just limited to headings; it also includes things like what is emphasised or bolded within the text on the page. So, to a certain extent, it does give extra value since it’s a clear indication that this paragraph or sentence is what the topic is all about. Usually, that aligns with Google’s assumption of what the page is about, so it doesn’t make much of a difference.

The Value Of Bolded Text Is Relative

Mueller explained that the bolded text’s value is relative to the rest of the SEO content. A few bold words and phrases in a piece of content can send stronger signals to Google. But writing all text in bold, on the other hand, would add no value at all.

Another thing to remember is that this is subjective within the web page. For example, if one says they’ll make their whole page bold to make Google think it’s the most important page they’ve created, it wouldn’t work because nothing is emphasised. All the text would look the same.

However, if the publisher takes a few words or sentences from their entire page and writes them in bold, they emphasise what is essential within the web page. When Google crawls the page, it’s a lot easier for the search engine to see the most important points of the web page out of blocks of text.

Essentially, it’s all about semantic HTML, which applies meaning to a page using appropriate markup. And from Google’s perspective, that’s fantastic because it allows them to understand the page better.

To conclude his response, Mueller wrapped everything up with a definitive statement about the SEO benefits that bolded text brings, saying that bolded text does help Google understand the web page a bit better.

Improving User Experience With Bold Text

Using bold text doesn’t just help Google understand the content; it helps users as well. Users’ attention spans are shorter than ever nowadays. An individual can receive an overwhelming amount of content from all directions daily, and it would be impossible to read and absorb it all. Therefore, readers skim through things quickly and decide whether or not they should invest their time reading the SEO article.

The goal of formatting one’s blog post is to make it simple for readers to scan and understand what the piece is about. After that, they will ideally decide to read the rest of the post. That’s why formatting for readers is so essential – it doesn’t matter how wonderful a piece of content is if people can’t understand it.

On-page SEO is not only about backlinking but also about formatting. It’s one of the simplest SEO tactics to master, so it’s well worth investing some time into. Formatting connects one’s content marketing and SEO strategy, giving online businesses twice the impact for half the effort.

Below are some tips for formatting blog posts for search engines:

Use heading tags

Publishers can make their content more readable by using subheadings. Heading tags, also known as H tags, inform search engines that subheadings exist throughout the content and that these terms are crucial.

One can format their subheadings with various H tags. For instance, the blog post’s title should be Heading 1 or H1, while other headings – like H2 or H3, and so on – should be used to indicate different levels of subheadings within it.

Write keywords in bold

Using bold text is a good visual clue for readers. Google will also notice the code for bold as a clue, so it’s a good idea for publishers to bold their keywords. They can find the first time they used their main keyword – Ideally, in the first paragraph – and write it in bold. The code will be read by search engines, indicating that this section of text is significant.

Optimise Your Content Now

If you want your readers and Google’s search engine to view your blog posts and articles as important and relevant, Position1SEO can help!

Position1SEO is a UK-based SEO agency with many years of experience in the industry, committed to providing your website with fresh and relevant content about your products and services. Our experts work hard to create efficient strategies for SEO content development that will help you rank higher on Google’s results pages for your targeted keywords.

We use only white hat SEO tactics and take an all-encompassing approach when working on your website. We can handle everything from content creation and link building to Google Search Console management and Google Local set up.

For more information about our services, please contact us today!