Stong Tags still useful in 2016
-
Hello,
Are strong tags still beneficial in 2016? A few co-workers feel they look spammy on our site and that they are no longer really used by the search engines. However, we can't find any real significant info for no longer implementing them or saying they're outdated.
Thanks!
-
It's an interesting one and Paul has pretty much covered what most SEO's think about the use of bold for anything more than usability these days.
I actually performed split testing for this for a client a number of months ago (they like everything to be tested) and while the positions stayed static in Google, there was actually an increase in the amount of time that people spent looking at content with those bold words in them. I used HotJar to watch recorded user sessions.
Because of this, they use bold to emphasize key points now - A lot more came out of the testing around it, enough to make me realise just how much people scan pages for snippets of what they want.
-Andy
-
Right - for usability, not rankings.
-
I am still betting money on them when used to highlight internal links - because they attract a lot of clicks.
-
The use of strong tags has never been anything other than a miniscule ranking factor, if at all. There's no point to them for SEO at all - use them as benefits the readability of your copy for your visitors instead, as they were intended.
And yes, if your overuse has made your content look spammy, you're hurting your usability and trustworthiness (and therefore value of your site) FAR more than you might ever gain.
Paul
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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.
Related Questions
-
Nofollow Meta Tag
Hello, I'm new to this forum so please forgive if this has been discussed before. I have a question about the nofollow meta tag being used at the page level. We have external links within our website's guest blog pages that we do not want followed. I would use a nofollow rel attribute on the link itself, but since we allow the blog to be posted using a wysiwyg-type text editor, that proves to be a little difficult to enforce. I was thinking about using the nofollow meta tag at the page level to handle this, but was a little unsure on how that may affect our own links...such as menu and side-bar links...that are on those pages. I'm not too concerned about those internal links not being followed on those particular blog pages, but I wanted to make sure a nofollow for a link on one page won't have any negative side effects on those same menu links that appear on various other pages without the nofollow meta tag. Would there be any negative side effects to using the nofollow meta tag like that? Thanks in advance for any insight. Best Regards, Ken
On-Page Optimization | | kens1090 -
Wordpress Tags and Catagories
I am looking for data in regards to Wordpress and blog tags and categories. Wordpress has these identifies in there tool, but I see them being used less and less. Wordpress also creates annoying pages and duplicate content errors when using tags. Should I remove these tags and categories to improve SEO? I am also wondering if anyone has noticed a difference in user experience and traffic when changing these.
On-Page Optimization | | JoeyGedgaud1 -
Title-Tag question
The Yoast plugin is installed on the website. It generates the following meta property tag when I enter a new title-tag in the plugin: Next to that I have my standard title-tag. <title>dummy</title> Is this meta property tag able to replace the title-tag? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | WeAreDigital_BE0 -
Titling and H1 Tag Question
What to do if you have hundreds of thousands of a particular product. Comic Books for example. Is it ok to have the words Comic Book in the title and H1 tag as long as it is qualified? For example, if I have the following as both the Title tag and the H1 tag. Comic Book - Spider Man Versus Wolverine Comic Book - Silver Surfer Goes Home to Visit Mom. Comic Book - Superman Gets a New Kitten Comic Book - Wonder Woman is More Wonderful Than You Know As of now, I have been doing it this way, but only in the title tag. However, Google has been using my H1 tag as my title, so in the search results, I am only getting: "Superman Gets a New Kitten" And I am afraid that that is leaving out important info for searchers, especially qualifying that the product is a Comic Book and if someone is searching for a Comic Book, I need that to return. But I don't want any 'more' trouble from the Panda. Again, this will be hundreds of thousands of products. Thanks for your help! Craig
On-Page Optimization | | TheCraig0 -
2 sets of meta tags in html
I use Wordpress for my business website...when I was looking at my html using "source" on Google, I noticed it looks like my site html has 2 sets of meta tags? www.seadwellers.com is my site
On-Page Optimization | | sdwellers
I do not know why, and I am not sure how to get into my html using Wordpress to delete one set?1 -
Title Tags
Say you have a client that specializes in Driveways and you have multiple keywords within one locations. So for instance the keywords are Driveway company, Driveway installers, driveway repairs etc.. How would you set it up? San Diego Driveway Company, San Diego Driveway Installers, San Diego Driveway repairs or San Diego Driveway Company, Driveway Installers, Driveway repairs
On-Page Optimization | | benjaminmarcinc0 -
Which Meta Tags would you recommend having on the pages?
Hello, There are so many different meta tags which you can implement to the header of your website and I'm wanting to get people's opinions on which you feel are worth putting in and which are completely pointless? For example: Author Copyright Language Content-Type Content-Language Distribution Abstract Keywords Description Classification Canonical Expires Revisit-after Rating I look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions. Kind Regards, Shaun Swales Twitter: Https://www.twitter.com/CryptCommerce
On-Page Optimization | | ShaunSwales0 -
Does anyone have any opinions on whether to use a pipe | in your title tags? Or commas or just nothing at all?
I am trying to decided whether to use: BootsJeansandLeathers.com Mens Jeans Mens Boots Mens Leathers Mens Footwear OR BootsJeansandLeathers.com | Mens Jeans | Mens Boots | Mens Leathers | Mens Footwear as my title?
On-Page Optimization | | ebowdublin0
