Bolding Keywords
-
A client has just switched from us to another provider and I have been checking up on the work done and the only change they have made is to bold lots of keywords on each page - I thought this was a practice that did not work - is there any evidence of this working or not working? Any articles/proof that we are not using out dated practices as we stopped doing this ages ago and yet the new provider is doing this.
Who is right or wrong?
-
we doubled her traffic and were just waiting for the off site seo to start to have an effect but she said it was taking too long and went somewhere else.
Hey... if bolding the keywords was a kickass method you would be seeing it EVERYWHERE!
I don't do that on my site because it gives the site a bad odor.
Don't worry so much about why she left. Start thinking about how to handle it when she returns. These guys could build a ton of junk links for you.
If you have copies of the files when you stopped work, you will not have to search the entire site to remove the code that these people have added.
-
Yep, agreed on both points Sometimes I think it's easy for us old-timers to forget that there are a lot of folks just starting out who might not have know the difference.
-
I assumed people would knew I meant !!! Personally I think it's going to be seen as over optimization and get penalized....
-
Hey guys, interesting thread about an old tactic. Fresh Fire Media, I feel your pain. I was an in-house SEO for a very similar business owner who laid me off so they could dump all their marketing money into domain spamming and fake blog networks. So frustrating, but sometimes all you can do is shake your head and move on. They'll learn the hard way.
Just a note for newbies reading this thread, and this might be screamingly obvious to you web devs out there, but when people say "bold" they don't really mean the tag. This tag is deprecated and has been for many years. They mean the tag. They both visually do the same thing, but to my knowledge the tag is completely ignored by search engines, while the tag can still be a signal to a bot that the content it contains is of some particular importance to the content of the page.
Hope that helps!
-
The Point is that You must have your Keyword in your title So If you have Keyword in your Title then It will be Bold
And I strongly believe that bolding keywords in Post Will not help SEO But yes,, Sometimes It will help users So you can do it for the users.
thanks
-
Strangely enough, Moz's "On Page Grader" does suggest bolding your keyword at least once and actually lists the number of bolds in the row of counts at the top.
So maybe it's still a little bit effective?
-
Was looking for proof - I feel sorry for the client as the other people have mis-guided her - we doubled her traffic and were just waiting for the off site seo to start to have an effect but she said it was taking too long and went somewhere else. I have proof in analytics that we doubled the traffic and sent it her just before she left but so clients won't learn. We are a small company with a conscience and hate to see people ripped off so not trying to get her back so much as guide her and just send her some sort of proof without referring her to this post
-
Hi Buddy,
You are Right. Bold Words have nothing to do SEO and it just looked cheesy and spammy.
So There is No Need of doing that.
Regarding New Company that Took over your Clients; Well they are trying to prove a Point that they are working hard on their website But It will not help SEO.
You can see big authorized blogs like Google official and Moz Etc and You will never see bold words So You get the answer
thanks
-
I found this but it does not really answer the question...
http://makeyourselfvisible.com/internet-marketing/seo/does-bold-text-help-seo
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
-
Is it possible to compete on keywords with Amazon?
Is it actually even possible to compete against Amazon to be #1 in Google SERPs against Amazon? If so - how? I run a boutique business selling a niche product, in 2008 - 2013 I was always #1 for my keywords.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | loginid
But since Amazon started the same type of products as well, I have now always been right under amazon results, who are at 1,2,3. Is it even possible to get to the #1 position any more? Thank you.0 -
Long tail there are no long tail keywords....
Hi I am struggling trying to optimise product pages for a product area which doesn't have a lot of specific longtail product related searches. It's 'Lockers' I have more specific sub-category pages which drill down such as - Wire Mesh Lockers Charging Lockers Laptop Lockers Just to name a few, but to drill down more to product names doesn't offer much. Or, in some cases the products are so similar they focus on similar keywords, for example '2 tier metal lockers' applies to loads of different products. Do I do the best I can with product titles, then focus on sub-categories? Love to hear thoughts 🙂
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeckyKey0 -
SEO Best eCommerce Practice - Same Product Different Keywords
I want to target different keywords for the same e-commerce product. What's the best SEO practice? I'm aware of the pitfalls to keyword stuffing. The product example is the GoPro Hero 5 Action Camera. The same action camera can be used in many different activities, e.g. surfing, auto racing, mountain biking, sky diving, search & rescue, law enforcement etc. These activities target completely different markets, so naturally the keywords are different. I have three strategies to tackle the issue. Please let me know which one you think is best. 1) Create different keyword landing pages with a call-to-action to the same conversion page Each landing page will be optimized for the targeted keywords e.g. surfing, auto racing, mountain biking, sky diving, search & rescue etc. Obviously this will be a big task because there will be numerous landing pages. Each page will show how the product can be used in these activities. For Surfing, the content would include surfing images with the GoPro Hero 5, instructions on how to mount the camera to a surfboard, waterproof tests, surfing testimonials and surfing owner reviews, etc. The call-to-action leads to a generic product conversion page displaying product information such as specs, weight, video formats, price, shipping, warranty etc. The same product page will be the call-to-action for all keyword landing pages. Positives Vast number of targeting long-tail keywords, numerous landing pages Good specific user experience who may be looking for "underwater action camera" (specific mounting instructions related to surfboards etc.) Less duplicate content as there is only one product page showing the same information Negatives Challenging to come up with each page for the vast amount of activities. Inbound Link Considerations
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ChrisCK
Inbound links from publications can link directly to the product page or the keyword landing page Surf Magazine may link to:
"Surfing Action Camera | GoPro Hero 5 | GoPro.com" - gopro.com/hero5/underwater-surf-camera
"GoPro Hero 5 Action Camera | GoPro.com" - gopro.com/hero5 2) Create different keyword landing pages with call-to-action to directly add product to cart Similar to the first option, but the call-to-action on the landing page is to Add Hero 5 to Cart. The user experience will be similar, the content creation challenges will be similar, but the techy product info e.g. specs, price, video format, etc. will be displayed on the same landing page. Positives Same benefit to long-tail keywords targeting Same benefit to a good, specific user experience Negatives Same challenges to create each long-tail keyword landing page Since there is no aggregate "product page", inbound links will be split between the landing pages Splitting of Page Authority to each landing conversion page Surf Magazine will link to:
"Surfing Action Camera | GoPro Hero 5 | GoPro.com" - gopro.com/hero5/underwater-surf-camera
Cycling Magazine will link to:
"Cycling Action Camera | GoPro Hero 5 | GoPro.com" - gopro.com/hero5/cycling-camera 3) Create conversion-focused product page with casual blog about keywords This is currently what GoPro has chosen - GoPro Hero 5. The product page displays the many different types of activities on the same page. The page is focused on the user experience with images of the action camera being used in different cool activities, showing its versatility. Note, very little long-tail keyword targeting on this page, instead they could use a broad keyword "action camera". To target long-tails, maybe a blog can be used brand ambassadors displaying the product being used in the various activities. Positives User experience focused Higher conversion rate Less content creation work Inbound links go to the same product page, building Page Authority Negatives Poor ranking with short-tail keyword (GoPro is not even in Top 10 SERP for "action camera") Poor ranking with long-tail keywords, (GoPro doesn't rank for "diving camera, cycling camera, surf camera") For blogging the long-tail keywords, who really converts from landing on a blog of the actual seller?! I hope those three strategies were explained clear enough and have enough of a differentiator. Please let me know what you think!0 -
H1 tags and keywords for subpages, is it best practice to reuse the keywords?
So let's say I have a parent page for shoes, and I have subpages for dress shoes, work shoes, play shoes, then inside each of those pages I have dress shoe cleaning, dress shoe repair, same for work and play shoes. Would it be ok to use h1 tags like this: Shoes > Dress Shoes > Dress Shoe Cleaning Dress Shoe Repair Work Shoes > Work Shoe Cleaning Work Shoe Repair Play Shoes > Play Shoe Cleaning Play Shoe Repair Would these be considered duplicate h1 tags since cleaning and repair are used for each subpage? In certain niche companies, it's rather difficult to use synonyms for keywords. Or is it ok to just keep things simple and use Shoes > Dress Shoes > Cleaning and so on? Especially since we have urls and breadcrumbs that are structured nicely using keywords, for this example both breadcrumbs and urls read like sitename.com/shoes/dress-shoes/cleaning. Any advice?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Deacyde0 -
Google no longer highlighting keyword times in titles within rankings?
Anyone else seeing this? Or is it a test rather than full rollout?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Net66SEO0 -
15 Keywords but only 8 visible on the page?
Hi we launched our site in June this year built using DNN - I have just used Moz's On page Grader for several pages and whilst it shows the KW in the URL, Titles, Meta Description, ALt Tag, it also says that I have 15 KWs in the body of this particular page and yet when i eye ball the page it only shows 8. Is this because of the templated navigation of the site. ie this KW also shows in the nav structure of other pages that are listed in the left hand nav menu? If this is correct will Google think that I am stuffing my page with too many KWs? Any solutions? Thanks Ash
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AshShep10 -
Dropping dramatically in keyword rankings
One of my clients has always ranked well for this keyword (janitorial services, nh). Then within a week, they dropped out of the top fifty in Google and now in other major search engines as well. My first thought of why the drop in rankings is due to duplicate listings within online directories. The previous marketing person on staff was listing the company more than once in these directories, and it wasn't discovered until later in the link building process. Sometimes the company was listed with "janitorial services" as part of the company name, and then listed again with "carpet cleaning" as part of the company name... sometimes with duplicate address, or using the po box instead - as if two companies. The odd thing in all this is that while they dropped in ranking for this keyword, they still come in usually 1st in Google Places for this keyword with 12 excellent reviews. And yet when I check their Google Places account, it says that it needs to be reverified, again, it doesn't meet the terms. (company is a family owned business, for over 30 years, they have a lot of potential). So all this duplication needs to be fixed, but how serious are duplicate listings on places like Manta, YellowPages, SuperPages, also Yahoo Business Local and Bing Business Directory? And now that "forensics" seems to be my task, any suggestions on how to start? Any processes I should go through with Google WebMaster? _Cindy And, too, if I could add, the site ranks very poorly for this keyword and while I have provided recommendations, and they understand the onsite issue, they have yet to go forward with implementation, making this a little more difficult issue.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CeCeBar0 -
Magic keywords in Google Webmaster Tools
Hi All, Recently moved a friend to a new WP back-end website as they were on Flash which is pretty, but not necessarily the best for SEO. http://francesphotography.com My question is that once Google finally indexed the site, I noticed in Google Webmaster tools that it found the most significant keyword to be: automatically On the following top pages: | tag/snow-boarding-photography/ |
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BoulderJoe
| tag/style-photography/ |
| tag/underwater-photography/ |
| tag/vacation-photography/ |
| tag/wedding-photography-beaver-creek/ |
| tag/wedding-photography-copper-mountain/ |
| tag/wedding-photography-denver/ |
| tag/wedding-photography/ |
| underwater-photography-scuba-diving-cozumel-mexico/ |
| wedding-photography/ | The goofy thing is I can find anywhere that "automatically" is used - perhaps it is coming from a plug-in or magically keyword beans that Google found? Any guidance is appreciated.0