Stong Tags still useful in 2016

[STP_SEO]

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 However, we can't find any real significant info for no longer implementing them or saying they're outdated.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!

[Andy.Drinkwater]

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

[ThompsonPaul]

Right - for usability, not rankings.

[EGOL]

I am still betting money on them when used to highlight internal links - because they attract a lot of clicks.

[ThompsonPaul]

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