<b> or <strong>, which is better for SEO?

[ali_420]

I've read that <b> and <i> are soon going to be deprecated tags, and its better to use <strong> and <em> tags instead.

My question is, is it better to put <b> or <strong> tag around your keywords (from a SEO perspective). Do search engines give equal attention to the tags?

[le_gber]

<strong> and <em> are tags used for semantics to add emphasis
<b> and <i> are is for visual effect

So the first ones are the ones you should be using to add emphasis to your keywords (don't overdo it though)

[ali_420]

But which is better for SEO? I read that putting <b> around keywords (without overdoing it) is good for SEO. Does that go with <strong> too?

[le_gber]

as I said semantically <strong> is better than <b> - but who knows if the search engines are giving more importance to semantic code?

perso I use <strong>

[mattur]

To all intents and purposes they are the same and interchangeable. I doubt it matters really in terms of SEO; any ranking factor that applies to bold would also apply to strong IMHO. I use <b> because it's shorter ;)