<strong> And its effect on Google.

[Teknorat]

Hi all :) A simple question I suppose but important to me. As far as I can see Google likes bolded text so using it can be a good strategy. However our site is currently using this tag to highlight various specs on widgets. My question is will this 'erase' the value of bolding the actual name of the widget. On an average page 30 odd words and phrases that have no real bearing on the product are in bold. I'm thinking of using css and bolding them with another tag instead. Yes? No? Your opinions much appreciated. :)

Tekno

[nuevojefe]

I would say definitely use the css style to make things appear bold that are just plain fluff words.

It's pretty well believed (that I know of) that each use of a tag like <b> or <strong>, etc drowns the the weight a little from the power of that tag.

Even though <b> is supposed to be deprecated I really see more sites ranking well with bold terms than strong terms. Perhaps it's the age of the site in many cases. Older site using older tags has older links, more links, etc.

[Teknorat]

Thanks for that. I think I'll use a mixture of <b> and <strong> tags.

[nuevojefe]

You're welcome. I'd still use css too if it's not too difficult to implement at this time.

I just think of it as bold/strong being made for the purpose of pointing out important words; words meant to catch the user's eye. So, in that case, putting regular words in either of the tags just for styling isn't right. I don't mean it doesn't look good, or don't do it, I'm just saying in terms of it being parsed and understood, I'd say styling it externally makes more sense.

I'm tired now and I'm having a hard time making sense... :-)