Do words in bold or italic really help for the search engines?

Jzzy5997 · 02-05-08

I see all these websites done by an seo specialist and then containing phrases with the key words in bold or italic... like, company blablabla for PIZZA DELIVERING BOSTON is proud to offer blabla...Does that really help?

ScottClark1421 · 02-05-08

It is generally believed to help a LITTLE BIT. A very little bit. It is often such a little influence that the negative effect on text readability is too great. In general in SEO, if it can be abused, the search engines ignore it. Note however that bold links are more likely to get clicked on, but that's a human action.

intergise · 13-06-08

It can help a little although it doesn't have to much weighting so would be down the list of things to look at.

As Scott points out too much text emphasis can be detrimental to readability so I'd use it sparingly if at all. I've seen too many websites that look ugly/unprofessional sue to an overuse of bold text. Personally I'd use bold or italics text the way it was intended rather than as SEO technique.