Keyword-bolding plays an important role in my SEO process. When writers intentionally use a keyword or keyword-like phrase, I ask them to bold it in their document. Later, I pay somebody else to unbold each instance before it goes live on-site.
What? Why?
The Case for Keyword Bolding (Internally)
For me (and the writers)
A bolded keyword quickly shows me how a writer uses the keyword lens to focus their work. Are they over-hammering verbatim instances? Are they inventing awkward language to avoid overhammering? Do they never use the verbatim? Do they use keywords too in/frequently? I uncover these and other SEO issues so much faster with keyword bolding.
For others
Bolding also allows other stakeholders (editors at partner agencies, internal brand voice guardians, etc) to know when they should tread lightly with their edits. It’s like saying, “Hi, I’m trying to move needles here while addressing a topic. Please don’t erase it if you can avoid it.”
But that’s it. After we’re done examining through the SEO lens, the bolding goes away.
Why Remove Bolding Before Publishing
Doesn’t Google say it’s okay to bold keywords?
Google’s often-wrong Search Relations Coordinator John Mueller gets this one mostly right. I’ll paraphrase.
“Bolding keywords can help Google understand meaning better, but it’s subtle, and not a ranking boost.”
Alas, that hot take misses crucial nuance. For example, while Muller and I both doubt it’s a ranking factor, I’d go so far as to say overuse of bolding will, or might already be, a negative ranking factor.
Google used to reward people for things they now punish. Think: duplicate content. Googlebombing. And so on.
If I were a gambling man, I’d put money on bolding not being a positive ranking factor. Furthermore, I’d wager it will go the way of Googlebombing and dupe content in the near future. Those who did it will regret it.
Strategic Keyword unBolding
While Kenny Rogers’ titular gambler didn’t explicitly preach about the perils of showing a few of your cards to opponents at the table, perhaps that’s because he thought it went without saying.
So, do I need to say that showing your competitors and Google which keywords you’re targeting and exactly how you’re doing it might have negative repercussions? (It might.)
I employ the occasional content gap analysis to figure out which keywords competitors are targeting. Wouldn’t it be nice if they also bolded their keywords sitewide to help me learn from their successes?
Keyword Bolding Errata
- Don’t bold existing content; only bold keyword instances you add intentionally while trying to move needles.
- Treat bolding (as described here) as temporary signalling for smooth workflow, not a style choice.
- Find the sweet spot. We don’t need every instance of keywords bolded.
- Similarly, don’t neglect bolding of keyword-synonyms.
Keyword Bolding UX concerns
Why don’t books typically bold chunks of text? Why do they justify paragraphs over on the left side? Why do they not repeatedly switch fonts? Why do most websites NOT have a bunch of bolded words in paragraphs? And what happens when they do add bold to many of the sections talking about the same sort of topic? (Is this paragraph long enough to show how awful it looks?) Typography matters.
We ostensibly have goals we want to accomplish with our websites. Subheaders break up large chunks of text and define sections. People use those interstitial headlines for skimming, which is how most of us consume content online. Excessive bolding diminishes other visual cues.
E.g., it’s smart to use text-decoration to distinguish hyperlinks from normal text. That distinction and design cue draws our eyes, brains, and fingers into those portals. We jump in, in part because of the visual glint and hint.
Once you start over-decorating keyword-related text, we’ve taken our eyes off the bigger prize.
Don’t confuse people. Don’t make them think.
But wait. You’re unironically using bold text elsewhere in this piece.
Yep. Bold when it makes sense to bold.
What happens when you put the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLAble?
It’s weird. It distracts from the message. Use bold text to aid and emphasize your message as you would in an SEO-free world. Don’t let harebrained wannabe SEO tricks dictate your text decoration.
Dan Dreifort consults on SEO, UX, HR, and other stuff businesses want to hear about. When he’s not doing that, Dan makes avant-garde noise music, pets cats, rides bikes, and other stuff businesses don’t want to hear about. A side note about keyword bolding: I often tell new writers to tone it down. I don’t need every instance bolded, just bold when they’re 100% intentionally “SEOing”.
Dan Dreifort 