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DIY SEO: Step 3 – Headings, Bold and Italics

16 October 2008 1,936 views 12 Comments
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Creative Commons License photo credit: Matter = Energy

This is the fifth post in our DIY SEO for WordPress series.

We’re heading into more familiar territory in this step. You’re probably already used to highlighting words and phrases within your text using bold and italics. The only thing new here is to be a little more purposeful about your highlighting.

Purposeful Use of Bold and Italics

You want to make sure you highlight your keywords and keyword phrases when they appear in your text. Whether you use bold or italics is up to you – use whichever fits best in your post. With each, a flag is raised to the search engines which means, “Hey – this word or phrase is important.” The more your “important” words and phrases match your keywords and keyword phrases, the more relevant the search engines will consider your content. Makes sense, right?

So, do you have to make EVERY appearance of your keywords and keyword phrases bold or italic? Because, you know, that has the potential to look kind of overstated or strange to the people reading your content. The answer lies in that dance we do when optimizing for both human eyes and search engine eyes. Err in favor of your human readers. If it looks dorky to have every instance of a keyword bolded, then don’t bold every instance of it. If it doesn’t look dorky, bold away! And remember, your opinion of what looks dorky is the one that matters, so just go with your gut. The rest of us will go with the flow, I promise.

Take the Time to Use Headings

The use of headings throughout your text pleases both people and search engines. People like them because they break up your content into manageable chunks and search engines like them because they’re yet another indicator of what your content is about.

Think about it. You’re busy, right? And you’re always pressed for time, or at least it feels that way. So what do you do most when you’re online? You scan. You don’t read everything you see, you scan it to see if you want to take the time to read it. Headings make scanning easier. They draw people in to your content, and if they’re written well, they – alone – should be able to convey your core message.

HTML offers six different heading tags, <H1></H1> through <H6></H6>, and in their default state, H1 is the biggest font-size-wise, and H6 is the smallest.

Of course, search engines don’t care how big the font is (because they don’t have eyes to see it the way we do), but to the search engines, H1 is the most important, H2 is the next most important, and so on down to H6, like in an outline. It’s this hierarchy of importance that’s meaningful to search engines, so remember that as you use headings throughout your content.

I’m pretty sure you can guess what I’m going to tell you next: Make sure you are putting your keywords and keyword phrases in those headings! Headings, bold and italics are important for your readers and for the search engines, so make sure you make good use of all three in your content!


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Related posts:

  1. DIY SEO: Step By Step Instructions on SEO You Can Do Yourself Today
  2. DIY SEO: Step 0 – Keyword Selection
  3. DIY SEO: Step 4 – Keyword Density
  4. DIY SEO: Step 7 – The Wrap-Up and the Handy Checklist
  5. DIY SEO: Step 5 – Make Navigating Your Site Easy

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12 Comments »

  • Ari Koinuma said:

    I thought I knew my SEO tactics (not that I employ it all that much) but I never realized that bolding and italicizing affected keyword perception from the bots. Thanks for the tip — I’ll be mindful of this in the future.

    ari

    Ari Koinuma´s last blog post..What I Force My Children to Learn, or Not (Digest)

    # 22 October 2008 at 4:00 pm
  • Emma said:

    Hi,

    I understand what you are saying about the bold, italics, and headings, but from an SEO point of view how much is too much?

    Also, do you think that mixing up how you highlight your keywords will have a positive affect on how Google rates your post? For example first keyword in bold, second Italic, third underlined, forth bold and italic, etc.

    Take Care
    Emma

    Emma´s last blog post..Cookie Jar

    # 23 October 2008 at 7:22 am
  • Kathy @ Virtual Impax said:

    Just a note, SOME themes will only allow the use of H1 and H3 header tags. (Thesis and Revolution come to mind.) If you try using H2 or H6, you’ll get funky results.

    Otherwise, spot on tip!

    Kathy @ Virtual Impax´s last blog post..The Name of the Game is Trust

    # 24 October 2008 at 11:38 am
  • Suzanne said:

    Emma,

    How much is too much…bold and italics? I defer to how it looks for people reading it. If it looks like overkill on the bold and italics – then it probably is. The search engines will still pick up your keywords in your text, whether they’re bold, or italic, or not. Making them bold or italic simply gives emphasis, in much the same way it does for people.

    How much is too much…use of keywords in your text? Stay tuned – that’s called ‘keyword density’, and it’s coming up in the series.

    Thanks for a great question!
    Suzanne

    # 24 October 2008 at 2:16 pm
  • Suzanne said:

    Kathy,

    By funky results, I assume you mean unexpected sizes? That’s just a fix in the CSS of the theme, so I wouldn’t put up with that for long.

    However, this series is about SEO people can do for themselves (i.e. without the help of their programmer dude or dudette), so thanks for pointing it out on those two themes.

    Suzanne

    # 24 October 2008 at 2:23 pm
  • Marelisa said:

    Can you believe I didn’t know you could create headers like that? I just went back and used H2 for the headers on one of my posts. Now I have to go back and do it for all of them. Thank you :-)

    Marelisa´s last blog post..18 Ways to be Uber Creative

    # 24 October 2008 at 7:26 pm
  • Suzanne said:

    Marelisa – you’re welcome! You’re not alone, believe me! :) And don’t even get me started on the things that I learn and then immediately do a V-8 slap over…! I think to myself, “Hello? Duh!! Where have you been??!!”

    # 24 October 2008 at 11:29 pm
  • Susan/Together We Flourish said:

    I had no idea that the search engines cared about bold, italics and the size of headings for hierarchy. Every time I think I’m beginning to get a handle on this stuff, I find out just how much I don’t know. Thank you for your posts. This is all very helpful information.

    Susan/Together We Flourish´s last blog post..Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council, Open Up a Life

    # 26 October 2008 at 6:29 pm
  • Maya said:

    Hi Suzanne,

    Very useful suggestions. I knew this but have never really seen it so well explained. I really have to start using it on my posts.

    I will go back and read all your posts in the series.

    Thanks so much!

    Maya´s last blog post..The key to happiness and balance is right with you, just learn to use it – Part 3 of the thinkmaya framework

    # 27 October 2008 at 12:16 am
  • Suzanne said:

    Susan and Maya – I’m glad you’re finding these posts useful! Thanks for coming by!

    # 27 October 2008 at 3:57 pm
  • John Higgins said:

    Some great tips thanks!

    # 16 January 2009 at 10:31 am
  • George Karanastasis @ Get Her Back For Good said:

    That’s good advice. I was wondering though if you can use the H1 tag for the whole title and then an additional bold tag just for the keyword, that is part of the title? Visually this wouldn’t change anything, since the H1 tag already makes everything bold, but it could help you with your SEO. What do you think?

    # 2 February 2009 at 7:26 am