• majorAlexa

        See all notifications

        Skip to content
        Moz logo Menu open Menu close
        • Products
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Pro Home
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Home
          • STAT
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Home
          • Compare SEO Products
          • Moz Data
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis
          • Keyword Explorer
          • Link Explorer
          • Competitive Research
          • MozBar
          • More Free SEO Tools
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO
          • SEO Learning Center
          • Moz Academy
          • MozCon
          • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers
          • Agency Solutions
          • Enterprise Solutions
          • Small Business Solutions
          • The Moz Story
          • New Releases
        • Log in
        • Log out
        • Products
          • Moz Pro

            Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

          • Moz Local

            Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

          • STAT

            SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

          • Moz API

            Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

          • Compare SEO Products

            See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

          • Moz Data

            Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

          Let your business shine with Listings AI
          Moz Local

          Let your business shine with Listings AI

          Learn more
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis

            Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

          • Keyword Explorer

            Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

          • Link Explorer

            Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

          • Competitive Research

            Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

          • MozBar

            See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

          • More Free SEO Tools

            Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
          Moz Pro

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

          Learn more
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO

            The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

          • SEO Learning Center

            Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

          • On-Demand Webinars

            Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

          • How-To Guides

            Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

          • Moz Academy

            Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

          • MozCon

            Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
          Moz API

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

          Find your plan
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers

            Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

          • Small Business Solutions

            Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

          • Agency Solutions

            Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

          • Enterprise Solutions

            Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

          • The Moz Story

            Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

          • New Releases

            Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

          Surface actionable competitive intel
          New Feature

          Surface actionable competitive intel

          Learn More
        • Log in
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Dashboard
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Dashboard
          • Moz Academy
        • Avatar
          • Moz Home
          • Notifications
          • Account & Billing
          • Manage Users
          • Community Profile
          • My Q&A
          • My Videos
          • Log Out

        The Moz Q&A Forum

        • Forum
        • Questions
        • My Q&A
        • Users
        • Ask the Community

        Welcome to the Q&A Forum

        Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

        1. Home
        2. Research & Trends
        3. Algorithm Updates
        4. When Is It Okay To Use Bold, Underline & Italic Text? Should I Stay Away From My Keywords?

        Moz Q&A is closed.

        After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

        When Is It Okay To Use Bold, Underline & Italic Text? Should I Stay Away From My Keywords?

        Algorithm Updates
        5
        5
        6669
        Loading More Posts
        • Watching

          Notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread.

        • Not Watching

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread if category is not ignored.

        • Ignoring

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Do not show question in unread.

        • Oldest to Newest
        • Newest to Oldest
        • Most Votes
        Reply
        • Reply as question
        Locked
        This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
        • Videogamefan
          Videogamefan last edited by

          Hey guys I have a few questions. I am pretty sure that I was penalized by Panda a few years back because I went very heavy on bold, italic and underlining my keywords.  Since then I removed the bold, italic and underlines and never have used them again.  I was just reading an article on the Moz Blog and I saw some bold words. My questions are,  When Is It Okay To Use Bold, Underline & Italic Text? Should I Stay Away From My Keywords? Any help would be great! Thank you.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • Isla_McKetta
            Isla_McKetta last edited by

            I'm going to echo a bit of what's been said here already. Italics, bold, and underlining are tools in the same way bullet points are tools. These formats are all useful for:

            • Calling attention to specific portions of text
            • Adding clarity
            • Making text easier to scan

            I do not have evidence to say exactly how (or if) use of these tools will affect your rankings, but I'm certain that a user who encounters content that's overly FORMATTED or OneBigBlockParagraphOfText is much more likely to bounce.

            So I recommend using those tools to your advantage and writing, always, for a human reader.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
            • netzkern_AG
              netzkern_AG Subscriber last edited by

              My take: Do not use bold/italics/underline to mark keywords; use them to mark up important parts in your text in a consistent way. That can be the same but needn't be. For example, I tend to italicise proper Names and quotes; I tend to bold the most important points of a text so somebody can skim the page, immediately see the most important points and decide to read the rest or not (in addition to subheadings); I outright avoid underlines. Those are for links.

              Nothing of that has to do with search engines. Its aim is improved legibility/"scannability". I doubt google would directly penalise for marking keywords up like this - it might worsen the user experience, though.

              Nico

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
              • AHC_SEO
                AHC_SEO last edited by

                Using bold, underline and italic is fine. As long as there is a purpose, you will not be penalised. Remember the golden rule, be natural. If it is necessary to underline a keyword, then do so, but don't do it just to optimise that keyword..

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                • rootwaysinc
                  rootwaysinc last edited by

                  I have never seen or even heard that google penalize any site for Bold, Italic or underline. It is okay to use B.I.U with your content but as per my opinion you need not to B.I.U every keyword. you just need to write content for Users not for Search Engines, just B.I.U the words that should be highlighted on your content.

                  for Ex. if you are writing content for your product then highlight its Main functionalities. Hope it helps...

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                  • 1 / 1
                  • First post
                    Last post

                  Browse Questions

                  Explore more categories

                  • Moz Tools

                    Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                  • SEO Tactics

                    Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                  • Community

                    Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                  • Digital Marketing

                    Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                  • Research & Trends

                    Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                  • Support

                    Connect on product support and feature requests.

                  • See all categories

                  Related Questions

                  • rayabahadur

                    My website is not configured in AMP pages, but it is mobile-friendly.

                    Hi
                    My website is not configured in AMP pages, but it is mobile-friendly.
                    Last month, my website was ranked to 10 positions for this keyword (Magento Development Company).
                    Sometimes it's showing on 25 positions but not in the top 5 positions. Here is my URL (for analysis):
                    https://www.nevinainfotech.com/magento-development-service/
                    Would you please explain why my keyword rankings are often not showing in the search listings?
                    Would you mind letting me know is there anything I need to change?
                    Thank

                    Algorithm Updates | | rayabahadur
                    0
                  • EPPD

                    The importance of meta keywords?

                    Hello, Is adding meta keywords still worth doing nowadays? I have been reading and hearing some different opinions about it.  For a ' beginner ' in this field it is hard to find a definite answer to this questions.. Thank you for reading(and answering) my question!

                    Algorithm Updates | | EPPD
                    0
                  • Eyah

                    Exact Keywords Domain name

                    Hello everyone!, I would love to have your opinion on this matter. I am working on a company e-commerce site; these guys would like to change their domain name AND their company name, so the most logical thing that came to mind was to name the domain after the company name. However, they also bought in the past a domain that have the exact keyword they would like to rank for. I know that keywords in the URL are not as important as they used to be in the past, but nonetheless when I do a Google search for those keywords, 3 domains out of 10 on the first page are slight variations of those same keywords, meaning that they might have a really good domain name (also the other result are government, medical stuff and so on). And, no matter how many times I have read that keywords in the URL are not so important anymore, I still see a lot of sites ranking also because of their domain name (well at least outside the US) So, my question here is: would it be better for them to use the exact match keyword-domain name or should they use their company name for their new site? Or some sort combination of the two? (the keyword-domain that in some way points also to the brand domain). Thanks for your opinions on this; really appreciate it! Cheers

                    Algorithm Updates | | Eyah
                    0
                  • DenverDude007

                    Has anyone used Capterra and will I get penalized for paid links?

                    Hello - I'm contemplating buying a directory listing on the software promotion website http://www.capterra.com/ . It's a site that gets quite a bit of traffic for people searching for software products and  I was interested in promoting my software product there, but I don't want to ruin our very good standing with Google at this time if Google deems Capterra as selling paid links. I'm not interested in this for links but instead as a good source of referral traffic for my software site. If anyone has used Capterra or has advice on whether Capterra might injure my SERP rankings, I would appreciate it. Thanks, Jeff

                    Algorithm Updates | | DenverDude007
                    0
                  • Steplead

                    How to use MOZ to improve my website

                    Hi, I am new for MOZ, have no idea how to improve my website with the function of MOZ, can anyone share their experience for using MOZ service. the more detail the better! Thanks a lot in advance! John Thanks for helps for everyone, it took me some time to read each answer, and also spend few days to study MOZ. My initial conclusion is the function of MOZ is to promote the idea of SEO, but not provide any specific SEO service for specific website except for some tools and report. So I am missing or misunderstanding MOZ's service, it will be always welcome to help me out by correcting my opinion. Anyway, thanks again for all the time you've given to me, and good to you all! -John.

                    Algorithm Updates | | Steplead
                    1
                  • netdiva_amy

                    Troubleshooting Decline of Branded Keyword Searches

                    Hi, Over the past year, I have seen a huge change in the distribution of our organic keyword traffic. I'm trying to research why our branded keywords have gone down.  Google analytics only shows me impressions for the past three months. Does anyone have ideas on how to explain this change in traffic? Please see the attached chart. Thanks! branded-v-nonbranded-organic-search.jpg

                    Algorithm Updates | | netdiva_amy
                    0
                  • MichaelWeisbaum

                    Is there a way to pull historical rankings for a keyword?

                    I have someone who's come to me and said that they have lost all of their organic keyword rankings.  They did launch a site redesign a few months back so that could be a reason as to why.  But after looking at the site, link profile, etc.  It doesn't look like they could have been ranking for the terms they say they were.  They have never implemented any SEO on their sites btw.  I did not build this site and have not done any SEO, they are coming to me to solve the problem.  I did notice in SEM rush that a couple months ago they were ranking organically for more terms (20 in July vs. 5 now), so they did lose some.  Is there any way to see what terms they WERE ranking for?

                    Algorithm Updates | | MichaelWeisbaum
                    0
                  • 360ryan

                    Keyword Research for Real Estate Industry

                    I just finished reading the Beginners Guide to SEO at SEOMoz and joined as a Pro Member.  I have created a campaign for my new SEO project and feel like I have a good understanding now of on-page optimization.  I am going to start fixing title tags and on page content for our top 50 pages and start a new campaign to go after some keywords.  Our website is 360dwellings. I am struggling to determine what the best keywords are for us to target.  Right now our primary markets are Denver and San Diego, we also display listings for all of Colorado as well. We had originally gone after competitive keywords like "Denver Homes for Sale".  What I am learning is that even ranking bottom of page one for that term doesn't bring a ton of traffic. Meanwhile, we rank well for a lot of niche content like "5280 best neighborhoods" "Denver Lofts for Sale" and "Denver Neighborhood Map". My questions is do we completely abandon going after big keywords like 'Denver CO Homes for Sale", and 'Denver Real Estate" and go as far as removing them from title tags?  We have pages for every Denver neighborhood like Park Hill and the Highlands, but there is no search data for these searches in Google Keywords.  My gut says that if each of those pages ranked for terms like "Denver Highlands Neighborhood Homes for Sale" that it would bring good targeted traffic.  Does anyone know of search terms for Real Estate that are low competition but have some search volume? Thanks!

                    Algorithm Updates | | 360ryan
                    0

                  Get started with Moz Pro!

                  Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                  Start my free trial
                  Products
                  • Moz Pro
                  • Moz Local
                  • Moz API
                  • Moz Data
                  • STAT
                  • Product Updates
                  Moz Solutions
                  • SMB Solutions
                  • Agency Solutions
                  • Enterprise Solutions
                  • Digital Marketers
                  Free SEO Tools
                  • Domain Authority Checker
                  • Link Explorer
                  • Keyword Explorer
                  • Competitive Research
                  • Brand Authority Checker
                  • Local Citation Checker
                  • MozBar Extension
                  • MozCast
                  Resources
                  • Blog
                  • SEO Learning Center
                  • Help Hub
                  • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                  • How-to Guides
                  • Moz Academy
                  • API Docs
                  About Moz
                  • About
                  • Team
                  • Careers
                  • Contact
                  Why Moz
                  • Case Studies
                  • Testimonials
                  Get Involved
                  • Become an Affiliate
                  • MozCon
                  • Webinars
                  • Practical Marketer Series
                  • MozPod
                  Connect with us

                  Contact the Help team

                  Join our newsletter
                  Moz logo
                  © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                  • Accessibility
                  • Terms of Use
                  • Privacy

                  Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.