Relative Font Size Impact on SEO

[Sebastian]

Hey folks,

So this is something I used to discount, or thought only had a marginal impact at best.

But then I noticed I rank for "pokersiteX download" without ever having optimized for the term. At one point, I ranked number 1 for it, on top of pokersiteX.com/download. Let me add that I optimized aggressively for PokersiteX however.

I looked at my page, and I only have one instance of "pokersiteX download" in the text, it's bolded though but not in an h tag.

I also have "DOWNLOAD PokersiteX" at the bottom of the page in huge font relative to the rest of the text. This is a call to action an linked back to the site with my affiliate link. Again, just regular text.

What do you guys think of using font size to emphasize keywords from an seo standpoint ? I don't mean raw size, but relative font size.

[GregW]

I really don't think that the relative size of the font would make a difference to the SEO. That would be controlled in the CSS, and as far as I'm aware Google doesn't read CSS files for ranking purposes.

[Sebastian]

OK Thanks... I just increased the html font size though. I didn't use any css.

[GregW]

I would still think that's more in the area of design, and I don't think that Google would go down the route of ranking webpages based on their design. It would certainly make sense to suggest that bigger font = more important, but that's pretty much what htags do naturally.

Of course, I'm no SEO pro and I'm just going off my opinions here. As Randy Ray might say, this would be an interesting hypothesis to test.

[Mark]

That's an interesting question. When I first read this, I thought no way would font size have an impact but after thinking about it for a bit, I thought maybe it could.

Think about it like this from a searcher and a search engine's perspective.

If you are searching for something online and one page has great content, but the font size is 6 or 7, it's going to be tough to read for the average person, whereas a page with great content and a font of 12, will be much easier. From both the searcher and the search engines perspective, all things equal, the site with font 12 would be better for a user. They can read it easier. I know I've clicked off of pages right away when the font is too small.

Again, I have no idea on this but it made me think about it for a bit. Definitely needs to be tested though.

Mark

[PokerNations]

I'm not an SEO guru either, but my understanding was that search engines did take into account things like bolded keywords and phrases, so perhaps html font size is factored in as well?

[GregW]

I'm not an SEO guru either, but my understanding was that search engines did take into account things like bolded keywords and phrases, so perhaps html font size is factored in as well?

The problem with that is the <font> tag is now a deprecated tag. I'd like to believe that Google is a forward-thinking search engine, so I wouldn't imagine that they would want to set a trend for rewarding pages with deprecated <font> tags with higher rankings.

I'd certainly hope that this wouldn't be the case anyway, as it would be horrible designing a site using <font> tags as opposed to CSS now. It would be like taking a big step backward in website construction.

[Sebastian]

Interesting Pokerbank,

But I guess that Google started their algorithm a long time algo, when <font> was used. So it may have been a factor then and maybe now if their algo is backwards compatible.

I agree I don't think Google checks css for this.

[GregW]

But I guess that Google started their algorithm a long time algo, when <font> was used. So it may have been a factor then and maybe now if their algo is backwards compatible.

That's certainly possible, I have no evidence to suggest for or against this point.

At the end of the day though, I am going to do what is best for the construction of my websites, which is going to be using CSS and avoiding <font> tags. Even if it turns out that <font size="5">this</font> has a slightly better advantage in terms of <p>this</p> for SEO then I will stick with CSS anyway.

Put it this way, if word got out that <font> tags were all the rage for SEO, you would find that the Internet would be less stylish and slower loading - and I wouldn't call that progress. So Google wouldn't want to encorage this sort of coding.

[LadyHoldem]

It would actually be really smart from a searcher and a search engines perspective for google to take design into consideration even now.

If it's the largest text on your page, it's likely pretty important. If you're drawing eyes to it.. it's the point of at least that section of the page.

I've never looked into font size mattering, never tried any google experiments, and have no idea, but .. google oughta take css into consideration :P.