b or strong

[onlyican]

Hello

I was thinking
What is the actual difference between "b" and "strong"
They both make it bold

I tend to use "strong" But I dont know what the difference is

Comments, suggestions, and vote on what you use

[AndyB]

strong is semantically obvious; makes sense to screen readers (i.e. accessible). b is deprecated.

[akitchin]

i should mention that HTML-based text formatting is discouraged in favour of CSS solutions (ie. font-weight), although most people already know that.

i use strong for andy's reasons, which are in fact that reason for the introduction of the "new" tag.

[Daniel0]

I'd say neither of them should be used. Instead do something like this: [code]<span class='strong'>text</span>[/code] and use this CSS code to format it: [code].strong {
font-weight: bold;
}[/code]

[onlyican]

With Regards to using CSS
A little tip I have been told, When you use "strong" on your website, this helps with search engines
For example
My Site, ClubFeet.net, I make important words strong
Not for them to stand out on the website, its for googlebot to see its important, and helps with ratings
This wont work if you use css to make things bold

[Daniel0]

[quote author=onlyican link=topic=109150.msg439884#msg439884 date=1159004948]
With Regards to using CSS
A little tip I have been told, When you use "strong" on your website, this helps with search engines
For example
My Site, ClubFeet.net, I make important words strong
Not for them to stand out on the website, its for googlebot to see its important, and helps with ratings
This wont work if you use css to make things bold
[/quote]

Do you then leave the bold on the page, or do you add something like this: [code]strong {
font-weight: normal;
}[/code]?

[FrOzeN]

Heh, if google treats that as a more important word and ignores the CSS downgrading it, then theres a small loophole to emphasise your important words. Nice. :)

[Daniel0]

[quote author=FrOzeN link=topic=109150.msg439951#msg439951 date=1159023214]
Heh, if google treats that as a more important word and ignores the CSS downgrading it, then theres a small loophole to emphasise your important words. Nice. :)
[/quote]

Yeah, except that the <strong> tag is deprecated in XHTML 1.1 and therefor causing a validation error.

[onlyican]

me, For example, I am writing a site about php
I would have someting like

[code]
This site is about <strong>PHP</strong>
[/code]

But for people reading this, be careful not to over do it, as you then get downgrounded on the points

But I must be doing something right
Number one result on google
pr of 3 on a site not running yet

[fenway]

It's much more logical to use CSS for formatting... don't bother with either B or STRONG.