What's the difference between <b> and <strong>, <i> and <em>?
<b> and <i> tags simply apply bold and italic styles for visual aesthetics. Conversely, <strong> and <em> infuse semantic significance and emphasis, guiding assistive technologies and search engines in understanding your text. Therefore, use <strong> and <em> to render accessible and SEO-friendly text with meaningful bold and italic.
Example:
Origins and Semantic Shifts
In early days of HTML, <b> and <i> were widely used for achieving visual effects, without delivering any specific meaning. But the web has evolved, and so has our approach to marking up text. Semantic tags like <strong> and <em>, favored in the modern web, align with Tim Berners-Lee's vision of a Semantic Web and make your content meaningful and machine-understandable.
Boosting Accessibility and SEO
Elements <strong> and <em> are key to create an inclusive web, acting as non-verbal cues for assistive technologies like screen readers. Also, search engines leverage these tags to drive a better understanding of content's priority, which positively affects SEO ranking.
Styling with CSS
Though <b> and <i> provide styling options with CSS, <strong> and <em> aren’t far behind. They can also be styled, extending beyond just bold and italic. This combines visual appeal with semantic value to elevate user experience.
Best Practices in Content Markup
In modern HTML, <strong> and <em> are championed to highlight semantically important information. This helps browsers and assistive technologies to interpret your document structure, ensuring content accuracy and relevance.
Semantic HTML: A Commitment to Web Standards
Web standards have been progressively enhanced through the use of semantic tags, encapsulating significant information rather than just appearance. This semantically enriched content fosters better accessibility and interpretation across a variety of technologies.
All about Emphasizing
Employing <strong> and <em> communicates the significance of your content to everyone—human readers, browsers, search engines, and more. These tags carry a nuanced interpretive weight that adds more layers to your text interpretation.
Prioritizing the Semantic Content
<strong> and <em> tags allow vital information to stand out, much like an editor brings focus to the most insightful content in an article. The semantics reflect the natural emphasis humans place in conversation, nudging readers towards what you deem meaningful.
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