Does font size affect SEO?

In the eyes of Google, would the font text size of say a news article affect SEO? For example, a slightly larger font being easier to read by those with bad eyes? Accessibility? If so, what size would be ideal? 10, 12, 14?

Your thoughts and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

14px, 15px would probably be "ideal" (still it all depends), but use em instead.

So your 14px will be 0.875em and 15px will be 0.938em (you can round them, if you want to).

Use this chart if you're not sure which em to use:

http://pxtoem.com

 

You can avoid the ideal size conundrum by setting the base font size to whatever the visitor has set his browsers' default size. E.g.

body {
    font: 100%/1.25 sans-serif;}

p {
    font-size: 1em;}

Code (markup):

cheers,

gary

 

And no, text-size in and of itself has nothing to do with SEO - the overall design of the site, as others have stated, mainly that the size units are NOT defined in px, has to do with SEO.

Defining text size in px is NOT helpful for the people with bad eyesight, or accessibility.

 

Ahaan! thanks got it man

 

Yeah, font size is about accessibility, NOT SEO. Think about it this way -- search engines don't have eyes.

... and anyone telliing you to use pixel sizes on anything other than a direct image interaction (like under gilder levin image replacement) needs a quadruple helping of sierra tango foxtrot uniform -- as they have NO ****ing clue what they are talking about and ZERO ****ing business opening their trap on the subject!

 

Well indirectly I guess it could. If the font is that difficult to read visitors will bounce off the site.

 

Also, the Google mobile website checker can tell if the font is too small. If it can, so can their bot(s).

 

Actually, their bots probably could, but don't. At least not currently (unless they've changed it the last few months). The bots read plain HTML, doesn't read CSS or javascript, and are very basic text-based crawlers. They check links, content etc. and you can get penalized for lots of stuff, but the font size isn't one of them as of yet, as far as I know.

 

That's actually a very good point -- if a site has accessibility failings, users may not "dive for the zoom" to fix it and just go somewhere else. That can hurt you when it comes to them going "this content is good" and sharing it to create organic backlinks -- one of the determining factors search engines use.

So while the spider and algo might not slap you for it directly (yet, as others have mentioned it's probably only a matter of time), it could nab you indirectly just because crappy choices in size, face, or colour could all combine to have a site that's just less useful to visitors. Less useful it is to visitors, less traffic it gets, less traffic means less shares and links, and it goes full circle.

Again why I'm suck a stickler for trying to adhere to accessibility guidelines like the WCAG and usability studies by places like NNGroup.

 

If you choose bad font or use unreal font size that can effect on your site bounce rate. If people do not like your website typography, than it will increase your bounce rate. Ultimate result negative result on your seo score. So you should choose best wordpress theme for better seo.

 

You can customize your font size to make your content more attractable, but it will not affect your SEO rank. Consider another point if your font looks so messed up with different font sizes then the visitor leave your page without navigate any page which will increase the bounce rate.

 

No, it doesn't. My website uses default 14px and ranks well.

 

no much affect but if it is suitable with your layout it is great.

 

Agree (y)

 

the text size doesn't affect to the seo but if you will hide text and make the text very little to read to the users and make is messy then it can really harmful to your website.
below is the right example which is good for the website and all the reputed sites follows these steps.

Heading
Sub Heading
Title
Content
Information of Post
Footer Note

The below example is not correct
Heading
Sub Heading
Title
Content
Information of Post
Footer Note

 

Will you please refrain from commenting on things you clearly have no understanding of?

 

Font size could affect which text goes above the fold and which does not. But I'm not sure how does Google determine which content is above the fold.

When it comes to font sizes you'd better have your visitor in mind and you should do what's best for him. This will determine the interaction with your site and will therefore positively or negatively affect SEO.

I don't think there's a fixed answer about the font size though. And definitely not in px. Not with these various screen sizes and various devices.

Plus there is no easy solution to font size in general, as there are certain rules for best readibility, e.g. how many words in a row...and that's a whole different subject.

 

SEO means Search Engine Optimization, which has nothing to do with font size. What search engines look for is HTML source code, which isn't affected by CSS.

 

SEO has nothing to do with font size, color, style whatever... it's all about the content you provide to webusers, they will indirectly promote your website playing a role of SEO expert