Say you have links as follows: Link 1 : <a href="http://www.google.com/"><b>Google</b></a> Link 2 : <a href="http://www.google.com/">Google</a> Will the Link 1 have more positive effects than Link 2? I'm sure there's no SEO value in doing Link 1 and you can be flagged as a spammer by Google but I've noticed quite a few links having tags like bold, italics, span, font etc when looking at data tracked by my software. Any thoughts?
...because bold and italic tags are positive on-page optimisation factors, google could interpret it as a way for you to manipulate rankings by using these tags with the anchor text... I don't put tags along with anchor text btw, other people are doing it. Maybe there are not so seo-savvy or using CMS which put these tags along, i don't know. It's just my observation from the link data that i have...
Some think that this can add an extra "punch" to the link from an SEO perspective. It will definitely not trigger any type of filter or penalty unless it is overdone. This occurs naturally even in non-optimized sites. It's questionable as to whether or not it actually helps from a ranking perspective. It probably depends on the search engine.
this is old school seo method where italic and blold text used to put more focus on the keywords and it was part of onpage optimization. however, this method has been abused so much that google picked up on it and now, it doesn't matter where you bold or italic your keyword or not.
Definitely what I wanted to say and had in mind. The second link is not going to have any extra effect just because it is bolded, italicized, etc. for emphasis. May be for the real human visitor. But not for search engine. The search enigne is supposed to omit such 'visual emphasis' inside anchor texts.