Difference Between Strong and Bold tag in HTML

Last Updated : 23 Jul, 2025

In HTML, the <b> and <strong> tags both make text look bold, so they might seem 100% the same — but there's an important difference between them.

This article go through the distinction between <b> and <strong> in HTML, exploring their semantic meaning, rendering, accessibility, and best practices for their use.

HTML strong tag

The strong tag is one of the elements of HTML used in formatting HTML texts. It is used to define text with strong importance, often displayed in bold, contributing to both visual styling and semantic emphasis within the document structure.

Syntax

<strong> Contents... </strong>

Example: In this example, we demonstrate the use of the <strong> tag to emphasize "Computer science" within a sentence, typically displayed in bold for strong importance.

HTML 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Strong Tag Example</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h2>Using Strong Tag</h2>
    <p>GeeksforGeeks a 
        <strong>Computer science </strong> 
        Portal.
    </p>
</body>
</html>

Output:

StrongTag
HTML strong tag output

HTML bold tag

The HTML <b> tag defines text to be displayed in bold without conveying additional semantic significance or importance within the document structure.

Syntax

<b> Contents... </b>

Example: In this example demonstrates the use of the <b> tag to style "bold text" within a paragraph, visually emphasizing it.

HTML 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Bold Tag Example</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h2>Using Bold Tag</h2>
    <p>This is
        <b>bold text</b>
        within a paragraph.
    </p>
</body>
</html>

Output:

boldTag
HTML bold tag output

Strong Vs Bold tag in HTML

strong tagbold tag
The <strong> tag is used to define text with strong importanceThe bold (<b>) tag specifies bold text without any extra importance.

It has semantic meaning, it implies that the text is important

It has not any semantic meaning, it only applies visual styling

The text inside this tag is boldIt makes any text bold.
Conveys importance for both sighted and screen readers.Provides no semantic meaning for screen readers.
Contributes to SEO by signaling importance to search engines.Doesn't convey importance, less helpful for SEO.
Encouraged for emphasis with importance.Primarily used for visual styling without semantic implications.

Supported Browsers

The browser supported by <b> and <strong> tag are listed below.

browsersupport1
Supported Browsers
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