Debbie Gartner there are some people here who do this on all their posts. It does nothing for you but make you look silly.

Just ask yourself if you ever see any major news site or professional blog do this. The answer is no of course not!

It makes it hard for the reader to view. There are some Ar members who listened to someone who calls themselves an SEO expert who suggested doing this years ago. The advice was awful and still is.

It used to be a 'thing.' It is no longer. The link that Debbie Gartner cited says this: 

For a period, Google did give weight to italics and bold terms thinking that these were valuable clues, but since that too could be gamed and bold and tactic terms were used in an effort to spam search engines and to gain a disproportionate advantage, that practice ended many many years ago. Bold and italics DO NOT effect SEO except for secondary effects. The mark-up is relatively ignored and the text is weighted exactly the same as all the rest.

I don't think that was ever true.  Bolding just helps the reader and should be used for emphasis (and not key word stuffing as it appears when you keep bolding it).

Instead, what does help is using header tags e.g. <h2>skldsjlsdkj</h2> or <h3> sslkdjlskjdf</h3>.

I always outline my articles first and then write them and use those tags in there.

Let's see what Bill Gassett has to say.  I think he used to say that this was one of biggest fallacies/rumors out there.

BTW, for me, I only bold key things I want to emphasize or headings.  I think it's bad form to do what you suggested here.

It used to, but not anymore

Now, usage of bold/italics etc is more for your readers - which is very important for the serps

I have never done that and don't think it would give your SEO a boost.

I think it highlights for the reader an important statement, but I don't think the it helps with the SEO or SERPS.

I think all it does make the text stand out a bit better for the reader which may be good thing!

I don't think it does.  I did a search recently trying to determine if my blue font on the posts hurt search results, and the answer(s) I found indicated no.  So don't see why bolding would be treated any differently than font color.

Latest I have heard is that this makes no difference but not sure where...maybe Bob Stewart ?

No, it doesn't help.

I remember Lenn Harley telling me it was hard to read, after I posted my first few blog posts in 2009..... you'd be wise to follow the guidance given by Bill Gassett ....

no

I have no idea, Carla. Will look for answers on your questions.

I only do it at the beginning of paragraphs to catch the eye of the 'scanners'.  I'm not sure people actually read as much as scan. Titles help too.

My WP Seo plug in still counts all the keywords in the post so .... ?

Carla Muss-Jacobs, Principal Broker/Owner never was worried about that! And after reading the responses from some experts, I am glad I did not fall for it!

I have no idea.

I use the bold lettering for some statements or features I want the reader to notice.  Don't believe it works for SEO. 

I do not believe it does help.  I use bold to add emphasis for the reader ... not the serps. 

I'm way too old to have any idea what this means.

Not anymore. 

I will be reading all the answers because I have the same question and don't know the answer!  Thanks for posting this Question.

Do not believe so.  

We do not, so it seems to make no diff as we used to without any positive results

Doesn't help. It's on par with using all caps.

I have heard that too, but would ask someone like Debbie Gartner or Tammy Emineth for confirmation.

I doubt it but glad to see the responses from Debbie Gartner and Bill Gassett.

I like it if you narrow it done to say 1 word or group of words, but not throughout the whole blog

This is a good blog topic when you have the answer.

parked and reading

I learned from the answers here.

Short answer is NO. And many readers find it annoying.

I don't know if it helps but think it would be difficult to read and distract from your content.

I used to do it & was told not to. However, I beleived it did make a diff & do

Nope.  My understanding is precious little about the formatting is paid attention to by the big G.

in virtually all text based online content, bolding or highlighting text is done to show emphasis.  At one time this was taken into account and given greater weighting in deciding what the page is about.  Currently, there is no evidence that it has any effect any longer from any of my case studies.  Using H1, H2, H3, tags on text certainly does, but merely bolding it does nothign but make it look pretty.

Also, the SEO value of AR is near zero now.  There are several reasons why, but suffice to say that if you are posting here because you think it will be of great emphasis to the SEO of your website or outside blog, then you are making a most inefficient mistake.  There are places that the same content will bring you 10x more value than AR currently.

This site is pretty much "recreational use" only now unfortunately.

great question!