HTML `` Element: Adding Strong Emphasis and Importance to Text

Learn how to use the HTML `` element to semantically indicate strong importance within your text. This tutorial explains its purpose, demonstrates its usage, and shows how to customize its appearance using CSS, improving both the readability and accessibility of your web content.

Using the HTML `` Element to Add Importance

Understanding the `` Element

The HTML `<strong>` (strong importance) tag is used to indicate that a particular piece of text is highly important. This adds semantic meaning to your HTML, which is valuable for SEO (search engine optimization), accessibility, and overall code clarity. While browsers usually render strong emphasis using bold text, the `<strong>` tag is semantically different from the `<b>` tag, conveying that the content within is important, rather than only applying bold styling. Screen readers will typically pronounce the text differently (with more emphasis). You can also customize the styling of the `<strong>` element using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Using the `` Element

To add strong emphasis to text, simply wrap the text within the `<strong>` tags. For example:

Example: Basic Strong Emphasis

<p>This is <strong>important</strong> information.</p>

Browser Support for ``

The `<strong>` element is supported by all major modern web browsers.

Browser Support
Chrome Yes
Edge Yes
Firefox Yes
Opera Yes
Safari Yes

Default Styling and CSS Customization

Most browsers render the `<strong>` element with bold styling by default. You can customize this using CSS, for example, by changing the font weight, color, or adding a background color:

Customizing Strong Emphasis with CSS

strong {
  font-weight: bold;
  color: red;
}