Why are some words in bold on my website?
By Max & Daniel · Updated 23 September 2026
If you've looked at your new website and wondered why some words are bold and others aren't, there's a good reason. It's not decoration. It's because of how people actually read websites: they don't.
People scan, they don't read
Think about how you look at a website on your phone. You don't read every word. You flick down the page, your eyes jump from heading to heading, and you stop when something catches your eye. Eye-tracking research has shown this for years: most visitors scan a page in a rough zig-zag, reading only bits of it.
Bold text is a signpost
When someone's scanning, bold words are what their eyes land on. So we bold the words that answer the questions your customer has in their head:
- What do you do? ("emergency plumbing")
- Where? ("Northern Beaches")
- Can I trust you? ("licensed and insured", "5-star reviews")
- What's it going to cost? ("free quotes", "no call-out fee")
Why we don't bold everything
If everything is bold, nothing stands out and the page looks like it's shouting. We keep it to a few key words per section, so the ones that matter actually get seen.
The test
Read only the bold words and headings on a page. If you still get the message (what you do, where, and why to call you), the page is doing its job. That's how we check every site we build.
Want a website that's built around how customers actually read? We'll build yours first, and you only pay if you love it.