Is it ok to use in place of blindly?

Answer 1

As others have mentioned using >, , etc. adds semantics, and this is important because you say something about why you want to emphasize something, and increases the readability of your html, because you know why its in bold.

Furthermore screen readers use the strong tags to make an audible difference when reading it aloud.

Maybe you could think about the audio represenation as a guide. If you would want a difference when read aloud, mark it as for instance, if not use .

Then there is the issue of rendering: I don't actually know if all browsers will render a as a bold and if it will stay that way.

So in short: No.