Hi, in many places I have read those on-page SEO "basic rules" like putting your keyword in H1, H2, H3 and making it bold at least 1 time, also underline at least 1 time, etc

are those "rules" still working? I was just thinking that is something really simply for Google who I believe are super smart to "detect" and ignore

do you personally post "clean unbolded" articles or you put effort to make stuff bold/italic/underline, etc?

it would also help if someone know the answer 100% maybe through experimentation if you could mention that.

Thank you

Working for what? Rankings? No, those are just very basic things that, if you don't do them, you WILL NOT rank. Those are more of things not to forget among other methods of SEO.

keadams26, yes i meant for ranking as you understood

you seem very confident in your reply "will not rank" - would you mind if i ask you if you know this from testing yourself or you are passing on information you read elsewhere?

many thanks

I have learned the hard way. I had a few sites in my newbie times, read somewhere else about all you mentioned above (most of which I then realized I had not done) and I then corrected my mistakes and my rankings improved a great deal.

you can improve your ranks if you have a good on site SEO