Do drop caps impact the search value of your content?

[fivelinesmedia]

A client of mine wants to include drop caps at the start of the first paragraph on the page because they think it looks nice.

I found some css techniques for implementing this using a span on the first character to enlarge the size of just that character.

First word of the first paragraph.

Are there any seo concerns I should have for adding drop caps?

[AlanMosley]

I doubt it, a span is a inline element, search engines should read it as one word.

[sprynewmedia]

Can't see it especially if the span is added with JS.  But, if you are worried, try pure CSS with pseudo class "first-child": http://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/drop-caps/