WebGuerrilla - 6:15 am on Jun 28, 2002 (gmt 0)

Filipe,

It isn't a case of Google awarding you bonus points because your page validates. (I don't think they would start doing that until google.com validates. ):)

The boost you get from clean code is really more of a bi-product of helping a spider do its job correctly. Code that validates dramatically reduces the chances that there will be an error when the document is parsed. A couple mistakes in your code can often cause 50k of Javascript to get stored in the database, instead of your 500 word keyword rich article.

External CSS is even better because removing all the presentation code off the page means that you make it almost impossible for even the dumbest of spiders to make a goof.