tedster - 7:09 pm on Sep 10, 2007 (gmt 0)

There's also a benefit to you. By learning what it takes to write valid code - and especially the strict version rather than transitional - you will improve your comprehension of the medium you work in significantly - so you will be able to accomplish a wider variety of objectives on your pages, and with greater speed.

But Google absolutely does not currently rate a site by how valid the code is- many spokespeople form Google have said this, many times.