Linked Keywords or Content - Which is King?

[webdude]

Yes, I know content is king. I also know the importance of keywrods in the anchor text. The question I have is which is more important? With the ability to use CSS to place elements on the page pretty much in any order you want, which would you place first?

I am currently running a bit of an experiment with two sites, but after a couple of months, I really cannot tell if it really makes a difference. On one site, I have the menu (which is keyword rich) listed as the first element on the page. In fact, I switched this about 3 months ago to see if there would be any shift in the SERPs. The menu is very straight forward html with a link to the main sections of the site...

state myhobby forum
state myhobby pictures
myhobby stores
myhobby information
state news
myhobby tournaments
etc. etc.

This menu is the first thing on the page after the body tag. The next is the content of the page, which is fairly comprehensive.

On the other site, I switched the content and menu around, putting the content first, then the menu. This site was originally set up like the above site and I also switched this around 2 and a half months ago. Both sites use h tags properly. There are currently no links in the content, though I may be switching this up to see if it will make a difference.

After 3 months, neither of the sites moved... at all. They are exactly the way they were for a spattering of key phrases. Is this a futile attempt? I was wondering if any of you have any observations on this.

[Robert Charlton]

Take a look at this discussion about source ordered content, which is the best I remember...

H1 H2 or H3 - plus semantic mark-up and source-ordered content
[webmasterworld.com...]

I wouldn't put the menu first, because that might result in an unattractive snippet.

On "classically-structured" pages, with H1, H2, etc, I generally try to get the main H1 heading first, followed by the content in logical order. That said, within the past year and a half or so, I've seen no changes in ranking that I can attribute to CSS positioning.

[vero]

I have several sites. The ones where the content is up higher in the html tend to do better for their particular keyword. If the menu is fairly short and fully relevant to the page, it doesn't seem to matter if it's positioned first in the html. But if I have a lengthy menu with a lot of unrelated topics, I try to place it lower in the html and use css to position it where I want on the page.