Does Google like text before html?

Will using layers improve my ranking?

[steve]

I've been optimising my pages, title, inbound links, H1 etc. using the information I've found here.

But I'm wondering does Google read the whole page or just the beginning?

Would my ranking improve by using layers to put my content before my left hand navigation section etc.?

Steve

[ncsuk]

Search engines rank a page from the top down and as a basic rule you should have all your good content and links as high up the page as possible obviously with relevant tag's etc e.g. <h1> <b> etc etc.