Does A Blogs Layout Affect Its SE Rankings?

I have been wondering about this the last few days, specifically, do you think it is better to have the navigation on the left or right hand side of the main blog posts?

Im thinking on the left hand side *might* be more susceptible to getting good listings because those links would appear higher up in the HTML page as oppose to being lower in the HTML if on the right hand side of the main post.

Your thoughts, do you think the actual layout of a blog can have an effect on how well it ranks in the SERPs?

Regards,

Lee

I believe layout affects ranking. I prefer to have the post(s) and all the other keyword rich content as high in the html as possible, and navigation and other stuff that repeats throughout the whole site right at the end of the html.

By the way with css it's pretty easy to have navigation on the left and the post on the right while the post comes first in the source html - just create two divs, first one for post followed by another for navigation, and set the post div to float on the right while the navigation will be float : left. Or you can of course use relative/absolute positioning, depends on your design.

I'd have to say having the post or intro text first, with links later on down the road. That post text usually supports your keywords, and site description, in a conversational format, which I do believe is helpful for positioning within the SE's.