I have read several forum posts on the net relating to the theory that Google (and maybe other SE's) rank valid HTML coded websites higher than non-vaild ones?

You can check the validation of your website here http://validator.w3.org

As a point of Interest... Google itself in NOT valid, infact it has 39 errors on the frontpage alone! http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=ht...doctype=Inline

So if it does rank valid sites higher then surely it is guilty of double standards?

This leads to my next point...

If valid code is NOT that important to SEO and ranking then what is the point of going through potentially thousands of lines of code trying to make it valid? (other than as a web designer you SHOULD provide valid sites to clients). I mean - If a website renders correctly in IE and Firefox then why bother to make it valid???

Thoughts?