ForumsInternet/eCommerce

If anyone ever put anything in writing regarding a guarantee of ranking - I'd run the other way. Quite simply, you can't guarantee a ranking in any search engine, since you can't control or buy your way to the top.

No, CSS is not magical. But good, clean, structured code is a key ingredient in the SEO soup. So are:
1. great content!
2. great content!
3. great content! (yes, repeated on purpose - content that is relevant, unique and interesting - search engines want to return results that matter, or people won't use them
4. proper TITLE, DESC and header usage, keyphrase density, etc.
5. as little code as possible around the content (which is why CSS, being external to the HTML, makes the magic happen)
6. good internal linking, with proper titles and key phrases ('click here' is just plain bad)
7. good external links from other websites of authority (not just shady link farms that link 1000 pages to your website for a fee)
(the above aside from 1,2,3 are in no particular order)

And a well written CMS can generate nice structured code, and use CSS for layout and styling - WordPress is a great example.

baby...bathwater...

Since your comment is not a question, but a statement, I can only agree.
CSS is not SEO, period. CSS is cascading style sheets. Simply put, it is code that is NOT on the web page, making the page "lighter" and quicker to load on your internet browser. The code loads when a page is queried, or ask for, on your internet browser like Internet Explorer or Firefox.
CSS also lays out your web page rendering, like 2 column or 3 column layouts, and all of your font attributes like color, size, etc.

I completely agree with MTCreations comments!

Happy New Year!
Cliff

I would have to agree with previous posts from more experienced web developers.

[http://www.intechspecial.com/images/design_logo.jpg]

I am doing neither, just posting.

I do not feel that CSS is relevant to SEO completely.

CSS is a way of designing not Optimizing.

Please do not get me wrong, I value the network of talented professionals on this site

MTCreations is absolutely right. It takes ALL of the above for SEO. CSS is a very BIG part of item. Of course, you must know what you're doing to leverage the magic in CSS and optimization. Anyone who claims that properly used CSS does not help your rankings doesn't know what he/she is talking about, and may be trying to rip you off. Any service that claims they can guarantee rankings or traffic is full of it. I would run fast from any "professional" who gives you this line. In addition, any service that claims you need to resubmit your site monthly is full of it. These people are trying to make money off of you. If your site is linked and properly coded, the spiders will find you and visit often. However, you have to be up to standard to fully leverage the hidden magic of CSS and know how to write CSS as well as XHTML/XML for true optimization. You can't just attach a stylesheet with a bunch a colors and think that will boost traffic & rankings.

Amazing post, and i'll agree that while CSS is not a 'silver bullet', it can be an integral part of a well-formed webpage. As you stated, Good SEO comes from many different facets of a website. Good content, good structure, and plenty of networked material makes the system run. I wrote an article on here about SEO, but i forgot to mention these three points in full detail. In an analogy, those who think CSS is your answer-all to SEO, that would be like putting up a skyscrapers framework but forgetting the interior.