Any discussions on the actual web page design and how it might affect SEO?

[theideapeople]

Are there any links to previous discussions or tips, techniques for how creative design has any impact on seo??

[DonnieCooper]

Hey Jay,

Good question! I think the major benefits are 1) user interaction, 2) inbound links and 3) share-ability

Here's a few articles I can remember about the subject on SEOmoz...

#1)  Original Link Building for beautiful-looking websites

#2) Put Your Best Foot Forward

#3) CSS Galleries are Great for Traffic & PageRank

#4) Making a Site Link Friendly

#5) Making Product Pages into Great Content [White Board Friday]

[Hurf]

The following searches bring up a few interesting results to get you started:

http://www.seomoz.org/pages/search_results?q=page+layout+and+seo

and

http://www.seomoz.org/pages/search_results?q=page+design+and+seo

with this specific article being favoured quite well - http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/the-seo-side-of-design

Hope that helps

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey, I have just been reading this which talks about the value of links and whilst it is not exactly relevant, it does talk about how link placement can have an effect on some elements. 
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/10-illustrations-on-search-engines-valuation-of-links

Additionally, the new semantic markup specified at schema.org will have a big effect over time in the way we mark up elements on the page.

There is also the on page stuff as well, images, text and all that jazz, well talked about here:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/10-illustrations-on-search-engines-valuation-of-links

But really, I guess the crux of your question is the word 'creative' and does creative design impact SEO? Well, not directly, I don't think it makes any difference other than it may win more links than the other man if you have a knockout visual showcase.

Strange kind of answer, but some food for thought.

Marcus

[theideapeople]

Awesome, Marcus. Thank you!

[theideapeople]

Very nice, thank you for the links!

[theideapeople]

Hi Donnie. Thank you for the links! Lots of reading to do.