Hello,

First of all Merry christmas to all...

As far as website design is concerned...yes it do effect search engine rankings to a much extent....
Example...are you using frames or tables or flash contents in your website designs...

If you are using any of these things...then you would have to really work hard to optimise the site to get a better position in search engines...

So,have a better understanding of "How to optimise sites with these features" before going for them...

I have a fair bit of idea on the above topic...if you would like I can share it with you...

Best of luck...

Cheers!!

Monalisa