Flash Menu: Will it effect PR?

[Muffin_Man]

I was just wondering if Using a Flash powered Menu, will effect my PR.
I know that things like database generated links and flash intros often cause the spiders trouble, but what about FLASH MENUS?
Ok so if anyone can help, I’d appreciate it! :)

[Darren]

I hope one of our SEO experts will be able to answer this question for you.

My concern about using Flash for site navigation is two-fold: First, you are requiring every visitor to have installed a third-party plugin before they can navigate your website. That is a pretty big barrier to entry. I know that installing Flash is free, simple, and already done by almost everyone with a web browser, but that doesn't mean that there will not be people who do not want to go through the trouble.

Second, I would think that you run a risk of hurting your coverage by search engines if the bots can't go beyond your front door. If the links are not in the html, how will the bots find them? This is one of the points we made in the first part of our Google SEO Tutorial (http://www.promotionworld.com/tutorial/google/002.html):

Flash can be a great tool for creating innovative, dynamic web sites, but it is a double-edged sword. Many experts agree that improper use of Flash will cause significant trouble with the search engine optimization. If a spider cant crawl your web site because key navigation is hidden in a Flash insert, your placement on that search engine will suffer tremendously. Use the effects moderately to avoid harming your site. A flash introduction may seem like an attractive design decision, but it can create a significant barrier to your site content.

[jesika_hcmc]

I was just wondering if Using a Flash powered Menu, will effect my PR.
I know that things like database generated links and flash intros often cause the spiders trouble, but what about FLASH MENUS?
Ok so if anyone can help, I’d appreciate it! :)

Most of the search engines spiders/crawlers sees flash as a movie or a script and they do not take in consideration the links inside of it because they cant see them :),

Using flash can hurt your website if you are careless, but you can add a footer on each of your web pages in HTML format with the links that your flash navigation pannel carry on.

So at the end you have the flash navigation and the footer that let the spiders and crawlers follows the links!

Flash is ok since your website is not an entire flash website :)