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While “Flash” (A kind of software which produces animations) and image based menu and navigation systems can make your website look good, they can seriously impede your website's ability to be read well by Google, and consequently your position in search engines may suffer.

Google and other Search Engines read the text on your website and may associate the words used in links with the content on those other pages: A flash navigation system won’t be able to be read by Google and google won’t be able to read the words on any image buttons you’re using.

If your potential visitors are using Google Instant Preview then they'll see ugly grey boxes in place of your flash elements.

Additionally, Flash doesn’t work on Apple devices such as the iPhone, iPod or iPad  so some of your users may have difficulty navigating your website if you’re using a flash-based menu.

Think about having text links in your menu: a good web design and development company will be able to make text links which are just as attractive and eye catching as images.

If you absolutely must have an image-based menu think about including additional text links which link through to your content: but don’t go overboard. A page full of links will turn visitors off and may look suspicious to search engines as well.

 

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