internal links and search engines......

my menu is placed using an "include" - is this a problem?

[Shadows Papa]

Greetings.
My index page is index.htm
The index page has a hardcoded menu on it. I didn't want to change it to an ASP pages when I converted so I'd not lose my placings and have to start all over being found again. Is this a baseless fear?
Part 2 of my question -
All of my other pages are thispage.asp and thatpage.asp
To keep things easy for me, my "menu of pages" is a file called textmenu.inc
I place it in my ASP pages using an include line,
<!-- #include virtual="/inc/txtmenu.inc" -->
<!-- #include virtual="/inc/footer.inc" -->
where the footer contains the 'this page made by me, copyright info, etc.' and the txtmenu is the textual navigation to the other pages (links to my other pages on the same site)
I've read that internal links are very important for SEs.
How important, and can they "read" the includes I use? Meaning, will they see the linked pages?
I did this so that if I make a change, I change one file in one place and have it take effect on all of my pages at once.
Comment, please?
We are getting few hits and little business - I need to make this page FOUND.

Shadows Papa

[Receptional]

Shouldn't make any difference doing it the way you have IMHO. The output will be plain HTML so it will be read as plain as day by anyone or anything that reads it.

[nakulgoyal]

Shadows Papa

As the other reply says, ASP is server side and returns to the browser plain HTML. If you view source via Browser at your website, you see NO includes. All that stuff is processed at the server and the client sees nothing.

So this is something you need not worry at all. :-) Good luck with your work. :-)