Flash and SEO

[thorthedestroyer]

I am in the process of designing a new website for a very competitive industry. There is a small flash navigation element in the top left hand corner of the screen on the .index page.

My question is: Is the flash element going to comletely screw me for SEO?

I was considering to put a link to the sitemap above the flash element so that the robots can index the site before they see the flash. With that said, will the SE's disregard my site or not index it when there is flash on every page?

Also, I was going to put text link navigation at the bottom of each page.

Thanks for any advice on this topic.

[Illah]

You'll be fine. The whole 'flash is bad' mantra comes from all flash sites, i.e. a site where all the content is in a single flash module, or where the entire navigation is in a flash module. If you have flash banners and whatnot but otherwise the site is indexable HTML content you're good. Since you have text navigation as a backup to your flash nav you'll be fine.

--Illah

[thorthedestroyer]

thank you.

[jaffstar]

I personally like a little flash in my sites, like a header/banner/intro.

Text link navigation is essential and/or a decent sitemap, your method is fine.