My site currently has a left side vertical navigation bar with links to all 60+ products split between 14 categories. This navigation appears the same on each page of the site, and is made up of standard html links.

I have another 20 products to add, so I am going to shorten the nav bar to just the 14 categories. However, i want to include the individual product links into the nav bar when any category is clicked.

Should I go with a drop down menu navigation bar or choose to have a static navigation bar? They would look the same, in that both would have 14 category links. The drop down menu would allow the user to click and see the products within any category. The static menu would take them to the category and change the navigation bar on the left to show the individual product links.

The drop down menu has advantages. It looks good and is more user friendly (IMO). However I am concerned because it may include too many links. Only 14 links will be visible to the user, but the search engines will see 60+ links in a html list. Is this too many links for search engines? Is it better to go with the static link system?

I would appreciate your thoughts before I proceed.

Thanks,

Tim