Any penalty for a generic keyword in every navigation link?

[BenjArriola]

Let's say I sell computers. Various brands.

Then my navigation does not only say:

Dell
Apple
IBM
eMachines

But says:

Dell Computers
Apple Computers
IBM Computers
eMachines Computers

Will this raise any red flags for being over optimized? Personally I think it will but since I am getting a different opinion from other people I work with, I want to know what other people think outside of my work.

And setting searching engines aside, and just by looking at the navigation with tons of the generic word mentioned all the time just looks so annoying already.

[tedster]

If you want to rank for the single word "computers" this can sometimes cause trouble. Sometimes sites experience the -950 penalty for that particular query. But it's not always a problem. It becomes more likely to be a problem as the generic word is also used in the title, h1, backlinks, etc, etc.

[BenjArriola]

Having said that... what if we are talking about services. Let's say I repair electronics. And I have some sidebar with the appliances I fix.

Which of the two you think is better:

Repair Services
* TV
* Radio
* Computer
* Telephone

or

We Offer
* TV Repair Services
* Radio Repair Services
* Computer Repairs and Troubleshooting
* Telephone Repair Services

All bullet list items would be links going to their corresponding pages.

I know the second one may look better but if my list services are like 30 to 50 items listed. And placing repair in there all the time, would this be ideal to do or not?

[edited by: BenjArriola at 9:19 pm (utc) on Aug. 28, 2008]

[tedster]

I would almost always choose #1 - especially for 50 different links! Remember that anchor text is also an on-page factor, and repeating any word that often can start to fit a spammer foot print. Search engines today do not need us to hammer them with our relevance signals, the way we did in the '90s.

And if you just want to talk about looks, I prefer #1 as a user too. It's much easier to scan.

[BenjArriola]

Thanks Tedster! Nice to know and confirm my ideas. Just wanted to make sure before I raise any contradicting views with other people at work.