Identical multiple internal links on a page: confused about whether this is penalized

[AndyA]

I've read in several threads here that having multiple internal links on the same page might be a bad thing. Is this always the case, or are there other on-page factors that determine whether a page is penalized for this practice or not?

For instance, I have a page about Widget Model No. 74. On the left is a navigation menu that has links to other pages related specifically to the No. 74 Widget. (Colors, sizes, electrical requirements, etc.) On this same page is an original article about the No. 74 Widget, which may include links in the text to one or two of these same pages, using the same anchor text as the nav links. Is this enough for that page to be penalized?

I have the links within the article set to open in a new window, so people can refer to that page without losing their spot while reading the article. I have the links in the navigation menu open in the same window, as I figure people clicking on those links already know they want to go to that page.

Also, I have an image at the bottom of the page that is linked to take people to a navigation page on Widgets, and under the image I have an anchor link to the same page, using the words "Click here for Widget Contents" with "Widget Contents" as the anchor text.

Is this enough for a page to be penalized? (PR shows gray bar, not listed as a page with internal links in Webmaster Tools, yet these pages have multiple related pages linking to them, as they serve as main navigation for Widget Model No. 74, Widget Model No. 75, etc.)

Similar pages on my site do have good PR with this same setup, while many have the gray bar. I'm not sure what to do to fix the ones with the gray bar.

[tedster]

I've seen and used this kind of set-up many times. I'd even say it's common to have the same link in a menu and in the content area. I don't think that this practice is a factor in attracting a penalty, filter or gray-bar PR.

[edited by: tedster at 7:32 pm (utc) on April 9, 2009]

[AndyA]

Thanks, Tedster. I'll keep looking to see if I can find anything else that might be impacting these pages. Since they have plenty of text on them, it can't be the "this page looks like a directory due to all the links" penalty.

I appreciate the advice.

[tedster]

they serve as main navigation for Widget Model No. 74, Widget Model No. 75

I also think I see a small trend for main navigation pages to go gray bar. I think Google may be trying to get people to a more specific landing page, rather than a generic navigational page. If so, my guess would be some kind of fancy "statistical machine learning" in the algo. It's a tough one to pin down.