Should the primary navigation use keyword rich menu items?
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There doesn't seem to be a definitive (or even authoritative) answer to this.
The quandry is primary top navigation - the client wants to use 2-3 keyword length nav items, and I'm politely forcing him to use single word nav. The problem is that I have nothing to back up that assertion other than "this way looks better".
Examples -
Site is www.buybluewidgets.com. The client wants:
- About Our Blue Widgets
- Buy a Blue Widget
- Azure Widget Information
- Sell Your Blue Thingamajig
My suggestion is:
- About Us
- Buy
- Learn
- Sell
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I agree with Irving. Over optimization of sitewide anchor text links is a big no no and there is definitive documentation about the penguin update.
Here is a great article on the topic: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/recovering-from-the-penguin-update-a-true-story
Does your client actually think that visitors to the site won't understand that About Us actually means About the Blue Widget Company?
Perhaps a quote from Google Webmaster Guidelines is in order:
"Webmasters who spend their energies upholding the spirit of the basic principles will provide a much better user experience and subsequently enjoy better ranking than those who spend their time looking for loopholes they can exploit."
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769&topic=2370419&ctx=topic
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Since those are sitewide links you don't want your main anchor texts to be repeated over and over, so i would go with your suggestion to avoid over optimization. I would still link in content with those keywords but I would mix it up and vary the anchor texts, and not do sitewide keywords like what the client wants, unless you do it one maybe one link only.
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