Is having multiple links with the same anchor text on a webpage beneficial?

[donationtown]

We heard at a recent SEO conference that having multiple links with the exact same anchor text on a page is not beneficial in any way. Is this true? For example, if the link is in the navigation and it is in the footer does it only get counted once by Google for SEO purposes? Is there no SEO benefit to it?

[ORob]

Rand reiterated in a recent whiteboard that yes, only the first instance of the link would provide value.

"Now, we all know as SEOs that the first anchor text link counts and only one on the page is going to pass that value. Linking repeatedly to the same page with the same anchor is not helpful for SEO, and it makes our sites look really spammy and manipulative and questionable to someone who's browsing it."

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/6-changes-every-seo-should-make-before-the-over-optimization-penalty-hits-whiteboard-friday

Think about the user 1st, do they need another avenue to find that page, or is the naviation well structured enough to get them there.