Optimized site-wide internal links in footer - a problem?

[McTaggart]

Hello all - I am looking at a website with 8 heavily keyword optimized site-wide links in the footer. Yes, there are only 8 but it looks a bit spammy and I'm tempted to remove them. I imagine there's some possibility of a Google penalty too? What would your advice be? Thanks, Luke

[MickEdwards]

If they are internal links you can have and do what you like.  However the key is user experience.  Have you taken a look at you analytics to see how popular the links are and the visitor behaviour with them?  At a guess, if they look keyword engineered they can be off-putting.

[McTaggart]

Thanks Michael - you're dead right in your approach there - amazed how many have got it so wrong by writing for Googlebot and not the actual site users. Found this interesting re: internal links - plenty of discussion on the issue but definitely a lack of clarity: http://www.seroundtable.com/google-internal-links-anchor-text-16864.html