Should the primary navigation use keyword rich menu items?

[AMSVansSEOTeam]

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

[irvingw]

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.

[Ties.com]

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