How to Link a Network of Sites w/o Penguin Penalties (header links)

[BeTheBoss]

I work for a network of sites that offer up country exclusive content. The content for the US will be different than Canada, Australia, Uk, etc.… but with the same subjects.

Now to make navigation easy we have included in the header of every page a drop down that has links to the other countries, like what most of you do with facebook/twitter buttons. Now every page on every site has the same link, with the same anchor text.

Example:

• Penguins in Canada
• Penguins in Australia
• Penguins in the USA

Because every page of every site has the same links (it's in the header) the "links containing this anchor text" ratio is through the roof in Open Site Explorer. Do you think this would be a reason for penguin penalization?

If you think this would hurt you, what would you suggest? no follow links? Remove the links entirely and create a single page of links? other suggestions?

[SEODinosaur]

If 50% of your links are [Exact] keywords, there is a good shot of the penguin.

I would recommend going back and changing the links from the [Exact] terms to the brand name.