Are Sitewide Links from "Recent Posts" Bad?

[Kernel Konductor]

Is it bad to have a "Recent Posts" widget that creates sitewide links? I would have to assume that this may create over-optimization penalties.

 

[Bluesteele]

I'd really like to know - I use this on many client sites. They titles are especially spammy, but still curious if anyone has read or seen anything.

 

[Ryuzaki]

I think it's safe to assume that search engines understand the structure of these types of links and devalues their impact, positively and negatively. If they are internal links, I wouldn't worry as long as you aren't using over-optimized anchors. Surely they aren't outbound links. You could even consider making them all no-follow if you wanted to play it safe, even with internal links. But you're leaking page rank juice at that point into the abyss. Your best bet is to not yank titles right out of the keyword tool if you're anchoring with titles, or set up the ability to use different anchors as they scroll through your widget.

 

[Oceanic]

If everything else is in order I don't think you would suffer from the Google Penguin.