Does anchor text penalty apply to internal links?

[designquotes]

We already know that over optimsied anchor text for external will cause a penalty.

But what about internal links?

All of our blog posts include an advertisement linking sales pages. These links all use the exact same anchor text.

Is linking to an internal page from so many other pages (blog posts) likely to trigger a penalty?

Here is an example:

http://www.designquotes.com.au/business-blog/four-ways-to-enhance-your-e-commerce-site-for-busy-shoppers/

This links to

http://www.designquotes.com.au/web-design-quotes

Many of the posts link to the same page using the anchor text "Compare Web Design Quotes from Local Designers."

[EGOL]

I believe that penalties on internal anchor text are BS.

[designquotes]

Has anyone else had the same experience?

[Jeepster]

FWIW, I had a similar problem, in that one of my internal pages had 1,500 total links -- of which approx 1,425 were internal and had exactly the same three-word exact-match anchor text.

The page was ranking top 5 pre-Penguin for the keyword. Post Penguin, it sunk like a stone. A very heavy stone. As in, not in top #100. I've changed the links but still haven't recovered 10 months on.

Bizarrely, the page still ranks ok for other keywords, which makes me suspect some kind of manual keyword-specific penalty.