Sitewide links causing problem

[BobGW]

Hello,

I've had a couple of people look at the backlink profile for

nlpca(dot)com

and tell me that there were a lot of sitewide links with non-branded anchor text.

The spreadsheet is [here](http://thewealthymind.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/anchor-text.xls). Actually, because of our company name, all sitewide links have branded anchor text except for

http://www.iepdoc.nl
http://www.ionut-ciurea.com

The term "NLP" is not ranking for us, we should be on page 1 or 2. Also, we used to be sitelinked for "NLP California" and aren't anymore. Notice that "nlpca" splits into "nlp" and "ca" for California.

Could you look and see if it is just those 2 sites and if all we need to do is contact them to change to branded anchor text.

Or if it's something else to get back our rankings for "NLP" and our sitelinks for "NLP California"

Thank you

[LynnPatchett]

Hi Bob,

The first thing I looked for when visiting your site was a big "what is nlp" button, I really had no idea! Maybe google is thinking (or has started thinking) a bit like this for the search term nlp also? With the potential for local results etc mixed in it seems to me that the term could be a bit volitile in terms of rankings and your experience possibly hints at that.

I see the sitelinks you mention if I search for nplcalifornia with no space, but am not well aquainted with these expanded sitelinks and their finer points, maybe someone else?

I would still be wary of messing too much with those site wide links!

[BobGW]

Hi Lynn,

Thank you.

We were on the first and second page of Google for the term "NLP" for years and years and only recently did we drop off.

Also, the "NLP California" search used to have us with those spread out sitelinks that took up 2 or 3 spaces.

[LynnPatchett]

I don't think changing the link text on those two sites is going to help much to be honest. If anything I would be tempted to try and reduce the amount of sitewide links, there seem to be a few.

A couple of things come to mind.

1. Why should you be ranking for NLP? I am searching from Europe and the first page has some heavy hitters (wikipedia, stanford U), some local(ish) results and a few nlp.something type sites that I guess might be your online competitors?

The term NLP is a bit ambiguous, It could be Neuro-Linguistic Programming, it could be Natural Language Programming (the Standford link) or it could be the NLP Theatre down the road. So if google is going to return results based on what it thinks the user intent is then you have a mix of local and 'what is NLP' type results which seems pretty reasonable.

So with that in mind, I'm not sure your site has enough 'What is NLP' type content to justify ranking on the first page and maybe that is something to consider in terms of adding content.

2. Sitelinks seem to come and go depending on the search term and who knows what else so I wouldn't worry too much if you are not seeing them right now. The good news is that searching for "NLP California" from where I am you are number one, sitelinks and all!