Cleaning up anchor text profile

[BobGW]

Hello,

I've got 2 questions:

I've narrowed down the most important anchor text to change in this spreadsheet (note the legend)

We're not ranking like we used to for a few keywords including the main keyword "NLP"

(1) Should we remove the links from the 3 directories and the one sitewide footer link or should we change to branded anchor text?

The names of our company are

NLPCA.COM

NLP and Coaching Institute of California

NLP and Coaching Institute

(2) Thus, I think "NLP California" will not work as branded anchor text even though some people call us that. Correct?

[kadesmith]

First thing to do is truly determine if you really need to remove those links, and second is to determine what your brand is.  Start by reading this post by Marie Haynes earlier this week: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-difference-between-penguin-and-an-unnatural-links-penalty-and-some-info-on-panda-too

If NLP California is your brand and what people call you, most likely there is no problem having links to your site with anchor text NLP California.