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What you should know about boosting and maintaining your rankings
We all look fondly back on the days when achieving good Google rankings was just about relevant content. Although content is still very important things are so much more complicated – and competitive. Here we have pulled together ten trends that we think you should know about when it comes to building and maintaining your search position. Please call us (020 8117 8543) if you would like to know more about any of the items listed below.

1. 1. THE KNOWLEDGE GRAPH
      

One of the common misconceptions about Google is that the way that they generate search results just happens over which you have no control. Actually the reverse is true. You are very much in control, all you need to do is to understand what it is they want.
The first two points of this post cover just this. The image above is what Google call their knowledge graph. It’s an aggregate of the aspects of your business that Google thinks searchers will find useful. However, in order for your knowledge graph to appear you need two things need to happen. Firstly you need to rank Nº1 for your brand name so make sure, if there’s a company out there with a similar name, your site is fully optimised for yours. The next thing you need to do is to link your google+ pages to search.
As with most things Google, there’s a nice article on how to do this authored by Google themselves: https://support.google.com/business/answer/6010825?hl=en-GB

1. 1. RICH ANSWERS
      

Another result on the search page you may have seen is an answer to your question at the top of the page in a box such as the one shown above.This is known as ‘rich answers’ and, like the knowledge graph, it’s something you can influence.
Get it right and you could find a link to your site at the top of the results page even if your site doesn’t yet rank that highly for this content. A little lateral thinking is required here as rich answers tend to be served for ‘how to’ and ‘what is’ type questions rather than ‘where can I buy’. Broadly speaking here’s how it might work if you were selling wine for example:

1. 1. 1. Research the kind of questions that a browser might want to know. Let’s say ‘How to decant a bottle of Port’
      2. Create a page on your site with good solid content on the subject – say 2500 words.
      3. Include a numbered list at the top of the page with the ‘how to’ answer

It should be noted that aiming to appear in the rich answers section of the google search results is very much a bolt on to your other SEO activity as you are unlikley to appear if the rest of your site is not already well optimised. Neverthless, it’s worth considering if you think you can attract visitors to your site by answering their questions – which, on the ‘tell not sell‘ principle, every business should be looking to do.