It seems a while ago now when we were discussing 'brands' ranking higher in search results in US. The same has now being applied in the UK with a recent Google update effectively boosting the rankings of big brands in the UK search results. Google.co.uk results have been fluctuating a lot in the past few weeks but without any real correlation. Today, the UK top 10 search results are full of authority websites which seem to be ranking higher than one might expect for competitive keywords.

Evidence of this can be clearly seen today with the example of the Post Office which was postioned outside the Google top 10 for the keyphrase 'travel insurance' for many months, postioned around 15th until recently. Today, Post Office is number 1 for travel insurance.

If we look at Google 'insights for search' we can see that 'search terms related to travel insurance' has Post Office appearing twice. 

'Insights for search' show a large number of searches around 'travel' and 'insurance' have Post Office within the search. The Post Office are an authoratitve, trusted website and it is clear that Google is now favouring big brands in UK search results.