Why some places get a full page and some get a mention
Search volume in this county is not spread evenly, and pretending otherwise is how agencies end up with sixty identical town pages. Five places — Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster, Barnsley and Chesterfield just over the Derbyshire line — carry almost all of the measured demand. Those get a full page for each service, because there are genuinely different searches to answer.
The towns between them mostly show no measurable search volume at all for terms like “web design” plus the town name. That is not a reason to skip them. It means the work there is won through “near me” searches, Google Maps and word of mouth instead, so each town gets one combined page covering both services rather than two thin ones.
If your town is not on this list, it is almost certainly still covered. The list is where the pages are, not where the van goes.
Sheffield
The biggest prize in South Yorkshire and the hardest fight in it. Four of its SEO phrasings all sit at 390 searches a month, at three to four times Rotherham's keyword difficulty — more people looking, and more people already spending to be found by them.
- Web design in Sheffield
In Sheffield, almost nobody searches for web design. They search for a web designer. The difference between those two words is 200 searches a month, and it tells you exactly what people here are looking for. Take a look - SEO in Sheffield
Sheffield is the biggest search market in South Yorkshire and the most contested one. That is not a reason to avoid it. It is a reason to stop guessing at it. Take a look
Towns in the Sheffield area
Rotherham
The easiest borough in the county to win, and not by a small margin. Rotherham search terms carry real volume at roughly a third of the city's difficulty, which is why it is the first place I build rather than the biggest.
- Web design in Rotherham
320 people a month search online for web design in Rotherham. Far fewer of them find one who can explain what the website is supposed to do once it is built. Take a look - SEO in Rotherham
Rotherham is the cheapest borough in South Yorkshire to rank in, and almost nobody local is competing properly for it. That gap is the whole opportunity. Take a look
Towns in the Rotherham area
Doncaster
The largest web design demand in the county and the most expensive SEO click in it, spread across one of the biggest metropolitan boroughs in England — Askern and Adwick in the north west, Thorne out on the peat moors, Bawtry and Tickhill on the Nottinghamshire border.
- Web design in Doncaster
390 people a month search for web design in Doncaster, more than anywhere else in South Yorkshire. The borough is also wide enough that most local sites never answer the question deciding the enquiry: do you come out this far? Take a look - SEO in Doncaster
Doncaster carries the most valuable SEO click measured anywhere in this plan and some of the softest competition in the county. Those two things do not often sit in the same borough. Take a look
Towns in the Doncaster area
Barnsley
The smallest search market of the five, and it says so rather than dressing it up. Ninety monthly searches on the main SEO term at difficulty 11 to 12, against the city's 18, in the borough that closes the South Yorkshire map.
- Web design in Barnsley
One hundred and ten people a month search for web design in Barnsley, and twenty more add the county to be sure of what comes back. Very few of them are shown a website that can explain what it is meant to do once it is built. Take a look - SEO in Barnsley
Ninety people a month search for SEO in Barnsley. That is a modest number and this page is not going to pretend otherwise. What makes it worth having is how little serious competition sits on top of it. Take a look
Towns in the Barnsley area
Chesterfield
Derbyshire rather than South Yorkshire, and the page admits it in the first paragraph. Chesterfield carries 260 monthly web design searches at difficulty 21, on clicks that cost advertisers about a third of what the city's do, and it is twenty-five minutes down the A61 from my desk.
- Web design in Chesterfield
260 people a month search for web design in Chesterfield, and the clicks cost advertisers about a third of what they do in the city up the A61. High demand on cheap clicks usually means a market nobody is serving properly. Take a look - SEO in Chesterfield
Chesterfield is in Derbyshire and this page is not going to pretend otherwise. It is also twenty-five minutes down the A61, and the search terms here take roughly half the effort of Sheffield's. Take a look