I was out for a drink last night with a few of the guys from the Manchester SEO linkedin Group. We were talking about the talent of SEO Companies in Manchester and the north and I joked about putting up a blog post about it. Well I was in work early so I though I’d put the information together to show who is the best at SEO in the UK is it:
- Northerners
- Midlanders
- Southerners
The Criteria
Remember this is a fun post and so I could have had a look at load of different criteria but what I did was go to Google.co.uk and record the UK websites which rank on the first page for the terms:
- SEO
- Search Engine Optimisation
- Search Engine Optimization
- Internet Marketing
Of course there are dozens of other phrases, which other companies rank for such as “UK SEO”, “Link Building” etc. So you may see some names missed of the list which you would have expected to see.
Initial Data
| URL | Term | Location | Area | |
| www.crearecommunications.co.uk/ | SEO | Leicester | Midlands | |
| www.freshegg.com/ | SEO | Worthington | South | |
| www.seoco.co.uk/ | SEO | Lancaster | North | |
| www.justsearching.co.uk/ | SEO | Manchester | North | |
| www.seotops.com/ | SEO | kent | South | |
| www.highposition.net/ | SEO | Colchester | South | |
| www.bigmouthmedia.com/ | Search Engine Optimisation | Edinburgh | North | |
| www.searchengineoptimisation.org/ | Search Engine Optimisation | Leicester | Midlands | |
| www.seoco.co.uk/ | Search Engine Optimisation | Lancaster | North | |
| www.seowizz.net/ | Search Engine Optimisation | Leeds | North | |
| www.blogstorm.co.uk/ | Search Engine Optimisation | Leeds | North | |
| www.firstfound.co.uk/ | Search Engine Optimisation | Manchester | North | |
| www.deeho.co.uk/ | Search Engine Optimisation | Bedford | Midlands | |
| www.searchengineoptimization.co.uk/ | Search Engine Optimisation | Ellesmere Port | North | |
| www.search-engine-optimisation-services.com/ | Search Engine Optimisation | London | South | |
| www.searchengineoptimization.co.uk/ | Search Engine Optimization | Ellesmere Port | North | |
| www.deeho.co.uk/ | Search Engine Optimization | Bedford | Midlands | |
| www.drabdesign.com/ | Search Engine Optimization | London | South | |
| www.adwords-media.co.uk/ | Search Engine Optimization | Colne | North | |
| www.crearecommunications.co.uk/ | Search Engine Optimization | Leicester | Midlands | |
| www.seoconsult.co.uk/ | Search Engine Optimization | Ellesmere Port | North | |
| www.justsearching.co.uk/ | Search Engine Optimization | Manchester | North | |
| www.justsearching.co.uk/ | Internet Marketing | Manchester | North | |
| www.internetmarketingscotland.com/ | Internet Marketing | Glasgow | North | |
| www.optillion.co.uk/ | Internet Marketing | Nottigham | Midlands | |
| www.searchquest.co.uk/ | Internet Marketing | Lancaster | North | |
| www.dbs-uk.co.uk/ | Internet Marketing | Lincoln | Midlands | |
| www.freshegg.com/ | Internet Marketing | Worthington | South | |
| www.theinternetmarketingcompany.co.uk/ | Internet Marketing | Cambridgshire | South |
Visual Location
View North v South SEO’s in a larger map
The Results by Area
The Pie Chart below shows the count of website by area ranking on the first page of Google for one of the terms set out in the initial criteria.
It’s official Northerners are the winners!
The Results by City
Manchester SEO’s seem to have the largest percentage of the 1st page of Google with 14%!!
Coming back down to Earth
As stated at the start of this blog post, it is just a bit of fun, who’s the best at SEO in the UK, well I don’t think that the diagnosis above gives any justice as they are just vanity keywords and what’s the use in Ranking on the first page of Google for you company website if you don’t do a proper job for you clients.
So who’s the best at SEO in the UK? I’ll leave you with the segmented data of the number of websites ranking the first page by Area by each keyword i.e.
- SEO
- Search Engine Optimisation
- Search Engine Optimization
- Internet Marketing
Unfortunatly the Pie Chart shows that on the first page of Google for the actual term “SEO” we’ll that’s dominated 50% by the South.
Love to hear you comments and have a good weekend.
Other fact: Scotland & Wales are nowhere to be seen! 🙂
Hi Rhys, Scotland are there twice but no wales, it’s no wonder you moved to Manchester 🙂
You’re quite right, forgive my ineptness, still suffering from last night 🙂
Loving how there are 16 ranks for Search Engine Optimisation and only 6 or 7 in the other phrases. Wonder why that could be? 😉
Joking aside though, there is a lot of talent outside London and talent that wins some of the very best contracts. It’s a pity though that many of the best contracts are in the south.
Hi Tim, the data shows information about”Search engine Optimisation” with both an “S” and a “Z” so that’s why there appears to be more results, also I removed things like Wiki and Google. But yes I agree a lot of the largest contract are in London, probably why all the Northern SEO’s keep opening offices up down there 🙂
Haha nice one! Didn’t think you would actually do it. Quick rewrite in order 😉
Hi Ben, thought it would be a bit of Friday fun, please do the rewrite the post, just show me some link love 🙂
Haha – Neil – you do like your pivot tables dont you 🙂
Wouldn’t have thought there would be any argument – of course the North is far better 🙂
Great write up Neil. Further proof that London doesn’t have the stranglehold it once had.
Gonna have to get my place in Newcastle included for the next write up 😉
Interesting and revealing post. Why is Leicester of all places such a competitive city for SEO companies?
I personally think that in 2010 goes on, methods of on-page and off-page search engine optimization are going to change as we know it. I think we will see a transition to user metrics in deciding ranking results. That combined with increased personalized SERP results and we’ll be seeing a huge molding of the searchers experience with Bing and the other SEs. Each search result will not be created alike, just look at things like user involvement, bounce rate, bounce time, etc… Focus on a better user experience all around, and I think you’ll see better results in 2010.
Funny but informative post! keep up the good work mate, hope to see you soon : )
Interesting to see from this post how some of the companies market under SEO and others Search Engine Optimisation
Good to see in a chart to who and where the companies are