Sheffield surely is not among the largest tech hubs in the UK but its growth potential and popularity have attracted many eyes from the digital sector in the last years. As in the 21st century, it’s equally important to pay attention to growth speed and to the size of a tech hub, Sheffield seems to achieve these two key factors helped by an increasing number of IT companies that choose the city as their new office place. 

The high number of IT companies in Sheffield created a talent request on the local market - currently, there are more than 22K jobs waiting for skilled IT professionals. In their support, there are only two local universities that generate 700+ young professionals/year. On the other hand, the workforce migration helps local companies to attract new and more experienced workers, especially from Manchester, Leeds, and Birmingham. 

The main tech branches that attract young professionals are the game industry, software development, and marketing. Nonetheless, Sheffield is the home to one of the UK’s biggest game developers - Sumo digital. But also, the city hosts the largest PlayStation teaching lab in the world, which is, by the way, located at Sheffield Hallam University.

Another interesting point in Sheffield’s IT industry is the  “Factory of the future” which was designed to build a system where companies, factories, and entrepreneurs collaborate with each other to develop the robotics and automation industry. 

The average yearly wage in the tech industry in Sheffield is around GBP 37K - an impressive performance reached by a city that is in full transformation and development. 

Sheffield is a good location to search for a digital partner, as you may find lower prices for the same quality that other, larger cities can offer. But of course, there are also exquisite companies that demand more than average. It is up to you to find the one you consider the best.  

SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of optimizing your website in order to get a higher ranking in organic search results and consequently more organic traffic.

SEO is a long term strategy and requires advanced knowledge of ranking algorithms and some technical background, to be able to optimize websites for popular search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, etc.

According to the latest survey on digital marketing conducted by TechBehemoths, about 70% of IT companies revealed that SEO is their main channel for leads, meaning that it’s a vital marketing activity that generates traffic, prospects and sales.

Some of the benefits of SEO are:

• Free organic traffic
• Brand awareness 
• Better control over brand traffic
• A vital marketing channel for leads & sales
• Supports other channels: social media, paid ads, direct traffic, etc.
• Optimizes your advertising budget
• Usually, has a higher conversion rate
• Gives you a competitive advantage
• Is a good long term investment, generating decent results

It’s not easy to find a reputable SEO company, as some SEO agencies used to provide questionable/suspicious services in the past, and lots of businesses became reluctant to pay for search engine optimization services.

When looking for and choosing an SEO service provider, you should consider a lot of aspects. Ideally, you should do some basic research, set up clear goals and ask yourself a few questions before hiring a company.

Here are some things to look for when searching for SEO agencies to partner with:

• Expertise
• Portfolio
• Years in business
• Case studies
• Price (expect to pay at least $30 / hour if you’re hiring an agency)
• Approach and particularities (technical SEO, link building, content optimization, etc.)
• Communication and reporting

TechBehemoths lists more than 26,900 SEO companies from all over the world. Check out their profiles and feel free to get in touch with them.

To ease the selection process, we’ve created a powerful filter which you can use to narrow down the results based on your requirements and shortlist the companies.