Student Health Association
studenthealthassociation.co.uk
The Student Health Association is a Nottingham based charity with a long and respected history of supporting students in higher education. They promote the highest possible standards of health for university students and advance health education for everyone working in student healthcare. Central to their work is the Student Enablement Fund, established in 1967, which provides bursaries of up to £500 to help students with disabilities remain in full time education. Alongside this, they run study days, conferences, and professional development events for practitioners working in the student health sector.
Despite the depth and importance of what they do, their digital presence was not doing them justice. That is where getyouonline.co.uk came in.
The Challenge
When the Student Health Association first approached getyouonline.co.uk, they were managing not one website, but two. Their main site handled general information about the charity and its work, while a completely separate website had been set up to manage conference bookings and event listings. Running two separate platforms was costly, time consuming, and created unnecessary complexity for both the team managing them and the members trying to use them.
The original website itself was in need of a significant overhaul. It was difficult to update without relying on external support, which made even basic changes an expensive and slow process. Content quickly became outdated, and the overall experience for visitors did not reflect the professional standing of the organisation.
There was also no functionality to handle the needs of their growing membership base. Members had no dedicated space to log in, access resources, or engage with the association online. The charity needed a single, modern, well built platform that could bring everything together, reduce ongoing costs, and genuinely serve both the team running it and the members relying on it.
The Solution
getyouonline.co.uk designed and built a comprehensive new website for the Student Health Association at studenthealthassociation.co.uk, consolidating both of their existing websites into a single, cohesive platform. The result is a professional, easy to manage website that handles everything the association needs in one place.
Key features of the website include:
- Combined Website and Conference Booking System: Bringing together what were previously two entirely separate websites, allowing members and visitors to find information, book conference places, and manage their attendance all in one location.
- Online Membership Sign Up and Payments: A smooth and straightforward process for new members to join the association and pay their membership fee securely online.
- Conference Ticket Sales and Payment Processing: Integrated ticketing for study days and conferences, with secure payment handling built directly into the site.
- Dedicated Members Area: A private, password protected section of the website giving members access to exclusive resources, information, and content relevant to their membership.
- Members Forum: Following the success of the initial build, the Student Health Association returned to getyouonline.co.uk with further requirements. A fully functional members forum has since been developed and delivered, giving the community a space to connect, share knowledge, and support one another.
- Study Days and Events Listings: A clear and well organised section for promoting upcoming events, making it easy for members and non members alike to see what is on and get involved.
- Bursaries and Awards Information: Dedicated pages covering the Student Enablement Fund and associated awards, ensuring students and practitioners can easily find the support that is available to them.
- News and Jobs Section: Keeping the membership up to date with sector news and relevant opportunities within student healthcare.
- Easy to Manage CMS: Built so that the team at the Student Health Association can update content themselves quickly and without cost, removing the reliance on external support for routine changes.
- Fully Responsive Design: The website looks and works beautifully across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices, ensuring a consistent experience for all visitors wherever they are accessing the site from.
- On Page SEO Optimisation: Built from the ground up with search visibility in mind, ensuring the association and its services can be found by the students and professionals who need them most.
The Takeaway
Google Rankings
The Google rankings achieved by the Student Health Association are nothing short of outstanding. At the time of publication, the website is ranking in position 1 on page 1 of Google for the search term "student enablement funding". Not only that, but the Student Health Association also features prominently in Google's AI Overview for the same search term, meaning their content is being surfaced by Google as one of the most authoritative and relevant sources available on the subject.
Securing the top organic position for a term as significant as "student enablement funding" means that students with disabilities searching for financial support will find the Student Health Association immediately. This is exactly the kind of visibility that matters for a charity whose mission is to reach and support the people who need them. It is not just good for the organisation's profile. It has a real, tangible impact on the students they are there to help.
Being featured in the AI Overview is a particularly notable achievement. Google reserves this space for content it considers highly credible, accurate, and useful. For a charity operating in the healthcare and education space, that recognition is enormously valuable and reflects the quality of the content and SEO strategy underpinning the website.
Google Analytics
The Google Analytics data for the Student Health Association tells the story of a website that is attracting a genuinely engaged and purposeful audience. With 6,536 total sessions recorded in the period reviewed and 2,896 engaged sessions, the site is drawing in visitors who are actively interacting with its content rather than simply arriving and leaving.
What is particularly encouraging for an organisation of this nature is the channel breakdown. Direct traffic accounts for over 51% of all sessions, representing 3,373 visits. This is a strong indicator of brand awareness and a loyal user base, with members and regular visitors returning to the site directly by name. For a membership organisation, this kind of repeat engagement is a healthy and positive sign.
Organic search contributes 22.41% of sessions at 1,465 visits, and organic search visitors show a notably strong engagement rate of 59.39%, spending an average of 38 seconds per session and generating 10 out of the 17 total key events recorded in the period. That means organic search visitors, the people finding the site through Google, are the most likely to take meaningful action when they arrive.
Referral traffic is also a significant channel at 21.62%, with 1,413 sessions. This reflects the association's strong presence within the wider student healthcare sector, with other reputable websites and organisations linking through to their content. An engagement rate of 63.62% for referral visitors further confirms that the people being directed to the site from elsewhere are finding exactly what they are looking for.
Email also features as a channel, with an impressive engagement rate of 65.85% and an average session duration of 1 minute 18 seconds, suggesting that email communications are driving highly relevant and motivated visitors back to the website.
Across all channels, the website recorded nearly 29,400 total events, demonstrating consistent and meaningful user activity throughout the period. These are the numbers of a website that is working effectively for its audience and for the organisation behind it.
If your charity or not for profit organisation needs a modern, functional website that genuinely serves your members and supports your mission, contact getyouonline.co.uk for a free consultation.
From The Marketing Expert
The Student Health Association project was a really interesting one to work on. The starting point was two separate websites that were not talking to each other, and the goal was to bring everything together into a single platform that was far more manageable and far more useful for the people using it.
Consolidating the conference booking functionality and the main association website required careful planning to make sure nothing was lost in the process and that the experience for members felt seamless. The members area and subsequent forum development were particularly rewarding to deliver. Seeing the association come back with further requirements off the back of the initial build is always a great sign that the project has landed well.
The SEO results speak for themselves, and it has been genuinely pleasing to see the site perform so strongly for a term that directly connects students in need with the support that is available to them.
