About Dave.

I’m a straight-talking, seasoned SEO professional specialising in WordPress.

Dave Foreman - Freelance WordPress SEO Expert

If you are shortlisting Freelance SEO experts, I’d love to be on that list.

I love talking to clients about WordPress and SEO and the beneficial impact they can have on their small businesses.

I specialise in working with smaller service-based businesses here in the UK and have worked on hundreds of WordPress sites over the past 15+ years.

As a creative, I bring a lot to the party, and I am never short of an opinion on anything design, development, SEO or WordPress-related.

I’ve run a successful creative design and WordPress agency for over 25 years and a dedicated SEO agency for the past decade, so I have plenty of experience in SEO and how to integrate it into your bottom line.

I’ve been working in SEO for over 25 years.

Since 1997, when I built my business’s first website, I have been working in SEO for my business and many others.

This means that I’ve been around a while and have weathered many a Google Update.

I love SEO and what it can do for people’s businesses: it can generate new leads (if done well).

My own businesses (one of which has a turnover of six figures) generate all new business enquiries through organic SEO.

My freelance WordPress site ranks #1 for ‘WordPress Freelancer’ and various other terms (see below for more examples).

My background is in design and branding, and I have a BA(Hons) in graphic design. I worked on branding and print design projects for many years before moving full-time into the web and WordPress.

As a creative, I bring this critical thinking to my SEO projects and approach them with an advertising mindset; your placement on the SERPs is, after all, an advert for your business.

This approach is not just about doing the X, Y and Z that every other SEO does; it’s about approaching your optimisation in the same way ad agencies do for products and services – creatively and with originality.

I don’t f*ck about, and I am very straight with people about what I am doing and what it will do for them.

What I do for my clients.

My main job is running a design agency, but my freelance work involves working with select small businesses to improve their websites.

Effective search engine optimisation can make your sales soar, so it’s worth every penny you can invest.

My businesses generate 100% of their leads from the SEO work I do on the sites I manage. For my main agency, Toast, this equates to thousands of new business enquiries yearly. We are in the envied position of our phones keeping ringing and inboxes filling up with new opportunities, all directly resulting from organic SEO.

I do the same for my client projects.

So, what do I bring to the party regarding skillsets and experience? For effective SEO, you need someone who has done more than read a few blogs on the subject: an experienced person who understands business and SEO.

Below are some facts and info about me and my experience; I’m not blowing my own trumpet here (too much), but it’s important to know the SEO expert you are considering working with.

25+ years experience.

  • I built my first website in 1997 and haven’t stopped since
  • I run several successful businesses, including a top UK design agency and a profitable SEO agency
  • I created the UK’s first AI Image library (with the very talented Mr Aaron Jones)
  • I understand marketing, not just SEO
  • I’ve designed and built 100s of bespoke WordPress sites for large and small clients.
  • My team of staff are all awesome people who know exactly what they are doing
What this means for you:

I think I bring a lot to the party, which is all directly relevant to SEO and improving the service I deliver to clients.

Creative thinking.

Crucial for effective SEO – to outrank your competitors, you have to out-think them.

Too many SEOs just dive in and start tinkering about improving their average position across their keywords. You don’t want that. You want your target keywords on page one (ideally in the top three), as these bring you new leads.

I treat keywords like mini advertising campaigns, which means we get creative with ranking them.

What this means for you:

Many SEO experts are boring and lack creativity; having all your campaigns approached from a creative perspective means more success.

Backed by a great team.

I may be a freelance SEO expert, but I work with great people: my staff.

Freelancers don’t have teams? They do now. You are getting an SEO team at freelancer rates, so what could be better?

What this means for you:

My team are experts in their respective fields – from artwork and copywriting to web development. Having a team on board means you get a more coherent and consistent approach to your project.

Local.

Did you know that a lot of the online SEO freelancers that you find outsource their work? They act as farmers – taking the new business and farming it off-shore to underpaid people.

I am based in Oxfordshire in my studio with my team – none of that funny business here.

What this means for you:

Rather than project managers who over-promise and under-deliver, you will speak and work with me directly; nothing goes off-shore (which violates GDPR) and you get to meet the team.

What I charge for WordPress SEO.

I charge by the hour and work in six-minute blocks that I call units. If something takes one unit (12 minutes), it only costs you one unit.

Rack rate.

I charge £120 per hour (inc VAT).

Believe me, I can get a lot done in 60 minutes, so I am great value for money.

Let's have a chat

Ad hoc Work.

This is also charged at £120 per hour (inc VAT).

Ad hoc work has a minimum charge of one hour. Ad-hoc work joins the queue; retained client work comes first.

Suggested investment.

£1080 (inc VAT).

This gives me three hours per month for three months to get your SEO on track. This is the minimum suggested term for retained SEO services.

My experience and stuff I’ve been up to.

This is not the whole life story, but some notable things about my work, background, and experience—in loose chronological order! If you’ve read this far, it might be of interest.

  • BTEC National Diploma in Generate Art & Design – Oxfordshire School of Art
  • BTEC HND in Graphic Design – Oxfordshire School of Art
  • BA (Hons) in Graphic Design & Advertising – Brunell University
  • Founded Toastdesign.co.uk, 1997 (still there, Managing Director)
  • I built my first website in 1997
  • 1997–2013 grew Toast to 10+ employees, year-on-year growth for over 10 years
  • Built loads of websites by hand, developed a bespoke CMS for client projects, 2000–2008
  • Started working with WordPress design, build and SEO, 2008–
  • Wrote and illustrated two published children’s books, 2011–2012
  • Founded A is for Alphabet – a personalised gift company selling on NOTH, 2014–
  • Founded Searchworthy – a full-service SEO company, 2016–
  • Grew Toast to 17 full-time staff, more growth (100% from organic SEO!), 2020–
  • Co-founded Toast Plugins – creating bespoke WP plugins that help clients, 2021–
  • Founded Daveforeman.co.uk – #1 ranking Freelance WordPress Developer, 2022–
  • Founded Impossible Images – the UK’s first AI-generated image library (you see them here) 2023–
  • 2024– still doing all these things (with my superb staff)

What’s all this stuff about Toast?

Toast is my primary business, which I have run since 1997; it’s a full-service design and web studio in Oxfordshire.

I tend to take on freelance gigs for businesses that just need a quick fix or a few hours of work; for larger projects, they go through Toast or my other company, Searchworthy (bigger teams, more capacity).

There’s no hike in charges or anything like that, so I can help small and larger businesses alike with creative SEO solutions.

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