Twenty years in search. Solo since 2013.
I'm David Friend. Google Ads consultant for UK SME owners. I started in SEO in 2007, went in-house, ran a hundred campaigns as Head of SEO at an agency, and have been independent — and a Google Partner — since 2013.
No account managers. No juniors. No decks. You hire me, I run your Google Ads.
In early 2013 I left the agency I was running SEO at. The approach didn't fit how I wanted to work. So I built this — honest, transparent, no middlemen. Thirteen years on, that's still how I work.
From link broker to Google Partner.
I started in search in late 2007 at Smart Traffic — at the time the UK's largest SEO company. I learned how to build links from the technical director, and ran a side line as a link broker, sourcing high-authority links for UK and US companies. That was also when I built my first WordPress sites.
End of 2010 I went in-house at Aceville Publications in Colchester. They ran print magazines across sectors — crafts, hobbies, money-making — each with an associated website. I took over SEO across all of them. Got several to rank for keywords like "make money online" back when that meant something. They later started an agency arm to do SEO for their print advertising clients; I helped build that out too.
Beginning of 2012 I was headhunted to SEO Positive — later rebranded Absolute Digital Media — running roughly a hundred SEO campaigns across their client roster. Promoted to Head of SEO. The day-to-day was fine. The approach to client relationships and what the work was meant to be wasn't. I left at the start of 2013.
Started my own thing immediately. Became a Google Partner the same year. Have run Google Ads and SEO for UK SME owners directly ever since.
I work alone because that's the only way I can stand behind the work.
Most of the SME owners I've worked with came to me because they'd been let down. A freelancer who disappeared. An agency that stopped replying. A relative who built them a Shopify site and ran their ads on the side. The damage varies.
One owner came to me last year after his organic traffic halved overnight. A Google update had penalised the site. He'd been buying backlinks from multiple sources for years, all sold as "high quality." When I audited them — worthless. Spammy directory links, low quality guest posts and PBN dregs, the kind of thing Google stopped rewarding fifteen years ago. Half his revenue gone in a day. We rescued the business with paid ads while the SEO recovered. He left a five-star review on PeoplePerHour.
He wasn't naive. He didn't know what a good link looks like — and most owners don't, because how would they. There are still hundreds of freelancers and PeoplePerHour gigs selling these worthless links today. Buyers leave good reviews. They have no idea the links will never get indexed.
Link building is craft, not a checklist. SEO is unforgiving when done badly. Google Ads is unforgiving when the tracking is wrong. None of it is a place for an account manager three months in, or a freelancer who learned it off YouTube.
The reason this is a one-person operation is because I'm the one with twenty years of doing it. Anything else, and it's not what I'm selling.
Owner-operated businesses with room to grow.
Service businesses — trades, professional services, local operators with national ambitions. Ecommerce brands — ideally with their own product range, ideally at price points where Google Ads margins actually work. Most clients are anywhere in the UK; some are international.
The thing that connects every good engagement: an owner who cares about the business, knows the numbers, and wants a competent person on their side. Most have been burned by a freelancer or agency before they find me. Some have been running the ads themselves and reached the ceiling of what they can do solo. Either is fine.
What doesn't fit: dropshippers, anyone selling £15 products on tight margins, anyone who wants a black-box agency to take it off their hands without involvement. The work needs the owner in the loop.
One hundred five-star reviews, one direct-hire client at a time.
Excellent work. David knows his way around Google Ads, and works collaboratively where needed, to understand service-specific details to achieve the solid end objective. Will certainly continue working with David at this rate.
Excellent. If you are looking for an expert in SEO and Google Ads, David is your man.
David is very knowledgeable in Google Ads and comes highly recommended.
Braintree, Essex.
I moved to Great Notley, just outside Braintree, with my family — and I'm still here with my two kids. The company is registered in Braintree, the work happens from here, the clients are anywhere in the UK.
The reason the address matters: search engines treat me as a Braintree entity, which means I tend to rank for local Essex queries even when I'm not chasing them. Useful for the trade and service clients I've picked up in the county. The rest is national, mostly remote.
A free fifteen-minute audit of your Google Ads.
I'll look at your account before the call. On the call I'll tell you what's actually wrong, what I'd fix first, and roughly what that's worth. No sales pitch, no commitment.