About
Fourteen years, 2,400 projects, one person doing the work
I am Josh Morley, a WordPress developer and search specialist based in Liverpool. I set up my own web practice in January 2012, ran it alongside a quality engineering job for the first two and a half years, and have done nothing else full time since the end of 2014.
I founded and run Marketing the Change, a small Liverpool WordPress and digital marketing business. That is where the client history, the platform partner statuses and the reporting systems on this site come from, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. But the work itself has always been mine: I scope it, I build it, and I am the person on the other end of the email. This site exists because when somebody hires a freelancer they want to know exactly who is doing the job, and with an agency name in front of it that is never quite clear.
Every one of those projects was paid for, delivered, and then rated by the client on a platform I do not control. That is the reason I lead with these figures rather than with adjectives. Check the profile.
Accredited
Partner status
-
Listed development service provider
-
WordPress.com partner programme
-
Automattic security tooling
-
Managed WordPress hosting
-
Domains, hosting and site management
-
Google Ads
Work history
Where the experience comes from
-
January 2012 to present
Founder, SEO, PPC and web design specialist. Marketing the Change, Liverpool
Set up as a small enterprise in 2012 building sites and running search and paid campaigns, run alongside a quality engineering job for the first two and a half years, full time since the end of 2014. Now a WordPress design, development and digital marketing business serving clients from solo founders to international organisations across more than twenty sectors, with a bias towards charities, non-profits and value-driven companies. A portion of profits goes to charitable causes. I am the senior technical person on every engagement.
-
March 2015 to present
Codeable Certified Expert
Codeable is a vetted WordPress development marketplace; roughly two per cent of applicants are accepted. 2,405 projects delivered for 902 customers, rated 4.92 out of 5 across 2,523 projects. Specialising in WordPress development, WooCommerce, speed and Core Web Vitals, security hardening and malware cleanup, technical SEO and tracking, and ongoing maintenance.
-
February 2015 to present
WordPress.org contributor and plugin developer
Member since February 2015, carrying the plugin developer badge. Author of a published plugin in the WordPress.org directory, and a support forum contributor on WooCommerce, payments, caching, sitemap and plugin conflict issues. Profile at profiles.wordpress.org/jmorley88.
-
Current
Platform partnerships
WooCommerce Pro Partner (listed development service provider), WordPress Pro Partner, Jetpack Pro Partner, Pressable Pro Partner, GoDaddy Pro Partner and Google Partner, alongside Codeable Certified Expert status. Each is granted on delivered work rather than bought, and each can be checked.
-
Ongoing
Internal tooling I built and maintain
A client reporting pipeline and portal covering 47 properties, an SEO dashboard on Cloudflare Pages and D1, and automation against the Google Ads, Search Console, GA4, Ahrefs and Bing Webmaster Tools APIs. All of it written by me, which is why the figures on this site are traceable.
-
March 2012 to October 2014
Technical Support, Steel & Alloy Gonvarri Industries
Quality management in automotive supply, working to ISO 9001 and TS 16949: defect claims, reject stock management and resolving customer concerns. Qualified as an ISO/TS 16949 internal auditor during it. That is where the habit of auditing before changing and documenting what you found actually comes from, and it has been more useful in this job than it has any right to be.
-
2004 to 2011
Earlier roles
Rigging and events assistant on contract at Neon Contracts (2010 to 2011), and customer service assistant at Tesco (2004 to 2007), where the job was mostly handling people who were already annoyed before they reached you.
How I work
Six things that are true of every job
- Audit before changing. On an inherited site I find out what is actually there first. The settings screen is not evidence.
- Verify on the live page. A successful API write is not proof. A cache-busted request to the page a visitor sees is.
- Everything gets logged. What changed, which files, which database rows, what I deliberately left alone and why.
- Bad news travels fast. If I break something, or find that work I just did landed on the wrong copy of the site, you hear it from me the same day.
- Corrections in writing. I have told a client in writing that my own audit finding was wrong. That is how it should work.
- No surprises on scope. If a job turns out to be bigger than quoted I tell you before doing the extra work, not on the invoice.
What I am not
I am not a designer first, I am not an agency, and I am not the cheapest option. If you need brand-level art direction or a team of six, you want somebody else and I will say so rather than take the job.
Skills
The full list
Grouped honestly: these are things I have actually been paid to do, not a keyword list.
WordPress
Custom themes, block themes and the site editor, child themes, custom plugins and must-use plugins, ACF, WP REST API, WP-CLI, multisite, WPML and Polylang, Gutenberg block patterns.
Builders and themes
Elementor, Divi, Avada, GenerateBlocks, Beaver Builder, WPBakery, Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, WPForms.
Commerce
WooCommerce and extensions, Subscriptions, payment gateways, Printful and fulfilment, Sensei LMS, LearnDash, product feeds and Merchant Center.
Languages
PHP, JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, SQL, HTML and CSS. React and Node. Git for everything.
Search
Technical SEO, Google Search Console, GA4, Google Tag Manager, Ahrefs, Semrush, Screaming Frog, Bing Webmaster Tools, Yoast, Rank Math, schema by hand.
Paid media
Google Ads and the Google Ads API, Microsoft Advertising, Meta Ads, conversion tracking, call tracking, offline conversion import, GAQL reporting.
Hosting and infrastructure
Pressable, WP Engine, Kinsta, Cloudways, SiteGround, GoDaddy Managed WordPress, Hostinger, Convesio, DigitalOcean VPS with LiteSpeed, Cloudflare, SSH, cron, nginx and Apache config.
Security
Wordfence, MalCare, Jetpack Security, malware cleanup, access and offboarding audits, two-factor enforcement, security reporting, secrets hygiene.
Accessibility
ADA and WCAG remediation, axe and Lighthouse auditing, alternative text programmes across large media libraries, keyboard and focus behaviour.
Practical
Working with me
- Based
- Liverpool, United Kingdom
- Core hours
- 10am to 5pm GMT
- Reply time
- Within one business day
- Languages
- English (native)
- Clients to date
- UK, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Malta, Germany, United States, Canada
- Engagement types
- Contract, part-time or fractional, fixed-scope project, emergency fix, white-label for agencies, employment
I have worked with North American clients for years, so early starts and late calls are normal when a project needs them.
Education and certifications
- Codeable Certified Expert, Codeable, 2015. Credential 41657045.
- Partner accreditations: WooCommerce Pro, WordPress Pro, Jetpack Pro, Pressable Pro, GoDaddy Pro and Google Partner.
- The Fundamentals of Digital Marketing, Google, 2018. Credential N2XW44R6J.
- ISO/TS 16949 Internal Auditor and Measurement Systems Analysis, Industry Forum, 2013.
- BA Theology, Trinity School of Theology, 2010 to 2011.
- Diploma in Theology, Bible College of Wales, 2007 to 2009.
- Applied Computing, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2006 to 2007. Programming, web authoring, databases, systems analysis and networking.
Why I do it this way
On giving a portion away
The business I run reinvests a share of its profits into charities, non-profits and unfunded startups, and a good number of the sites I have built are for organisations that could not have afforded commercial rates. That is not a marketing line, it is the reason the business exists in the shape it does.
It is also why a reasonable amount of my portfolio is churches, charities, hospices and community organisations sitting alongside the ecommerce and professional services work.
Reviews
What clients say about working with me
All sixteen published reviews are on the reviews page.
Josh worked as a WordPress expert on the Codeable platform when I was the head of community. He's a stand-out web professional to me. He has a unique and special ability to get along with everyone, even when facing disagreements. As cliche as it may sound, he's also a creative problem-solver. He's always willing to try new, crazy ideas to see what will stick. And that's a skill that is much needed in the ever-changing world of SEO. Josh would be my top recommendation for your SEO needs!
I have worked with Josh for over nine years now with great results in web design, SEO, and digital marketing. Josh is reliable, resourceful, and always goes the extra mile. I am happy to recommend him.
We have worked successfully with Josh for over nine years in web design, digital marketing and SEO. Josh is creative, dependable and highly recommended.
I was initially nervous about the Google Meet, but Josh was wonderful. He navigated me through the process and kept asking if I had any questions. Highly recommend him.
Contact
Tell me about the role or the job
Contract, part-time, one-off fix or white-label work for another agency: all fine. Say what you need and when you need it, and I will tell you honestly whether I am the right person for it.
- hello@josh-morley.com
- Based
- Liverpool, United Kingdom
- Hours
- 10am to 5pm GMT
- Reply
- Within one business day
- Languages
- English (native)
- Works with
- Clients in the UK, Europe, the US and Canada, remotely
- Open to
- Contract, fractional, fixed-scope, white-label and permanent
Prefer to talk first? Book a discovery call, or download my CV.
You can also hire me through Codeable, where the rating, project count and reviews are all independently verifiable.