Verde Digital may only be a few years old, but the agency has already carved out a reputation in fashion, luxury and performance-driven SEO. Behind it is founder Joe Hale, who entered the industry long before he could legally order a drink at a bar. Now, with a fast-growing senior team, award-winning client work and a young family at home, he reflects on the rapid rise of Verde, the realities of building a business from scratch, and the role fatherhood has played in reshaping his priorities.
Can you walk us through your career journey. What led you to founding Verde Digital?
I started working in SEO when I was 17, the weekend after finishing my A-Levels. I took an unpaid internship and stuck it out for three months before finally earning a salary of £12,000, which I’m still not convinced was legal. I stayed at that agency for seven years, moving up to Team Lead and working with brands like Urban Outfitters, Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein.
From there, I moved into the luxury space as Head of SEO at a specialist agency, leading a team of ten and working with names such as Mr Porter, Net-a-Porter and The Ritz. Eventually, I went out on my own as a consultant, and the more I worked independently, the more I felt there was room for something different.
The world didn’t need another SEO agency, but it did need a better one. After 13 years in SEO, almost all of it in fashion and e-commerce, I knew brands wanted more than generic optimisation and copy-and-paste strategies. They needed specialists who understood their category, their retail rhythms and their brand. That belief became Verde Digital, which launched in August 2023, and it hasn’t slowed since.
Verde Digital is now marking its second anniversary. How would you describe the agency at this stage of its journey?
We launched with the ambition of becoming the go-to SEO partner for fashion and luxury brands, and two years on, we’re starting to see that take shape.
We’ve added some incredible names to the roster, from British icon Paul Smith to Jaded London, Lavish Alice, Adanola, Puresport, The Couture Club and Firmdale Hotels. Working with brands of that calibre, just two years in, is something I’m incredibly proud of.
This year has been about growth and maturity. We now have the foundations of a senior, specialist team, refined processes, and a proven position that performance-led SEO in fashion is a category in its own right.
We also reported a 219% increase in annual revenue over the past year. That growth has come down to specialism, timing and trust. Fashion brands are under pressure to grow efficiently, and SEO is one of the few channels that can drive meaningful revenue without relying on rising ad costs. When you combine that with results, such as helping Lavish Alice achieve seven-figure organic revenue and supporting another fashion brand to deliver £10m+ extra year-on-year, through organic SEO, word spreads quickly.
Have there been any major challenges along the way?
Hiring has been the biggest challenge. Not because of a lack of applicants, but because finding the right experience and mindset matters. In the beginning, we looked too junior. But it became clear that to win and retain the kind of clients we now work with, we needed senior talent first. Once we made that shift, everything clicked, and it freed me to step out of day-to-day delivery and lead strategically.
Culture has also been important to get right. I spent years in agency environments where stress, late nights and burnout were treated as normal. I don’t believe business has to run that way. At Verde, we work 9-5. Boundaries are respected. If we’re scaling, that’s on me, not on a team who feel they have to sacrifice their wellbeing. We’re building a collaborative environment where we can still do excellent work, whilst creating a supportive, people first environment.
What advice would you give someone starting a digital business today?
Firstly, niche down. Trying to be everything to everyone is the quickest route to mediocrity. Specialise in what you’re brilliant at and what genuinely energises you.
Secondly, expect to put in the hours early on. Later, you can refine how you work, but at the start, you’re pushing your way into a crowded market, and momentum is earned.
Finally, build a personal brand. It might sound cliché, but in a saturated industry, visibility and trust matter. People don’t just buy capability; they buy confidence in who is delivering the work.
How has fatherhood influenced your perspective as a business owner?
It has changed everything. My daughter reframed my purpose and my priorities. Suddenly the late nights, the risk and the pressure had meaning.
But fatherhood also forced a reality check. When we found out my wife was pregnant, Verde was less than a year old. She works in film, so there was no maternity pay. I didn’t pay myself for a year and used savings to cover the mortgage while building a business that could support us. Then came a traumatic birth, months of colic, contact crying and a dairy allergy, all while pitching, hiring and trying to grow.
There were days that felt impossible. But it made me more determined. Not to scale at all costs but to build something strong, sustainable and meaningful. Something she’ll one day understand was built for her.
What’s next for Verde Digital and for the digital marketing landscape more broadly?
We have more senior hires joining and some exciting new client partnerships to announce. Our goal for 2025 was to double revenue. We’ve now grown five-fold. Our stretch target for 2026 is £1m ARR, which is ambitious, but aiming small doesn’t inspire anyone.
Looking ahead, AI is impacting search, but I believe the human element becomes more valuable, not less. Brands will still want strategy, creativity and accountability from people.
Search is now multi-platform. Google is no longer the only place people search. TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, etc, user journeys behave differently across platforms. We’re formalising our GEO and AEO offering and exploring where social search fits into the next wave of discovery.
However, we also want to double down on the SEO work we are already doing, as we know it generates incredible results and is the foundation for success of all of the above.
Our long-term ambition remains simple to become the SEO agency that fashion brands think of when they think of search.
Finally, what advice would you give fashion brands looking to strengthen their organic performance?
Treat SEO as a core growth channel, not an afterthought. As paid advertising costs continue to rise, organic search is one of the only channels that compounds over time. Brands that commit to SEO as a strategic investment will outperform those treating it as a short-term tactic.
Secondly, refocus where your SEO efforts are. For e-commerce brands, revenue is driven by collections, category pages and product discovery journeys, not by content volume for the sake of it. Blog and long-form content can be useful if done properly, but your SEO strategy needs to be revenue-focussed, not traffic-focussed.
Finally, really understand how your audience is searching and how that aligns with your product range. Fashion brands have different audiences that all search in different ways, with different phrases. Tap into how they search, how that matches up with your product range and find the way to put your brand in front of the eyes of that searcher.