Who on Earth is Kate Nilski, SEO and Food Copywriter?
(And where is that name from?)
Get to know me
in 5 mins
The cold, hard facts
I’m a freelance copywriter, originally from a small town in Shropshire but now based in Sussex, UK.
I’ve got a degree in English Language and Linguistics.
I live with my husband, Adam, who likes to feed me delicious, home-cooked food. I also have a lazy cat, Thomas, and an excited dog, Peggy. You’ll see them all over my socials.
About my work
I’ve been a copywriter since 2015 and love writing a super-individual brand voice for all my clients. I’m also an SEO thanks to learning from THE expert in this field, Nikki Pilkington.
I specialise in food copywriting. I love food, have grown to love cooking and I love local food scenes in my home of Sussex (and anywhere, really). Read more below.
Some other stuff
As well as my pets, I love, in no particular order:
Music - I’m a land girl mod who’s in a folk covers band called Poni Mitchell
Comedy - including Victoria Wood, anything from the 70s, and BBC’s gorgeous Ghosts (read how I compare copywriting to Ghosts characters here)
Food - as fancy as you’d like to make it for me, thanks, but there’s always a time for beans on toast too. I’m also a converted non-cook.
Self Care - it takes a long time to believe you deserve self care, but let me tell you: you do.
Ten-second bio
With 5 inconsequential things I feel far too strongly about:
September is the best month
I believe I’m yet to eat the perfect tomato
Sweeties are better than chocolate
The 70s was the best decade for music
I don’t like it when people apologise to me for their swearing (it’s not 1776 and I won’t faint)
One person for your SEO and creative copy
Both things from one brain, which makes improving your digital presence sooo much easier for you. The creative copywriting work makes people want to read more about you and be led to the till. The technical work makes sure search engines shows you to them. You get both from someone who already knows your brand, instead of briefing two different people.
If we work together, you’ll be:
A Food and drink producer or seller — I love this industry and its regional quirks. Sussex is my home and there’s a lot of you great food businesses out there, and a small-batch producer in Aberdeen matters to me as much as one on my doorstep.
A proudly local, small batch/ founder-led business from anywhere in the UK, Sussex being great coz that’s where I live.
A founder-led, purpose-driven business — coz I'm one myself, right? And I only take on as many clients as I can properly show up for.
My SEO stats
We all like numbers, don’t we. Here's what my SEO work actually does for your food and drink business:
One client saw enquiries within the first month, a target keyword jump 90 places into the top 10, a £15k client confirmed by the end of month three, and even an enquiry to appear on national radio.
Another saw their key actions (form fills, downloads) increase by 850% by month three — with several keywords leaping from the 20s straight into the top 10. They liked the results enough to bring me onto a second website.
One client put it best: "That's some amazing SEO witchcraft you're doing on my website!"
The history bit: foodie PR to
SEO and copywriter
With me, your copy will do more than just sound dead nice. You need copy that sets you apart from every competitor saying the same generic thing, and that pulls its weight. Pair that with real technical SEO expertise, and it stops being just good copy, it becomes the thing that pushes a business into a completely different league.
I started in my first proper copywriting job in 2015 at Natural PR, working with Brighton food and leisure clients plus a run of Sussex Food & Drink Awards businesses. That's when food storytelling properly stole my heart, and some of my copy even made national press.
I went freelance as a copywriter in 2018, working with Brighton food design agency Ape Creative and Samworth Brothers (Honest Crust) — a major UK food-to-go manufacturer — as a first big client, later followed by writing the websites for YAMAS! / Futura Foods, the UK's #1 Greek & Cypriot dairy brand.
When the pandemic hit, I built one of my favourite long-term relationships: creating a brand voice from scratch for a London-based live events production company as they scaled — tone, internal comms, client pitches, the lot. That voice became their point of difference, and played a part in growing them into a multi-million-pound business.
A few other names I've written for include a Fortune 500 technology company, via an agency partnership, and the UK's largest live entertainment agency. I've also written the full website copy that set two California-based companies apart in seriously crowded markets, a boutique holiday lighting company and a group transportation and events platform.
I learned my SEO technical skills from Nikki Pilkington, the woman who started her wizardry in SEO before there was even a Google.
Before any of this: Durham University (just looked it up and apparently there’s no cool nickname for being a student there, sigh).
Mindful copywriting
For a good while, alongside food and drink, mental health was a real passion of mine, a lot of it drawn from my own experience of freelance life and running a business. I still feel super strongly about it, and it hasn't disappeared from how I work one jot. Have a look at my mindful copywriting page — still one of my manifestos, and it still shapes every piece of work I do, plus how I like to think we can all work, if we try.
I also picked up a qualification in core counselling skills in 2025, but chose to keep that side of things separate — you'll find the older writing on it over on my Substack. It hasn't gone anywhere. Just not the main event right now.
Want to chat about where your food or drink website could be in 6 months?
P.S. My surname is Polish. It’s my married name and I’ve never been to Poland. Cheers.