Our Director, Matthew Forzan, has been busy recently, sharing his expertise across two different podcasts and one unique discussion summary. He’s been addressing the most pressing challenges facing businesses today: everything from navigating the AI revolution and mastering core digital channels to building a people-first, data-driven culture.
These three appearances are a great resource for achieving sustainable digital growth, making sure your strategy is resilient, profitable, and ready for whatever the future throws at it. Whether you’re focused on technical SEO, conversion rates, or scaling your team, there’s a key takeaway here for everyone.
1. How to Grow and Improve SEO with Matthew Forzan (SEO On-Air)
This conversation with Aaron Basil covers the essential ingredients for achieving sustainable digital results, focusing on the powerful combination of SEO and CRO.
Key Takeaways for Sustainable SEO & CRO:
- The Evolution of SEO: Matthew shares his initial exposure to early, manipulative tactics (like the meta keywords tag) and explains why that approach is long dead. Today, ranking is earned by deserving websites.
“I think it’s been a long time since SEO was able to be manipulated in the way that it used to be… really making sure that the website actually deserves to rank is probably the biggest thing.”
- Holistic Growth Strategies: The discussion explored the balance between short-term profitability and long-term sustainability necessary for both agency and client growth. This holistic approach demands integration.
“We can’t just offer SEO as a straight service because that’s not how you succeed. You need to have an all-encompassing viewpoint that UX needs to be there as well.”
- SEO’s Technical Foundation: Key focus areas include the critical role of Technical SEO during website migrations and the need to strategically align content strategy with core SEO objectives. Time is the critical factor here.
“If you have less time than that, you have no opportunity to collaborate, and that feedback loop is significantly shortened, and that’s where it starts to get dangerous.”
- The CRO Imperative: Matthew emphasised that CRO is no longer optional. Learn how UX research informs design, how to leverage features in Google Analytics 4 (GA4), and why regular ecommerce audits are indispensable for revenue enhancement.
Podcast: SEO On-Air | Episode: How to Grow and Improve SEO with Matthew Forzan
2. How SEO has changed with AI with Matthew Forzan (The Recipe for SEO Success Show)
In this discussion with Kate Toon, Matthew broke down the massive shift caused by Large Language Models (LLMs) and Google’s AI Overviews, providing clarity on how to adapt your content strategy.
Key Takeaways on AI and Search:
- Zero-Click is Here: The rise of AI Overviews is driving more “zero-click” searches for informational content. The strategy pivot is to move away from “commodity content” and focus on providing a unique perspective and thought leadership.
“I think with the informational context… there are more complex queries for the long tail… which I think, to your point, if we’re adding our thought leadership, our lens on things, it’s still very valuable…”
- The Content Standard: Matthew stresses that you must produce content for your target customer, not just for the search engine.
“People have been writing content for search engines. If you do that now, you’ll be sorely disappointed. But there’s additional value there. I want people to focus on, who’s your customer, who’s your target? How do you add value to them through the written word?”
- Optimising for LLMs: The most effective way to rank in AI-driven search is to reinforce your EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust) through high-quality, strategically structured content.
“I think that’s important to recognise too, is that if the content is valuable from the viewpoint of your target customer or your user, then that’s what you should be focused on.”
Podcast: The Recipe for SEO Success Show Episode: How SEO has changed with AI with Matthew Forzan
3. How to Build a Data-Driven Culture for Sustainable Business Growth (Amplify HR)
In this article, Karen Kirton writes about data-driven culture, bolstered by Matthew Forzan’s two decades of agency leadership experience. The article demonstrates that sustainable business growth requires a data-driven culture that prioritises people.
Key Takeaways for Leadership and Culture:
- Focus on the Right Data: Avoid drowning in metrics. Instead, focus on key indicators that drive outcomes, such as profitability per project, capacity utilisation, and qualitative progress like team professional development.
- The “Big Rocks” Approach: Learn how to prioritise strategic, high-impact projects (“big rocks”) over daily distractions (“sand”) by defining 3–5 core priorities and cascading them throughout the business.
- Align Passion with Priority: Sustainable engagement comes from giving team members ownership and aligning individual passions (e.g., an SEO specialist improving internal processes) with overall business goals.
- Hybrid Work Adaptation: The discussion covered adapting workplace culture to a hybrid future, recognising that deep-focus work often thrives at home, while collaborative tasks benefit from in-office connection.
Article by: Amplify HR Topic: How to Build a Data-Driven Culture for Sustainable Business Growth
If you take one thing away from Matthew’s little tour, it’s this: Real, lasting growth happens when you balance the numbers (performance) with the humans (people).
We’re way past the days of isolated tactics. You need a smart, integrated strategy that ties your technical SEO and CRO efforts right into the huge changes AI is bringing, all built on a foundation of clear priorities and a great team culture. That’s the whole, cohesive picture Matthew and the team are focused on delivering.
Ready to quit the single-tactic grind and future-proof your growth with a truly integrated strategy? Talk to us today.