We’re looking forward to introducing you to Matthew Bertram. Check out our conversation below.
Matthew , it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What do you think is misunderstood about your business?
The biggest misconception about my work is that EWR Digital is just “the SEO guys.” That label may have fit years ago, but it misses the point of where we are today. If we stayed in that box, we’d already be irrelevant.
Search is no longer just about Google rankings—it’s about visibility in decision systems. When executives ask ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity who the top firms are in their industry, those answers shape who gets called, who gets funded, and who gets written into RFPs. That shift is bigger than SEO. It’s strategy.
That’s why I developed the LLM Visibility Stack™. Instead of chasing vanity metrics, we help businesses build the kind of discoverability infrastructure that large language models and AI systems draw from. That includes entity strategy, category positioning, editorial authority, and the measurement systems to know if you’re surfacing where it matters.
Here’s a real example. An industrial services company might “rank” for blog posts but still disappear when an executive asks an AI assistant, “Who are the best partners for pipeline integrity in the Gulf?” If the models don’t actually know your entity—your language doesn’t map to the category, your citations are thin, your brand isn’t tied to the problems decision-makers are asking about—you get left out of the answer set. And when that happens, you’re invisible at the deal table.
So the truth is: we don’t think like a marketing vendor. We operate as a digital growth partner—building systems that connect marketing, sales, and finance into a unified growth engine. Think of it as the McKinsey/Bain approach, but applied to the digital layer where today’s market visibility is won or lost.
If I had to sum it up: SEO got us here; visibility consulting and digital growth systems take us forward.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Matthew Bertram, Lead Digital Strategist at EWR Digital and a Fractional CMO who’s spent the last two decades helping companies figure out how to grow in a digital-first world. I started in SEO back when it was mostly keywords and links, but I quickly realized traffic alone isn’t enough. What businesses really need is a system — one that connects marketing, sales, and finance into measurable growth. That’s where my work has evolved: building digital growth systems that drive market position and long-term value.
What makes our approach different is that we don’t think like a marketing vendor. We operate like a consultancy. Today our focus is on something I call LLM Visibility™ — making sure brands show up in the answers AI systems like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity are giving back to decision-makers. That’s a massive shift in how visibility works, and if you’re not part of those answers, you’re effectively invisible.
Alongside my work at EWR, I partner directly with leadership teams as a Growth Architect. Most often that’s in industries like oil and gas, industrial, healthcare, and legal, where scale and credibility are everything. In those roles, it’s not about running campaigns — it’s about aligning brand, positioning, and discoverability with how markets actually make decisions today.
At the end of the day, what drives me is helping ambitious companies punch above their weight — to move from being just another provider to being recognized as a category leader. That transformation is why I do what I do.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
One of the moments that really shaped how I see the world was when I realized that doing the work and being recognized for the work are two very different things. Early in my career, I thought if you delivered results—rankings, traffic, leads—that was enough. But I watched clients who were objectively the “best” in their space still get overlooked, while others with stronger positioning and storytelling pulled ahead.
One of the moments that really shaped how I see the world happened early in my career when I realized that visibility isn’t automatic, even if you’re doing everything right. I worked with clients who were genuinely the best in their field—innovative, reliable, better than their competitors in every measurable way. And yet, they were often invisible when it mattered. Deals went to companies with louder positioning or sharper messaging, not necessarily the ones with the most substance.
That experience reframed everything for me. It taught me that value and recognition are two very different things. You can have all the talent and results in the world, but if people don’t see it in the right context, it’s as if it doesn’t exist.
Fast forward to today, that same principle plays out in digital growth. You can have great content, a strong brand, even loyal customers—but if you’re not showing up in the answers AI systems deliver, you’re left out of the conversation. That’s where disciplines like AI SEO, LLM SEO, Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), and even ChatGPT SEO come into play. They’re all ways of addressing the same core problem: in an AI-driven world, how do we make sure substance isn’t invisible?
That realization continues to shape how I think about business and leadership. It pushed me beyond just execution into building systems of visibility, credibility, and trust. Because in today’s market, it’s not enough to be good—you also have to be discoverable in the places where the real decisions are being made.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Suffering taught me patience in a way that success never could. When things are going well, it’s easy to believe you’re in control—that if you just work harder, everything will keep moving up and to the right. But it’s the setbacks, the failures, and the seasons where nothing seems to click that force you to slow down and really examine what you’re building.
In my own life, those moments of struggle reshaped how I approach both business and leadership. They taught me that growth isn’t just about acceleration; it’s about resilience and systems. Anyone can ride momentum when the market is hot, but building something that lasts—something that still stands when the environment shifts—that only comes from enduring difficulty.
That perspective is baked into how I think about digital growth today. It’s why I emphasize AI SEO, LLM SEO, and discoverability systems over quick-hit tactics. Even great companies can be invisible if they’re not aligned with how the world is changing. Struggle forced me to look deeper, to ask tougher questions, and to design approaches that hold up under pressure.
So if success taught me confidence, suffering taught me clarity. And in the long run, clarity is what actually sustains growth.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. How do you differentiate between fads and real foundational shifts?
The easiest way to get lost in business is chasing every shiny new thing. Our industry’s full of hype cycles—someone rebrands an old tactic with a new acronym and suddenly everyone’s rushing to bolt it onto their strategy. I’ve learned to expect that. Fads come and go. The real skill is telling the difference between noise and a real shift.
For me, the test is simple: does it fundamentally change how people make decisions? If the answer’s yes, it’s not a fad—it’s a shift. Take the move from traditional SEO to what we now call AI SEO, LLM SEO, AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), and even ChatGPT SEO. Some people roll their eyes and say, “just another buzzword,” but the truth is it reflects something deeper. People aren’t just typing into a search bar anymore—they’re asking AI systems to decide for them. That changes the entire economics of visibility.
A fad burns hot, gets headlines, then disappears. A foundational shift rewires the system. You see it in the infrastructure, in how money moves, in who gets invited into the room where decisions are made. That’s why I pay less attention to trends and more attention to mechanics. If something changes the decision layer—how buyers, investors, or AI models actually choose—then it’s worth betting on. Everything else is background noise.
That mindset keeps me grounded. It helps me guide companies away from chasing gimmicks and toward building systems that last. Because fads fade. Foundational shifts redefine the game.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. If immortality were real, what would you build?
If immortality were real, I wouldn’t spend it chasing quick wins. I’d focus on building institutions, not just companies. Something that endures, that carries weight across generations.
On the professional side, I’d want to create a digital growth institution—the kind of firm people mention in the same breath as McKinsey or Bain, but specifically for the AI era. A place that doesn’t just run campaigns, but builds systems of visibility and growth that help businesses punch above their weight, decade after decade. Think of it as codifying what we’ve learned about AI SEO, LLM SEO, AEO, and GEO into playbooks and operating systems that will still matter long after today’s platforms are obsolete. That’s where I see the real legacy: not services, but frameworks that outlast me.
On a personal level, I’d invest that time in building my family’s foundation—raising my boys with values that stick, creating a culture of resilience, faith, and purpose that they can pass down. Immortality would mean the chance to refine and strengthen those lessons without the usual constraint of time.
The truth is, none of us have immortality. But thinking in those terms forces you to ask: What’s worth building that will outlive me? For me, it’s twofold: the systems that shape how businesses grow and the values that shape how my family lives. Everything else feels temporary.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ewrdigital.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matt_bertram_live/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattbertramlive/
- Twitter: https://x.com/EWRdigital
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EWRDigital/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/ewr-digital-houston
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BestSEOPodcast
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/seo-marketing-podcast
- Other: https://matthewbertram.com/, https://www.searchenginejournal.com/author/matt-bertram/, https://www.entrepreneur.com/author/matt-bertram
Image Credits
Matthew Bertram / EWR Digital Creative Team
