Duane Forrester

Duane Forrester is a seasoned growth strategist with over 25 years of experience at the forefront of search, content, and AI-driven marketing. As a former executive at Microsoft, he helped build and launch Bing Webmaster Tools, setting industry standards still in use today. He later led enterprise SEO and content strategy at Yext, and served as VP of Industry Insights at Bruce Clay Inc., advising Fortune 500 brands and scaling teams through major digital transformations. Today, as founder of UnboundAnswers, he works directly with early-stage companies to future-proof their marketing, product, and positioning strategies in an increasingly AI-mediated world. Duane brings a unique mix of deep technical expertise and executive-level foresight. He has served on advisory boards for major platforms, contributed to standards-setting initiatives, and authored several books on search and digital strategy. He specializes in helping startups define go-to-market plans, craft machine-facing content strategies, and build sustainable competitive advantages by aligning marketing with modern search infrastructure — from GenAI retrieval systems to structured data and authority signals. Startups working with Duane benefit not just from his strategic clarity, but from his hands-on approach to building repeatable, scalable systems. Whether refining product-market fit, advising on roadmap prioritization, or coaching teams through early traction milestones, he brings actionable insight with an operator’s mindset — and a deep understanding of what actually drives visibility and trust in today’s discovery landscape.