About Bill Hartzer
Bill Hartzer is a highly respected search engine optimization expert with more than two decades of hands-on SEO experience. Unlike many expert witnesses who step away from active practice, Bill still manages SEO campaigns for clients. This keeps him closely aligned with current search engine algorithms, technical SEO best practices, and how real businesses rely on organic traffic.
As a search engine optimization expert witness, Bill focuses on SEO issues that directly impact legal disputes: organic visibility, loss of traffic, search rankings, and how search engines display websites and content to users. For a deeper description of his expert work, see the SEO Expert Witness Services page.
What Is SEO and Why It Matters in Legal Cases
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving a website’s visibility in search engine results on platforms such as Google and Microsoft Bing. Effective SEO combines technical site configuration, relevant and useful content, and authoritative links so that a website can rank well for important search queries.
Because search results influence public perception, referral traffic, and revenue, SEO often shows up in legal matters. Defamation cases, domain name disputes, contract disputes with SEO providers, and traffic-loss cases can all hinge on how search engines treated a site. When that happens, a search engine optimization expert witness helps the court understand crawling, indexing, rankings, and algorithm updates. For a plain-language overview, you can review How Search Engines Work in Legal Cases.
Why Hire an SEO Expert Witness?
Legal teams hire an SEO expert witness when questions about rankings, search visibility, or organic traffic sit at the center of a dispute. Bill provides clear, data-driven analysis that connects what happened in search results to the facts of the case.
Examples include:
- Defamation or negative content in search results where the visibility of harmful material must be explained and quantified.
- Disputes over website traffic loss and damages that require reconstructing historical performance and identifying likely causes.
- Analysis of search rankings on Google or Microsoft Bing to understand why a site ranks where it does, including the impact of Google algorithm updates.
- Domain name and website disputes involving SEO value where ownership or misuse of a domain affects visibility and business value.
- Technical SEO audits that determine whether configuration issues, migrations, or security incidents caused changes in rankings. These matters are covered further on the Technical SEO Expert Witness page.
By converting these technical questions into clear, fact-based explanations, Bill helps attorneys, judges, and juries understand the mechanics behind search engine rankings and the business impact of changes to those rankings.
Extensive SEO Expert Witness Experience
Bill has prepared numerous expert witness reports and rebuttal reports for both plaintiffs and defendants. These reports address SEO performance, ranking changes, domain histories, technical configurations, and the impact of algorithm updates. His work has been central in matters involving online marketing, domain names, and SEO-related damages.
He has been deposed multiple times and has testified at trial. In each setting, he focuses on clarity, consistency, and staying grounded in the data. For a broader view of his background with different case types, read the SEO Expert Witness Experience page.
Resources for Attorneys Handling SEO-Related Cases
Attorneys often want practical guidance before retaining an SEO expert witness. Bill has put together focused resources for legal teams:
- The SEO Expert Witness FAQ for Attorneys answers common questions about when to involve an expert, what data to preserve, and how SEO evidence fits into a case.
- The SEO Expert Witness Checklist for Attorneys offers a structured way to decide whether rankings, traffic, or negative search results are central enough to warrant expert input.
- The How to Engage an SEO Expert Witness page explains the process from initial contact and conflict checks through reports, rebuttals, and testimony.
These resources are written in plain language so you can share them within your firm, even with colleagues who are new to SEO issues.
Contact Bill Hartzer
If you need a qualified SEO expert witness for a legal case involving websites, search engine rankings, or online visibility, you can contact Bill directly.
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.Hartzer.com
For structured inquiries and conflict checks, you can also use the form on the Contact page. If you would like more background about his SEO and expert witness work, visit the About page.