About Trial Witness
Trial Witness is the expert witness practice of Bill Hartzer, a long-time internet, SEO, and digital marketing consultant. The practice is focused on helping courts, judges, and juries understand how online systems behave and how that behavior relates to the facts of a case.
Bill has worked in the industry since the mid-1990s and has seen major search engines, domain systems, analytics platforms, and advertising tools evolve from early versions to today’s complex ecosystems. That experience allows him to connect historical context with current technical details in litigation.
Background and Experience
Bill began working in-house at an international software and telecom company, managing websites in multiple languages and handling early SEO efforts as search engines emerged. He later moved into agency and consulting roles, where he has managed SEO, domain name portfolios, and digital marketing campaigns for a wide range of organizations.
Over time, he became known for deep technical analysis of search results, domain issues, and analytics data, which led naturally into expert witness work for law firms handling internet-related disputes.
Bill has:
- Provided expert reports and testimony in cases involving SEO, domain names, online defamation, and digital marketing
- Conducted forensic investigations of domain ownership and domain disputes
- Analyzed search results and content in online reputation and defamation matters
- Audited PPC and analytics systems for digital marketing, PPC, and analytics disputes
- Served as a speaker at national and international search and marketing conferences
Approach to Expert Witness Work
Trial Witness is built around clear communication. Technical jargon is translated into straightforward explanations that non-technical audiences can understand. At the same time, the underlying analysis is grounded in data, logs, reports, and documented industry practices.
In many matters, Bill’s work involves:
- Reconstructing timelines using search results, domain records, and analytics data
- Explaining why rankings rose or fell, or why a domain was reachable or not at specific times
- Walking through digital forensic workflows, such as the domain theft forensic workflow
- Helping counsel understand what evidence is technically meaningful and what is noise
The goal is always to give the court a clear picture of what online systems did, and why.
Service Areas
SEO Expert Witness
Analysis of search rankings, penalties, and SEO conduct in disputes involving organic search performance.
Domain Name & Domain Disputes
Review of registrar records, DNS, and ownership history in domain theft and domain dispute cases.
Online Reputation & Defamation
Evaluation of search results, reviews, video content, and social media in defamation and reputation harm matters.
Digital Marketing, PPC & Analytics
Assessment of PPC setups, click behavior, and analytics configuration in advertising and tracking disputes.
For a complete list of focused pages, you can review the HTML sitemap.