A Career Built Inside the Industry, Not Alongside It
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 watched major search engines, domain systems, analytics platforms, and advertising tools evolve from early versions to today's complex ecosystems, which allows him to connect historical context with current technical detail in litigation.
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 as serious business tools. He later moved into agency and consulting roles, where he managed SEO, domain name portfolios, and digital marketing campaigns for a wide range of organizations, from startups to Fortune 500 companies. 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.
At a Glance
Early Career & Agency Experience
Bill has provided expert reports and testimony in cases involving SEO, domain names, online defamation, and digital marketing. He has conducted forensic investigations of domain ownership and domain disputes, analyzed search results and content in online reputation and defamation matters, and audited PPC and analytics systems for digital marketing disputes. He has also served as a speaker at national and international search and marketing conferences, and as a brand ambassador for Majestic.com and OnCrawl — recognition that reflects sustained, visible standing in the SEO industry rather than a credential earned once and left behind.
- Founder of Hartzer Consulting, providing digital marketing services since 1996
- Founder of DNAccess, advising organizations on domain security and domain portfolio management
- Consulted on thousands of SEO and domain-related projects across startups, agencies, and enterprises
- Served as an expert witness in matters involving keyword advertising, brand protection, online identity theft, and deceptive marketing practices
- Speaker at national and international marketing and search 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, while the underlying analysis stays grounded in data, logs, reports, and documented industry practice. 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, and helping counsel understand what evidence is technically meaningful and what is noise. Learn more about how his reports and testimony are built to satisfy Daubert standards for expert qualification, and see his full credentials and CV for a detailed professional history.