About
About Internet Defamation Expert Witness Services
This site exists to support attorneys and their clients who are dealing with online and social media defamation. It brings together more than two decades of experience analyzing search results, social platforms, domain names, and digital reputations, and applies that experience to high-stakes legal matters.
The focus is simple. Help the court understand what happened online, show how far it spread, and connect that activity to real-world harm using evidence that is clear, organized, and defensible.
About Bill Hartzer
Bill Hartzer is an Internet Defamation Expert Witness and digital marketing consultant with more than 25 years of hands-on experience in SEO, online reputation, and domain name investigations. He began working in organic search in the late 1990s and has been deeply involved in digital visibility and brand protection ever since.
Earlier in his career, Bill worked in-house as an SEO and webmaster at an international telecom software company. He managed and optimized websites in multiple languages, coordinated with teams across regions, and saw first-hand how search visibility and online content impacted sales, partnerships, and product adoption.
Over time, that technical and strategic work expanded into forensic analysis. Bill was called on to unravel domain name disputes, investigate strange traffic patterns, interpret search engine penalties, and explain why certain pages, posts, or videos were dominating search results for specific names and brands.
Today, Bill leads Hartzer Consulting and operates DNAccess.com, a service focused on high-stakes domain name and reputation issues. His client base includes law firms, corporate legal teams, marketing departments, and individuals whose reputations or revenue have been damaged by misleading or false online content.
In expert witness matters, Bill’s role is to analyze the online record, preserve critical evidence, and translate highly technical findings into clear, grounded explanations that judges and juries can understand. He focuses on causation, amplification, and impact, and he supports his opinions with verifiable data and documentation.
Focus on Internet and Social Media Defamation
Internet defamation matters rarely involve a single post or page. They often include a mix of tweets, threads, TikToks, YouTube videos, Reddit discussions, blog posts, and mirrored content on smaller sites. Search engines can surface this mix of content for name queries, and social sharing can keep it in circulation long after the initial publication.
Bill’s experience in search and social platforms allows him to map how content moves across channels and how algorithms contribute to continued visibility. That includes explaining why a specific video sits at the top of search results, why certain posts keep resurfacing in recommendations, and how all of this influences what people see when they look up a person or business.
Cases frequently involve:
- False statements about professional conduct, product quality, or business practices
- Defamatory videos, livestreams, and commentary channels on YouTube and similar platforms
- Abusive or fabricated reviews that damage local and national businesses
- Coordinated smear campaigns driven by multiple accounts and domains
In each matter, Bill’s task is to connect platform behavior and search visibility to real-world outcomes, using data and documentation that can withstand scrutiny.
Approach and Methodology
Evidence Preservation
Early work often focuses on preserving content that may be edited, deleted, or hidden. That includes screenshots, full-page captures, platform URLs and IDs, web archives, and third-party telemetry where available.
Technical and Search Analysis
Bill reviews how content is indexed, ranked, and shared. He examines search results over time, backlink and embed patterns, engagement metrics, and platform signals that affect ongoing visibility.
Impact and Causation
He looks for practical indicators of harm, such as changes in branded search volume, traffic and lead quality, reviews, social sentiment, and revenue-related signals, and connects these trends to the defamatory material.
The methods used are explained in plain language in reports, declarations, and testimony so that non-technical audiences can follow each step and understand how the opinions were formed.
Why Law Firms Retain Bill Hartzer
Law firms working on internet defamation matters retain Bill because they need more than screenshots and anecdotes. They need context, timelines, and an explanation of how search engines and social platforms shaped what people saw and believed.
Bill provides that context through structured reports, clear visuals, and testimony that connects dots without overreaching. He is comfortable under cross-examination and focuses on staying within the evidence and methods used.
Attorneys also appreciate that Bill has lived the search and online visibility side of the internet for decades. He has worked on thousands of websites, run technical audits, managed SEO programs, and untangled complicated domain and ranking issues. That practical background supports his ability to spot gaps in the online record and identify additional sources of evidence.
His work is independent. He is retained to provide an honest, well-documented opinion, even if that opinion is not always convenient. That independence helps build credibility with the court.
How to Engage Internet Defamation Expert Witness Services
Most engagements begin with a brief discussion between counsel and Bill to confirm the nature of the matter and identify any immediate evidence preservation needs. From there, he can recommend an appropriate scope of work, which may range from an early assessment to a full forensic report and testimony.
To make that initial conversation useful, it helps to have key URLs, post or video links, approximate dates, and a short description of alleged harm ready to share. Anything that shows business impact or reputational damage can be helpful context.
Next Step for Law Firms
To discuss expert witness services for an internet or social media defamation matter, contact Bill through Hartzer Consulting.
Contact Bill Hartzer