Terms of Use
Plain terms for reading this site: what the material is for, what you may do with it, and what it does not create
What this site is
This site is published by Bill Hartzer, an independent search marketing consultant. It describes services, explains how search marketing work is done, and answers the questions buyers of that work ask. It is written to be useful whether or not you ever get in touch.
Using the site means accepting the terms set out on this page. They are deliberately short, because a long set of terms on a site that collects nothing and takes no payment through a checkout would be padding.
Using and quoting the material
You are welcome to read the material, print it for your own use, and share links to it. You may quote from it — including in a document you are preparing for your own organization — provided the quotation is attributed to this site and, where the format allows, linked.
What is not permitted is republishing pages or substantial parts of them as somebody else's work, whether on a website, in a client deliverable, in a proposal, or in material generated at scale. The text, structure and original illustrations on this site are protected by copyright and remain mine unless a page states otherwise.
Links to other sites
Pages here link out to primary sources — search engine documentation, technical specifications, published studies — because a claim you can check is worth more than one you have to take on faith. Those sites are not under my control. Their content can change or disappear without notice, and a link is not an endorsement of the organization publishing it, or of anything else it says.
Where a source is cited for a specific statement, that statement is the one that mattered at the time of writing. If the source has since changed, the source governs and not the summary of it here.
Availability and changes
This is a static site with no login and no service running behind it, but no site is available continuously. It may be unreachable for maintenance, hosting faults, or reasons outside anyone's control, and no level of availability is promised.
Content is revised and republished without notice. Search engines change their systems and their documentation, and material written against how something worked at one point may not describe how it works later. Nothing here should be treated as current merely because it is still published.
What using this site does not create
Reading this site, or sending a message from the contact page, does not create a consulting engagement, a retainer, or any other professional relationship. An engagement begins only when scope and terms have been agreed in writing, and not before.
Nothing on this site is legal advice, and nothing on it constitutes expert opinion in any matter. Where litigation is involved, a conflict check comes first, and any engagement is arranged separately and in writing.
The material is provided as it stands, for general information. Decisions you take about your own website, your own advertising and your own budget remain yours, and I accept no liability for outcomes arising from the use of general material published here rather than from advice given about your specific situation. If you want that advice, the way to get it is to ask for it.