SEO-Search Engine Optimization Expert Witnesses: 3

Jason McDonald, PhD, is a expert witness, who specializes in SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Social Media Marketing, and Google Ads (AdWords) and has been retained by clients all over the world. His primary focus for his expert witness work is on digital marketing and online advertising, both organic and paid. 

Background Experience - With a BA from Harvard and a PhD from Berkeley, Dr. McDonald began working at a number of San Francisco Bay Area start ups, ranging from Omnibus, Computer Currents, and MW Media. He also wrote freelance for many years with articles appearing in trade journals and press such as EE Times, Dr. Dobb’s, and Software Development Forum. In 1995, he left MW Media and was one of the co-founders of eg3.com. 

Today, Dr. McDonald is Senior Editor for content at eg3.com and is responsible for website coverage (keywords), the monthly newsletter, and the series of Insiders’ Guides on topics from RTOS to FPGAs. He also is the Senior SEO Director at the JM Internet Group. The author of the best-selling SEO  Workbook, Google Ads, and Social Media Marketing Workbooks on Amazon, Dr. McDonald currently teaches at Stanford University Continuing Studies and has taught at the Bay Area Video Academy (BAVC), and AcademyX in San Francisco, California. 

Litigation Support - Dr. McDonald is certified in both California state court and Federal court to testify as an SEO, Social Media Marketing, and Google Ads (AdWords) expert witness. His cases have involved trademark, advertising, and other internet-related issues. With deposition and trial testimony experience, his services are available to counsel representing both Plaintiff and Defendant.

• SEO Areas of Expertise: Goal Assessment, Keywords, On Page Optimization, Off Page Optimization, Metrics, Rank
• Google Ads (AdWords) Expertise - AdWords Assessment, Keyword Match Types, Search Network vs. Display Network, Conversions and eCommerce, Metrics, Beyond AdWords
• Social Media Expertise - Facebook litigation, Twitter litigation, LinkedIn litigation or any litigation involving social media marketing

View Dr. McDonald's Consulting Profile.

Chris Silver Smith is an Internet Marketing Expert who has served in lawsuits involving search engine optimization (SEO), search advertising (Pay-Per-Click advertising / PPC), social media, domain names, and more.

Mr. Smith bears the distinction of long occupying the topmost organic rankings for searches for "SEO Expert Witness", establishing that he is a not only able to speak to the theory of search engine optimization, but is also able to practice it. Smith's legal work has enabled his clients collectively to be awarded more than $94 million in their court cases, and his clients prevailed in the majority of cases he has served upon.

Litigation Support - Mr. Smith helps large companies and large brand names protect their marks in trademark infringement cases and online defamation cases. He has served as an expert on behalf of PODS Enterprises, Starbucks, Versace, GoDaddy, Adidas, and others. He does not assist companies involved with gambling, porn, recreational pharmaceuticals, tobacco, alcohol, multi-level marketing, or cults.

Specializations:

Background Experience - Mr. Smith has a diverse background as he was self-taught programming in high school, and was first trained in hypertext, the protocol subsequently succeeded by HTML, which continues to be the dominant markup language for webpages. Smith also learned higher-level C programming language in college, and later went on to work for a decade for Verizon where he ultimately was head of the technology department for one of the company's largest websites. In his roles at Verizon, Mr. Smith performed software development in multiple internet programming languages that included a proprietary Verizon language, PERL, PHP, and JAVA. 

Mr. Smith also provided user-interface design and served as an analyst. He was promoted to overseeing multiple developers and teams for usability research, search engine development, SEO, graphic design, internet analytics, advertising system design, and advanced research. As the company's pioneer in SEO research, Mr. Smith was awarded the company's highest honor, the Individual Excellence Award, for increasing search engine referral traffic and associated revenues. Smith's contribution also resulted in multiple patents awarded for search and presentation technologies.

After leaving Verizon, Mr. Smith worked for a couple of prominent and exclusive internet marketing companies before founding his own agency at Argent Media™.

Chris Silver Smith has long been a writer for Search Engine Land, one of the industry's top news and information websites for search engine marketing, and he has spoken at numerous conferences on his areas of expertise. 

View Argent Media™ Consulting Profile.

Jessie Stricchiola has over 23 years of experience in the fields of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Digital Marketing, and  Internet Technologies. She is the founder of Alchemist Media, Inc., a digital marketing consultancy launched in 2002 that provides various internet and search engine marketing consulting services, including SEO, website development, web analytics, and digital marketing strategies.

Ms. Stricchiola began studying search algorithms and digital information discoverability in 1997, and was first employed as a full-time search engine optimization (SEO) specialist in 1998. She is co-author of The Art of SEO, (O’Reilly Media, 1st Ed. 2009, 2nd Ed. 2012, 3rd Ed. 2015, 4th Ed, 2022), a treatise on the practice of SEO that has been used as required or recommended reading in courses at Georgetown University, USC, UCLA, UCSD, UC Davis, the University of Wisconsin, Syracuse University, the University of Mumbai, the City University of Hong Kong, and others.  

Ms. Stricchiola has been a presenter and/or moderator at various search engine and internet industry conferences since 2002, including Ad:tech, O'Reilly's Web 2.0, Pubcon, Shop.org, FOO Camp (O’Reilly), Search Engine Strategies, Search Marketing Expo (SMX), and others.  She is credited with having been the first to identify Click Fraud in the PPC (pay per click) industry in 2001. Her work on this issue has been featured in numerous media outlets, including NPR, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Wired.com, CNN Money, and in The Google Story (First Edition, David a. Vise).

Litigation Support - Jessie Stricchiola has been qualified as an Internet Discoverability, Web Analytics, and Search Engine Optimization Subject Matter Expert in two US Federal District Courts, the Federal Court of Canada, and various California Superior Courts. Her services include pre-file case evaluation and research, expert consultant (non-testifying) engagements, and expert witness testimony at deposition and trial including claims construction and related testimony for patent litigation. CV available upon request

Parties to Litigation: U.S. Government, Uber Technologies Inc., Google Inc., Microsoft Online Inc., Yahoo! Inc., Dyson Technologies, Inc., IHG Hotels & Resorts, FremantleMedia, and others.

Areas of Expertise:

 View Alchemist Media Inc.'s Consulting Profile.