How to ask
There is no mailing list on this site. There is no signup, no gated download, no “enter your email to continue reading,” and no sequence waiting to start the moment you type an address. That is a deliberate design decision, and it costs the site something real: a list is the standard way a free course converts attention into a business. This one does not have one.
What replaces it is this page. If something on this site is unclear, or wrong, or you want a second opinion on a situation of your own, write to me and I will answer.
What I am glad to answer
- Anything on this site that does not make sense, reads as contradictory, or seems to conflict with something you have been told elsewhere. Those messages are the most useful ones I get, because they usually mean a page needs rewriting.
- A factual correction. Every figure here comes from data I can re-check, and if a number is wrong I would rather know than defend it.
- A question about how a tactic applies to your specific situation — your vertical, your site, your constraints. The tactic pages are written for the general case and the general case is often not yours.
- A proposal or an audit somebody has sent you that you want read with a sceptical eye. You do not need to say who wrote it.
What I cannot do by email
- Diagnose a traffic drop. That takes access to your analytics, your Search Console, your server logs and usually a conversation. Anyone who diagnoses it from a paragraph is guessing.
- Tell you whether a specific vendor is any good. I will not review named companies in writing. I will happily tell you which questions to ask them, and the hiring section on this site is built around exactly that.
- Give legal advice. I work as an expert witness in matters involving search, advertising and domain names, which is precisely why I am careful about the line. If your question is really a legal question, it needs a lawyer in your jurisdiction.
- Build your links. This site teaches you to do it. If you decide you want it done for you instead, that is a consulting engagement, not an email.
What to include
A useful question usually has three things in it: what you are trying to achieve, what you have already tried, and what specifically is confusing or not working. A message with all three tends to get a substantive answer. A message that says only “how do I get more backlinks” has no answer that is better than the course itself, and I will send you back to it.
If your question is about a particular page, say which one. If it is about your own site, include the domain — I will look before I reply.
How long I take
I answer these myself, between client work, so it is usually a few days rather than the same afternoon. I do not have a support team and I do not use an autoresponder, so if you do not hear back within a week or so, the message probably did not arrive and it is worth sending again.
If you would rather hire someone
Some problems are worth paying to have solved rather than learning to solve. Recovering a link profile after a bad migration, running an audit that has to stand up in front of a board, or giving evidence in a dispute are all in that category. That work is what Hartzer Consulting does, and the honest advice on when hiring is and is not the right call is set out in the hiring section of this site — including the cases where the answer is that you should do it yourself.
Why the site has no mailing list
It is worth explaining, because the choice is unusual enough that people ask.
An email gate changes what a free resource is. The moment a download requires an address, the page stops being written to teach and starts being written to convert — the useful part moves behind the form, the free part becomes a trailer for it, and the reader's attention becomes inventory. I have read a great deal of link building material shaped that way and almost none of it was as good as it could have been, because being genuinely complete would have removed the reason to sign up.
The trade is that this site has no way to tell you when something changes. If a tactic's grade moves, or the course gains a module, you will only find out by coming back or by asking. I think that is the better trade. If it turns out to be the wrong one, this page is where you can tell me so.