WebTrends Adds Product Upgrade, Partnership

NetIQ Corporation has launched WebPosition Gold 3.0 (WPG) and also partnered with Wordtracker to enhance its WebTrends analytics solution, the company announced today at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Jose, Calif.

NetIQ acquired FirstPlace Software, the maker of the WebPosition Gold search engine optimization product, in April. This is the first new version since the acquisition. With the addition of Wordtracker, WPG users can import keywords directly into the optimization solution, eliminating the need to toggle through multiple applications.

“Search engine optimization is a multi-step process,” said Coleen Carey, director of product marketing for NetIQ “Customers were using multiple tools to complete the whole picture.”

With the integration of the three applications – WebTrends, WebPosition Gold and Wordtracker – the search engine optimization (SEO) process can be synthesized: keyword research is conducted through Wordtracker; positioning improvements with WPG; and conversion analysis through WebTrends.

Carey explains that when users can correlate ranking position with revenue and trends, they can “make decisions abut whether you need to pay more for a higher search result and whether the investment is justified.”

WebPosition Gold 3.0 represents the first major upgrade to the product in two years. Coupled with WordTracker, the new release features simplified keyword management, coverage of more than 200 global search engines, and a keyword effectiveness index.

“Wordtracker tells you globally what people are searching on and what keywords people are using, resulting in traffic and revenue for each engine,” said Carey.

The new version of WPG not only incorporates WordTracker functionality, there are also user-requested enhancements. “Customers asked for an improved user interface,” said Carey, about the control panel which has been updated to resemble the popular Microsoft Outlook.

Like WebTrends, WPG also includes the ability to import data into Excel so that information can be delivered across multiple departments in a unified format.

WebPosition Gold is available in two editions – Standard and Professional. “The Standard is for small to medium business, the online marketing or search marketing person,” Carey explained. “The Professional is for larger or more complex Web sites, as well as the SEO consulting market.”

SEO consultants can customize the reports produced with the Professional edition with their own logos.