Covario to Phase Out Netconcepts Brand in Acquisition

Search software firm Covario has acquired Netconcepts, a search engine optimization software firm serving retail and ecommerce clients. The Netconcepts brand will be phased out after technologies and staffs are integrated.

The addition of the Netconcepts GravityStream system promises to help Covario’s clients implement its SEO recommendations more readily. According to Covario CEO Russ Mann, his firm’s organic search and SEO technology provides reports showing how keywords, sites, and pages should be optimized based on post-click conversion data.

Though the information is helpful, some clients find it difficult to implement the changes recommended by Covario. The Netconcepts technology enables clients to make adjustments at scale and across several pages or Web sites in conjunction with their content management systems, rather than having to make changes manually.

“All the buzz is around data and optimization, to increase efficiency,” said Mann. “Optimization is going to happen category by category,” he added. “We’re doing the same kind of thing…in search.”

The acquisition should help Covario pick up some of Netconcepts’ clientele, most of which are ecommerce and retail outfits such as Ann Taylor and Vitamin Shoppe. The firms have done some work together in the past, said Mann, who added that because the two companies’ staffs and systems align so well, buying Netconcepts outright made more sense than partnering or developing similar technology.

Covario, which serves brands including Intel and Procter & Gamble, intends to integrate the technology into its own Organic Search Insight technology. All Netconcepts staff will remain on board, he continued. “All the folks are folding into their respective teams,” said Mann.

With the acquisition, Covario has around 125 employees in San Diego, New York, Chicago, Tokyo, London, Singapore — and Madison, Wisconsin, home to Netconcepts. The newly-acquired firm will stay in Madison and executive titles will remain as is, Mann added.

However, the Netconcepts brand will be phased out, according to Mann.