WebTrends 7 Debuts With Enhanced ROI Features

NetIQ has unveiled a new version (7) of its analytics product, WebTrends, featuring enhanced integration between its Web analytics capabilities and its WebPosition Gold search engine marketing (SEM) product.

The product, which is available as standalone software and as a hosted service, features several improvements over its previous services, including detailed analytics for measuring email campaign performance; audience segmentation capabilities that allow clients to identify their most profitable visitor segments; and search engine results demonstrating the effect of search engine rank on revenue, said Jeff Seacrist, director of marketing for WebTrends.

“Take keyword ranking,” Seacrist said. “The first position can often cost 10 times as much as the second or third. Often advertisers will find the highest ROI with a slightly lower ranking. WebTrends 7 allows you to determine this.”

Another enhancement is a “resource center” that gives customers a simplified way to customize the array of metrics to their specific needs.

Three tiers of WebTrends 7 are available to suit the needs of a variety of clients. An enterprise edition is available for large businesses for $1,000 per month. A professional edition features on-page analytics and Excel data integration; and a scaled-down version is available to small businesses for $35 per month.

The new product will compete with other Web analytics products recently released by WebSideStory in October and Oneupweb earlier this month.

As with its previous tools, NetIQ plans to offer updates to WebTrends 7 periodically throughout 2005.

WebTrends currently employs 275 people, counting among its clients more than half of Fortune 500 businesses.