NetIQ Corporation will be acqiring FirstPlace Software, the maker of the WebPosition Gold search engine optimization product, and has released a new version of its own WebTrends software.
The transaction is expected to close later this week. WebPosition Gold(TM), is the industry’s leading Search Engine Optimization software solution. Fortune 500 companies and thousands of other organizations around the world use WebPosition Gold to optimize their Web pages to attract greater numbers of qualified visitors to their sites. This acquisition will solidify NetIQ’s WebTrends business unit as the leader in Search Engine analytics and create the market’s most comprehensive Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization solution set. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“Beyond mere click stream analysis, effective Web site analytics provide a holistic view of the entire site: its content, structure, and flow; how visitors and search engines interact with it; and what opportunities exist to drive greater value,” said Matthew Berk, Independent Internet Analyst in New York, NY. “The synergies between site analytics and Search Engine Marketing are only in their infancy.”
This acquisition capitalizes on the unique strengths of the WebTrends(R) and WebPosition Gold products. WebTrends is a complete solution that enables users to measure and optimize results from all of an organization’s Web initiatives, from content effectiveness to commerce analysis to campaign performance. With WebPosition Gold, organizations can ensure they are publishing Web site content that is relevant to the searches being conducted by Internet users. The combination of these two offerings will enable WebTrends customers to reach a greater number of targeted Web visitors and accelerate their return on investment in online marketing.
“Our aim is to surround the marketer with all of the tools required to achieve accelerated ROI on any Web initiative,” said Greg Drew, senior vice president and general manager of the WebTrends business unit at NetIQ.
Besides staking a claim in the search marketing realm this week, NetIQ has beefed up its core software offering. In the latest 7.0 version of WebTrends, the company has combined Web analytics with high-powered graphics and a easy-to-understand Excel spreadsheet. The new features, for the Professional and Enterprise editions, are designed to let even the least technically proficient departments interpret the results.
