• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, February 24, 2011

Searchmetrics launched a new program this week based on capabilities in its Searchmetrics Suite of applications that aggregates global search engine optimization (SEO) campaigns. Dubbed Searchmetrics Connect, the program fosters interoperability with other platforms. The feature integrates with a variety of tools to likely become the most important feature in the tool. The package connects with Web analytics tools such as Omniture, Webtrends, and Google Analytics.  

It has been developed to provide digital marketing campaigns with specific measurement, insights and metrics, and enables companies to evaluate terms that are most likely to result in purchases. Agencies and marketers will benefit from Searchmetrics Connect through an API that supports data and keyword rankings. A handful of companies have been testing the platform for about three months.

The data is pulled in through key performance indicators (KPIs) and can combine with a variety of bits and bytes from other applications such as an agency's dashboards or Web analytics software. Companies running search marketing strategies in a variety of countries can see each individual campaign or combine them with data from a specific country. Rather than look at the data from a campaign in German through the U.S. search engine, the platform would pull in data from the campaign running in Germany. The platform would aggregate the data into one chart.

For instance, the search marketers would see the performance data from Searchmetrics' organic search performance index -- data that displays the search performance of a specific Web site in a specific country, explains Horst Joepen, Searchmetrics CEO, who notes that the visibility index chart for jcpenney.com, which Google penalized, provides an example. "The most valuable feature is being able to get an overview of the large volume of data and gain visibility into specific regions to see the entire process," he says.

This data can also be pulled for other countries, regions and search engines, so international SEO projects particularly can benefit. Other available data include backlink and KPI scores on search engine pages. Agencies can access the information via Web services and API. Customers also can combine the SEO and the search analytics software with other applications to customize the solution.