• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, April 24, 2012

Search marketing agency Covario unveiled a business unit Tuesday offering a suite of search marketing and social media software tools to in-house marketers and digital agencies. The spinoff, Rio SEO, will support content marketing, auditing, reporting and competitive analysis.

Russ Mann, chief executive of Covario, will lead the combined company, though each unit will have a separate leadership team. Similar to aQuantive, which operated Razorfish, the agency, and Atlas, the software company, Covario will have two teams: Covario, the agency, and Rio SEO, the software company. 

Mann made the announcement at the MediaPost Search Insider Summit in Captiva, Fla.

Rio SEO will offer five search marketing and social media software modules. The newest tool, Rio SEO Change Tracker, will help SEO managers and digital agencies discover, diagnose and address Web site changes originating from other areas within an organization, such as IT, marketing, ecommerce and Web site design.

Four Covario solutions have been rebranded. Performics, a Chicago-based performance marketing agency owned by the Publicis Group, has been using the tools for years. They include Rio SEO search analytics for auditing, reporting and recommendations solution; Rio SEO Web site optimizer, a content management solution for large content providers and ecommerce sites; Rio SEO mobile site nuilder, an automation tool for mobile device Web pages; and Rio SEO social analytics, a social media ROI tracking and workflow tool.