Covario, an analytics technology software firm, has launched new agency services based on technology, data and automation.
The services will use Covario’s analytics automation technology, organic search insight technology and a new SEO delivery team to create and deploy SEO strategies for clients. The company’s Data Driven Decisions (D3) automated system for SEO and its other automation tools will be the driving forces behind much of its agency work.
“Search engine optimization is difficult to scale; for large organizations optimizing one site will take five people a whole year and cost $500,000, but when they have 6,000 sites, that manual model just doesn’t work,” said Craig Macdonald, CMO of Covario. “So we started building technology to automate and scale these processes. In addition to that, large advertisers want to use technology to automate parts of traditional search process, and they also need help from a services standpoint.
“We see an opportunity in the market to forward our own strategy and leverage the technologies we deploy in offering services that embrace technology and allow us to be more scalable than many agencies,” he added.
Four clients have signed up for the agency services already. Around 70 clients use Covario’s automated organic search insight tool.
Covario’s agency services follow a four-step process. First, the company uses an automated process to perform keyword research, to find which words to focus on for optimization. Then, it helps clients audit their sites to make sure they are optimized for search. As an agency, Covario can also help clients manually change their sites for better search results. The fourth part is ongoing reporting and metrics.
Macdonald said that automating so much of optimization helps push down administrative costs from about 55% of the process to 20%, which allows clients to spend resources on better site creative.
The reduced costs of automation work with broader market trends, Macdonald added.
“Every agency out there is trying to figure out how to make marketing programs more efficient and scalable, and that’s finally hitting SEO,” he said. “Larger organizations are saying, ‘We can’t rely on search gurus and individual personalities — we need a process.”
Microsoft’s release of Bing and integration with Yahoo is also creating interest in SEO because many companies that had not optimized for Microsoft’s search engine before are now going back to it.
