Netconcepts
Netconcepts was a web marketing and web development agency founded by Stephan Spencer and headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin. Netconcepts specialized in SEO for Fortune 500 ecommerce companies and major media brands. Netconcepts was acquired in January 2010 by Covario, which was then the nation's largest independent SEM (search engine marketing) and SEO (search engine optimization) solutions provider, offering both software and marketing services for paid and organic search management.[1][2] Covario was itself acquired in 2014 by Dentsu Aegis, a multinational media and digital marketing communications company.[3]
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Overview
In 1995, the web development company Internet Concepts LLC was founded by its president Stephan Spencer, eventually renaming itself to Netconcepts LLC.[4][5][6]
In 2000, A New Zealand office, Netconcepts Ltd., was opened by Spencer in Browns Bay, Auckland and then later, Christchurch. Netconcepts Ltd. was the design and production arm of Netconcepts LLC, the office in Madison.[7] The majority of the over 50 staff wereemployed in the New Zealand office though some of the owners and key executives were based in Madison.[8] The company was featured in a case study by the New Zealand Government's Work-Life Balance Project.[9]
Netconcepts had many large corporate American clients which totaled 70% of their client list, the other 30% were New Zealand-based clients.[10] In 2005, Netconcepts earned $5 million in revenue.[11] Some of the American clients included the Carter Center,[12] PartStore.com,[13] Verizon,[14] Van Dykes Taxidermy,[15] Countrywide Financial, Steve Spangler,[11] and Discovery Channel. New Zealand clients include New Zealand Post and Prime Television.[16]
Netconcepts China was founded in 2008 and continues to operate, with headquarters in Beijing and offices in Shanghai, Chengdu and Jinan.[17] Amazon China, Huawei and eBay are among their clients.[18]
After acquiring Netconcepts LLC, Covario Inc. phased out use of the Netconcepts brand name.[19]
In 2003, Netconcepts released a report titled The State of Search Engine Cataloging, which showed 99 of the then Catalog Age 100 companies had not optimized their website for search engines. The other company did not have a website. Brian Klais, vice-president of their e-business sector, and Stephan Spencer said to Multi Channel Merchant: "the vast majority of sites analyzed had sizable chunks of their site inaccessible to search engine spiders, mostly due to search-engine-unfriendly dynamic URLs and navigation based on Java, JavaScript, or Flash."[20]
White paper
Netconcepts released a white paper in 2006, detailing the aspect of long tail searches and the value of having them. The white paper says that the amount of unbranded keyword traffic is about seven million searches a month. A previous study showed that Google served up the most unbranded searches, 80.7%.[21] Netconcepts then went into detail about how to optimize a website for long tail searches, such as changing from dynamic to static URLs so a search engine can index the page easier, rewrite title tags, and copy optimization.[22]
References
- "Netconcepts Acquired By Covario". searchengineland.com. 2010-01-12.
- "Covario Acquires Netconcepts: Software and SEO Services for Results and ROI". WebPieRat.com. 2010-01-12.
- Schwartz, Barry (17 September 2014). "Covario To Be Acquired By Dentsu Aegis Network, Rio SEO To Remain Independent". Search Engine Land. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
- Who We Are Netconcepts
- Interactive Marketing: Interactive Online and Offline Marketing School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- EXPORTING MARKETING: Global Naivety? – New Zealand Marketing Magazine, August 2006. Accessed on February 27, 2007.
- Stephan Spencer profile LinkedIn
- Doing business half a world away. By Wilson Owen, Independent Financial Review. 22 November 2006.
- Case Study - Stephan Spencer Work/Life Balance, Department of Labour
- Shaw, Steven (November 15, 2005). "Searching for better returns". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved October 30, 2011.
- Jason Stein: Netconcepts Helps Sites Stand Out. Published by Wisconsin State Journal on October 13, 2005. Accessed on February 27, 2007
- Russell Brown: Blog on by Unlimited on September 1, 2005. Accessed February 27, 2007.
- Partners with Netconcepts TMCnet December 6, 2006
- US Telco Signs Up To Auckland-based Netconcepts Scoop December 23, 2004
- Pamatatau, Richard (January 20, 2004). "Netconcepts to run site for US taxidermy firm". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved October 30, 2011.
- Our Clients Netconcepts
- "Video transcript: Allen Qu on staying relevant in China". The University of Auckland. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
- "About Netconcepts". Netconcepts China. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
- Kaye, Kate (12 January 2010). "Covario to Phase Out Netconcepts Brand in Acquisition". ClickZ News. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
- Seeking Search Engine Optimization Multi Channel Merchant January 1, 2003
- Mickey Alam Khan: Netconcepts Study: Google Tops for Nonbranded Online Searches DM News January 24, 2006
- Matt Griffin: Search Engine Optimization: Strategies to Increase Traffic for Long-tail Keywords Catalog Success August 8, 2006