BrightEdge goes global with SEO platform

The company brings in Baidu's chief architect to guide the expansion

Enterprise SEO platform BrightEdge announced Thusrday morning that it’s expanding its platform globally to give customers a new international reach.  Using the new platform, which presumably adapts to different search algorithms among various regions across the globe, companies and brands can now manage their rank in search properties across various countries and markets. 

Based in San Mateo, Calif., BrightEdge is a search engine optimization (SEO) platform that helps customers increase their revenue from organic search, as opposed to the traditional pay-per-click, display ads, and email marketing channels.

Additionally, former Baidu chief architect Ming Lei is joining the BrightEdge team as a strategic advisor to help BrightEdge adjust its SEO solution to international search engines.  Lei was one of the four founding members of Baidu and is largely credited with developing the technology that rocketed Baidu to the top as China’s largest search engine.

“Our clients asked us to extend the platform’s reach so they can drive the same ROI globally that they are seeing in the U.S.,” said BrightEdge CEO Jim Yu in a prepared statement. “At home and around the world, the Web is increasingly cluttered and complex. Our clients use BrightEdge to break through this clutter and use natural search as a major revenue driver. Bringing our platform to international search engines will give companies a means to scale and drive new business in ways simply not possible before.”

BrightEdge customers include MySpace, Trulia, Branders.com, Symantec, VMWare, Closed Loop Marketing, and more.  Branders.com claims that since launching the BrightEdge platform, the company’s revenues have increased by more than $3 million per year and it has seen a 20% increase in the productivity of its SEO team.

ERP and retail software solutions provider Epicor will be among the first to use BrightEdge’s new global platform.

“As a global ERP and SaaS software provider with operations in over 150 countries, driving ROI from our digital marketing initiatives requires us to have accurate, actionable information at our fingertips that crosses borders and language barriers,” said Dawna Olsen, Director, Corporate Marketing, Epicor.  “Until now, there has been no single enterprise class solution to manage SEO around the world.  We couldn’t be more excited about BrightEdge’s international capabilities.  For the first time ever we can be totally confident that our marketers have global SEO data and recommendations that they can use to drive value and ROI.”

Founded in 2007, the company last year raised $6.5 million from Battery Ventures, Altos Ventures, and Illuminate Ventures. 

Image source: BrightEdge.com