Coremetrics / IBM Digital Analytics (discontinued) vs. Serpstat

IBM analytics has continued to improve upon the days of being the original core metrics. After using the updated version for quite some time, it has been great at providing the needed analytics to measure ROI and goal performance for our quarterly KPI's. It has resulted in a great increase in web engagements although we are a midsize company, smaller outfits may not need such an expensive option.

Incentivized

If you are looking for an affordable all-in-one SEO tool to manage multiple websites then Serpstat is a great option. It is not the best in category for any one feature, but it offers a wide range of very good SEO tools, all housed in a single app. If you are serious with SEO, this will not be your only tool but it will save you the cost and trouble of managing several different SEO monthly subscriptions for various tools.

Incentivized

• IBM CXA comprises an acquisition called Tealeaf. This tool has deep heritage and this is evident in its present-day capabilities.
• The Universal Behaviour Exchange or UBX puts the concept of personalisation at the forefront. The ability to combine physical (analog) and digital transactions to create the complete picture of a customer journey, is a stand out benefit.
• The solution does not have to involve the purchase of software. IBM CXA can be sold as a service bundled with analytics as a service. This not only lowers the cost of ownership, it gets around one of the principal issues. Strong staff with design and analytical capability to drive the solution and deliver tangible benefits.
• The seamless integration of Watson AI services to help with the heavy lifiting. Watson reinforces the analytical focus this solution has and can learn to recognise situations specific to a company.

Incentivized

• Serpstat has an incredible Chrome extension. It allows us to perform an on-page analysis, domain analysis, and look at on-page SEO parameters. Rather than logging into Serpstat I'm easily able to access and view competitor and our own analytics at a moment's notice.
• We love using the organic keyword tool to help us track keyword positions over time and benchmark against ourselves and our competitors. These reports also give a dashboard view of all keywords, along with keyword volume, keyword competition, and the average cost per keyword.
• Being a global company it's important to not only view rankings in the US, but other major countries as well. With Serpstat we are able to view how our website performs all around the world.

Incentivized

• The user interface is in Flash, which can be very frustrating and slow at times. Apparently, this is to be transitioned in a future release.
• Can only segment the last 93 days of data. Any historical segmentation beyond the 93 days must be run in Explore (which is credit based, and has its own limitations with the number of credits per month, based on the initial contract with IBM).
• Reports can only display 93 days of data at a given time for custom date ranges. There are pre-programmed date ranges setup with IBM during implementation (last week, last month, last quarter etc.), but are not flexible enough to answer more specific questions.
• Certain reports cannot have segments applied, making answering some simple questions a bit more tricky. For example, I can create a segment around mobile devices and apply it to the marketing channels report, but I can't create a marketing channel segment and apply it to the mobile reports.
• Built in API calls allows for nice report design and automation.

• As a complete product, Serpstat stands with other industry tools. Keyword data is good, but again, as someone who purchased a basic plan to demo the product, limited information really turns me away.
• Compared to other industry tools, Serpstat is literally right in the middle. There doesn't seem to be any differentiation that makes it stand out against Ahrefs or SEMRush. Perhaps something exclusive to Serpstat would make the product more alluring.
• Share counting doesn't seem too useful, especially as an SEO tool. The content marketing tools are going in the right path, but do not provide enough information to really be useful.

Incentivized

IBM Digital Analytics is a great solution for our clients and I believe they offer the best solution for the retail space. We have access to IBM support via email or live chat and they can answer many of the reporting questions that come up. IBM is receptive to our feedback of the product so I am confident they will continue making improvements

I am very happy with the program and their services.

Incentivized

Very easy to implement and use.

It is pretty easy to use as an SEO tool as I've used a few others prior

Incentivized

Never had any issues

As reports are templated, the system is pretty quick. Sometimes you have to wait a bit for a report to render. Or you might have to re-load the page. But there is no real issue here and the system is on par with other similar systems.

Overall, the level of support is very good and I would say it is a strong asset of the solution. However, you can sometimes feel that there is a difference of level among the support team.

I believe I've only contacted support once because I had a question about access to a feature, and they told me it wasn't available on the plan I was on. No big deal, they were polite and prompt to respond and answered my question to my satisfaction. I haven't had any real issues with the software, so I haven't needed much in the way of support outside of that question, but I have no reason to believe their support wouldn't be helpful in more pressing situations.

Incentivized

Online training is really great. One of the best assets that they have. Lots of great videos, pop quizzes at the end of each module. Fantastic. Other tools have similar features, but not as good.

See previous comment: reading and understanding the encyclopedic implementation guide is a must.

Much of the work we did in IBM Digital Analytics could have been answered through Google Analytics, a much simpler, agile and FREE solution set. Not mention, given the vast number of Google Analytics USERS, free and actionable support is simply a click away ... this compared to IBM Digital Analytics fractured and often absent support service.

I have used Google Analytics and found it to be good, but limiting. Serpstat does have a much more transparent way to identify, and examine the wealth of SEO links that my sites have. I've tried a few other free programs online for tracking ranks and I looked into other paid versions for SEO tracking. None of them had a good balance between value for money paid. Serpstat finds a good home in value and return.

Incentivized

This solution can support large amount of data and transaction. The way that user management features are built, it shows it is meant for large organizations.

• We spend too much time trying to work around bugs on the new UI.
• We spend too much time trying to figure out how to make certain segments work because support and the knowledge center are lackluster.
• Our sales rep is very unresponsive and leaves us searching for a lot of answers on our own, including what other products we may benefit from that IBM offers.

Incentivized

• We had a positive ROI with Serpstat in under a month. The time it saved us with website audits and the ability to cancel other monthly subscriptions, and redundant SEO tools, was a huge positive for us.
• We save dozens of hours a month with SEO research by being able to use a single app for the majority of our SEO work where we used to have to jump back and forth between several different tools.
• We've been able to offer prospective clients a free website audit as a lead-in for our marketing services. Serpstat has made it fast, easy and inexpensive to offer this valuable service.

Incentivized