BrightEdge, a startup that offers tools for large companies to manage their search engine rankings, has raised $12.6 million in a Series C round of funding.

One company helping corporations with optimization for both organic search and social is five-year-old BrightEdge, which announced Thursday that it's raised $12.6 million in a Series C round of funding, led by Intel Capital, and existing investors, Battery Ventures, Altos Venture and Illuminate Ventures participating as well. This brings the total round of funding to $21.8 million.
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BrightEdge announced funding Thursday from the venture capital arm of the largest microprocessor company. Intel's venture capital arm -- Intel Capital, along with supporting investment from existing investors Battery Ventures, Altos Ventures and Illuminate Ventures, infused $12.6 million in the search and social management company.

Search engine optimization software provider BrightEdge announced it had been awarded an official patent late yesterday, which is a first for not just the company, but for the whole SEO niche, according to BrightEdge execs (meanwhile, it’s the 8-millionth-and-change for the U.S.). It’s called “Operationalizing Search Engine Optimization,” and it reflects the company’s capacity in measuring “share of voice” in organic search engine rankings. (Spell check, by failing to recognize the word “operationalizing,” seems at least to support the concept’s uniqueness.)

Patents have become bargaining chips for tech companies. Microsoft paid $1.1 billion for 800 from AOL, and Google's move to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion was driven, in part, by a patent portfolio.

Now, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued BrightEdge Technologies, an enterprise SEO platform provider, its first patent that measures share of voice in search engine rankings.

A new BrightEdge report details a 47% increase in engine rankings when aligning Twitter and organic search. Tiny Prints achieved the uptick, improving online conversions and ROIs.

With the trends that we are seeing in the search engines as they become more and more social, I think it is fair to assume that social sharing will be a major part (or at the very least, be a piece) of consideration in any future updates. This is exactly why it’s more important than ever for marketers to understand what aspects of Social Media and which social signals actually help us and our clients get maximum visibility in the search engines.

Marriott International has selected BrightEdge enterprise-grade S3 SEO platform to manage and improve its footprint for organic search. Marriott joins BrightEdge’s rapidly growing hospitality and travel client base which includes leading travel and hospitality agencies HeBS Digital and Vizergy, car rental giant Alamo, Travelocity, and the White Lodging Group.

BrightEdge, the global leader in enterprise SEO, today announced that Marriott International has selected BrightEdge’s enterprise-grade S3 SEO platform to manage and improve its footprint for organic search.

BrightEdge is introducing a service dubbed Local Search Management that lets marketers optimize search rankings for location-specific searches. The tool identifies variations in search performance, based on geographic location of the query. It also takes into consideration the growing importance of local results. Among them, the most common search terms "coffee," "ATM" or "hotel."