Method and apparatus for evaluating visitors to a web server

• US 20050256951A1
• Filed: 04/25/2005
• Published: 11/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NetIQ Corporation (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Montgomery, David S., Boyd, W. Glen, Shapira, Elijahu
• Granted Patent: US 7,596,506 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

Different web pages on a web server are associated with different qualification profiles, each of which is assigned a value by the web-site proprietor. Traffic data hits at the web-site are analyzed to determine which web pages the visitor viewed on the web server. Each qualifying visitor is thereafter associated with a qualification profile and a corresponding value. In another aspect of the invention, visitors arriving as a result of an advertisement on a remote web-site are tracked. The web-site proprietor is consequently able to determine a return on advertising investment based on the value of visitors brought to the site by the tracked advertisement.

Claims

1. A method for associating visitor profiles with products or services comprising:

establishing a visitor profile for each visitor to one or more web servers;

defining a plurality of qualification levels to visitors of one or more URLs associated with the one or more web servers;

associating each of the plurality of qualification levels with products or services; and

analyzing visitor profiles to associate each visitor with one or more of the plurality of qualification levels.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein each qualification level represents a different level of interest in a product or service offered for sale at the one or more web servers.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein analyzing visitor profiles comprises:

determining which URLs on the one or more web servers each visitor visited; and

assigning each visitor to one or more of the plurality of qualification levels based on the URLs visited by the visitor.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein associating each visitor with one or more of the plurality of qualification level comprises:

comparing each visitor with criteria defining each qualification level; and

associating each visitor with one or more qualification levels whose criteria the visitor meets.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein establishing a visitor profile for each visitor comprises creating a visitor session to record hits associated with the visitor, where each hit corresponds to data exchanged between the one or more web servers and a computing device associated with the visitor.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said method further comprises assigning a quantitative value to each of the plurality of qualification levels.

7. A method for analyzing traffic data generated by one or more web servers connected via a network to a plurality of computing devices operated by visitors, said method comprising:

associating web pages on the one or more web servers with one or more qualification levels;

receiving a plurality of traffic data hits, each hit corresponding to data exchanged between the one or more web servers and one of the computing devices operated by a visitor; and

analyzing the traffic data hits to associate each visitor to the one or more qualification levels.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein associating web pages comprises associating web pages on the one or more web servers with one or more qualification levels so that each qualification level corresponds to different advertised products or services on the web pages.

9. A method for assigning value to visitors of one or more web sites using traffic data, the method comprising:

predetermining a first set of activity to be undertaken by a first visitor to one or more web sites and assigning a first value to the first set of activity;

predetermining a second set of activity to be undertaken by a second visitor to one or more web sites and assigning a second value to the second set of activity; and

analyzing the traffic data of each visitor and associating a first or second value to the visitor based on whether the visitor undertook the first or second sets of activity.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein analyzing the traffic data of each visitor comprises establishing a visitor session for each visitor to the one or more web sites and tracking the visitor'"'"'s activity during the visitor session.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein associating a first or second value to the visitor comprises associating a first or second value to the visitor for a first selected time period.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising associating a first or second value to the visitor for a second selected time period.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the first visitor and the second visitor are the same visitor being tracked through different visitor sessions.

14. A system for analyzing traffic data generated by one or more web servers connected via a network to a plurality of computing devices operated by visitors, the system comprising:

memory for storing a plurality of traffic data hits, each hit corresponding to data exchanged between the one or more web servers and one of the computing devices;

a processor structured to analyze the traffic data hits and to determine which web pages a visitor viewed on the one or more web servers; and

a comparator for assigning a qualification level to each visitor based on a set of predetermined criteria for assigning the qualification level, each qualification level having a quantitative value.

15. The system of claim 14 further comprising a timer for determining a selected time period for associating a qualification level to each visitor.

16. The system of claim 14 further comprising a calculator for multiplying a number of visitors to a qualification level times a quantitative value of the qualification level.