Systems and methods for analyzing web site search terms

• US 7,685,195 B2
• Filed: 03/24/2005
• Issued: 03/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAS Institute Incorporated
• Original Assignee: SAS Institute Incorporated
• Inventors: Pope, David C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jalil; Neveen Abel
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pulliam; Christyann R
• Application Number:
  US11/088,523
• Publication Number:
  US 20060218106A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,825 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/722
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for identifying candidates for new search terms that may be purchased from a search engine company. Candidate search terms are identified from a session log, such as by analyzing the presence of the candidate search terms in relation to data stored in the session log.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for identifying web site search terms, comprising:

receiving, using one or more processors, a session log;

transmitting a first request from a web browser to a web server requesting access to one or more web pages of a web site, the first request including one or more referring search terms;

using the one or more referring search terms to identify one or more web pages;

storing content of the one or more web pages and content of a referring web page corresponding to the web browser in the session log, wherein the referring web page includes information used to ascertain the location of a user prior to the first request;

receiving a current search term list including one or more purchased current search terms used to locate information associated with the web site;

processing the session log to identify one or more candidate search terms in the one or more web pages and the referring web page stored in the session log;

comparing the one or more candidate search terms with the one or more purchased current search terms, wherein the comparison identifies one or more additional search terms to add to the current search term list, and

storing the one or more additional search terms.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the session log also stores the one or more referring search terms used to locate the web site from the referring web page, and wherein the session log is processed to identify the one or more candidate search terms by relating textual data stored in the session log with the one or more referring search terms.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the one or more referring search terms are stored as a first page of the session log.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising:

processing click-stream data to identify the one or more referring search terms.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the session log is processed to identify the one or more candidate search terms by relating textual data in the session log with the one or more purchased current search terms.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating display information that includes the one or more candidate search terms;

wherein the generated display information is for use in providing a graphical display that shows the one or more candidate search terms.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more candidate search terms are identified based upon the frequency that the one or more candidate search terms are included in the session log.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the session log also stores the one or more referring search terms used to locate the web site from the referring web page, and wherein the session log is processed to identify one or more candidate search terms based upon a statistical correlation between the one or more candidate search terms and the one or more referring search terms.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the session log is processed to identify one or more candidate search terms based upon a statistical correlation between the one or more candidate search terms and the one or more purchased current search terms.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the one or more referring search terms in the session log, wherein the one or more referring search terms are used to locate the web site from the referring web page;

grouping a plurality of session logs according to the one or more referring search terms;

processing the plurality of session logs to calculate probability information relating to the one or more referring search terms and the one or more web pages within each session log; and

generating display information that includes the one or more referring search terms and the probability information, wherein the generated display information is for use in providing a graphical display that relates the probability information to the one or more referring search terms.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of session logs are processed to identify a probability that a particular path of web pages will be accessed during a web browser session initiated by the one or more referring search terms.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of session logs are processed to identify a number of sessions that include the one or more referring search terms.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising:

processing the plurality of session logs to calculate one or more of a number of sessions associated with the one or more referring search terms, a percent of all sessions associated with the one or more referring search terms, an average number of web pages viewed during each session initiated with the one or more referring search terms, a number of sales resulting from sessions initiated with the one or more referring search terms, or a number of information requests made during each session initiated with the one or more referring search terms.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying the one or more candidate search terms using a data mining application that includes word correlation, clustering techniques, or prediction algorithms.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the data mining application builds a data warehouse of terms associated with the one or more web pages and applies one or more models to generate statistical relationships between the one or more referring search terms and the terms associated with the web pages.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the data mining application uses criteria to identify the one or more candidate search terms, and wherein the criteria includes the frequency that the term appears in the referring page or the one or more web pages, the proximity of the term to other terms in the referring web page or the one or more web pages, or the web page on which the term appears.

17. A system, comprising:

a processor;

a computer-readable storage medium containing software instructions executable on the processor to cause the processor to perform operations including;

receiving, using one or more processors, a session log;

transmitting a first request from a web browser to a web server requesting access to one or more web pages of a web site, the first request including one or more referring search terms;

using the one or more referring search terms to identify one or more web pages;

storing content of the one or more web pages and content of a referring web page corresponding to the web browser in the session log, wherein the referring web page includes information used to ascertain the location of a user prior to the first request;

receiving a current search term list including one or more purchased current search terms used to locate information associated with the web site;

processing the session log to identify one or more candidate search terms in the one or more web pages and the referring web page stored in the session log;

comparing the one or more candidate search terms with the one or more purchased current search terms, wherein the comparison identifies one or more additional search terms to add to the current search term list, and

storing the one or more additional search terms.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the session log stores the one or more referring search terms used to locate the web site from the referring web page.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the one or more referring search terms are stored as a first page of the session log.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the session log is processed to identify the one or more candidate search terms by relating textual data stored in the session log with the one or more referring search terms.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the session log is processed to identify the one or more candidate search terms by relating textual data in the session log with one or more purchased current search terms.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein the one or more candidate search terms are provided as a list, and wherein the list of the one or more candidate search terms facilitates the purchase of a candidate search term.

23. The system of claim 17, wherein display information that includes the one or more candidate search terms is generated, and wherein the generated display information is for use in providing a graphical display that shows the one or more candidate search terms.

24. The system of claim 17, wherein the one or more candidate search terms are identified based upon the frequency that the one or more candidate search terms are included in the session log.

25. The system of claim 17, wherein the session log stores the one or more referring search terms used to locate the web site from the referring web page, and wherein the session log is processed to identify one or more candidate search terms based upon a statistical correlation between the one or more candidate search terms and the one or more referring search terms.

26. The system of claim 17, wherein the one or more candidate search terms are identified based upon a statistical correlation between the one or more candidate search terms and the one or more purchased current search terms.

27. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

storing the one or more referring search terms used to locate the web site from the referring web page;

using a search term validation program configured to group a plurality of session logs according to the one or more referring search terms; and

processing the plurality of session logs to calculate probability information relating to the one or more referring search terms and the one or more web pages within each session log.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the search term validation program generates a search term validation report.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein the search term validation program calculates statistics for a purchased current search term based upon the paths taken by the purchased current search term to the web site.

30. The system of claim 27, wherein the search term validation program calculates statistics for a candidate search term based upon the paths taken by the candidate search term to the web site.

31. A computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions that when executed, cause a computer to perform a data structure conversion method, comprising:

receiving a session log;

transmitting a first request from a web browser to a web server requesting access to one or more web pages of a web site, the first request including one or more referring search terms;

using the one or more referring search terms to identify one or more web pages;

storing content of the one or more web pages and content of a referring web page corresponding to the web browser in the session log, wherein the referring web page includes information used to ascertain the location of a user prior to the first request;

receiving a current search term list including one or more purchased current search terms used to locate information associated with the web site;

processing the session log to identify one or more candidate search terms in the one or more web pages and the referring web page stored in the session log;

comparing the one or more candidate search terms with the one or more purchased current search terms, wherein the comparison identifies one or more additional search terms to add to the current search term list, and

storing the one or more additional search terms.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the one or more candidate search terms are identified based upon the frequency that the candidate search terms appear in the one or more web pages or the referring web page.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the one or more candidate search terms are identified based upon the proximity to the one or more purchased current search terms in the one or more web pages or in the referring web page.