System and method for estimating organic web traffic from a secured source

• US 8,954,570 B2
• Filed: 01/06/2012
• Issued: 02/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brightedge Technologies Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Brightedge Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: Yu, Jimmy, Yu, Sammy, Park, Lemuel, Liao, Lennon
• Primary Examiner(s): Osman, Ramy M
• Application Number:
  US13/345,543
• Publication Number:
  US 20130173783A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,131 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/217, 709/219, 709/223, 709/246, 709/224, 707/5, 707/222, 707/228, 707/706, 707/3, 707/6
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2441 relying on flow classification, e.g. using integrated services [IntServ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2483 involving identification of individual flows

Abstract

One embodiment includes a method for estimating web traffic to a website. The method comprises obtaining a first set of reporting information from a secured external source that directs traffic to the website, the first set of reporting information having a corresponding portion of reporting information which is not provided from the secured external source, obtaining a second set of reporting information from a unsecured external source that directs traffic to the website, the second set of reporting information being different than the first set of reporting information, and generating an estimation of the corresponding portion of reporting information which is not provided from the secured external source by correlating the second set of reporting information with the first set of reporting information.

Claims

1. A method for estimating web traffic to a website using a processor-based computing device programmed to perform a method by the processor-based computing device executing a method stored in a non-transitory tangible storage medium, the method comprising:

obtaining a subset of first set of reporting information from a secured external source that directs traffic to the website, the subset of reporting information having a corresponding portion of secured reporting information in the first set of reporting information which is known by the secured external source but which is not provided from the secured external source, wherein the secured external source is a secured search engine and the subset of reporting information is secured search results and comprises a keyword;

obtaining a second set of reporting information from a unsecured external source that directs traffic to the website by performing a search using the keyword of the subset of first reporting information, the second set of reporting information being different than the subset of reporting information; and

generating an estimation of the corresponding portion of secured reporting information which is not provided from the secured external source by correlating the second set of reporting information with the subset of reporting information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the unsecured external source is a unsecured search engine or a toolbar search program.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein generating an estimation of the corresponding portion of reporting information which is not provided from the secured external source comprises performing an extrapolation process to obtain the estimation based on the second set of reporting information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the method estimates web traffic to a webpage of the website, wherein the secured external source and second external direct traffic to the webpage of the website.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of reporting information includes a rank of a webpage of the website resulting from searching the keyword using the unsecured external source, and estimating the rank of the webpage, based on a number of visits to the website that result from secured searches of the keyword.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining an estimated revenue value of the traffic from the secured external source based on a revenue value of traffic from the unsecured external source.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining an estimated number of conversions of the traffic from the secured external source based on a number of conversions from the traffic from the unsecured external source.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the estimate of the total organic traffic comprises obtaining an estimated number of conversions of the estimated of the total organic traffic based on a number of conversions from the traffic from the unsecured external source, wherein generating the report includes generating a report indicating the estimate of the number of conversions of the total organic traffic.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining an estimated revenue value of the traffic from the secured external source based on a revenue value of traffic from the unsecured external source.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining an estimated number of conversions of the traffic from the secured external source based on a number of conversions from the traffic from the unsecured external source.

11. A method for estimating web traffic to a website using a processor-based computing device programmed to perform a method by the processor-based computing device executing a method stored in a non-transitory tangible storage medium, the method comprising:

obtaining a subset of first set of reporting information from a secured external source that directs traffic to the website, the subset of reporting information having a corresponding portion of secured reporting information in the first set of reporting information which is known by the secured external source but which is not provided from the secured external source, wherein the secured external source is a secured search engine and the subset of reporting information is secured search results and comprises a keyword;

obtaining a second set of reporting information from a unsecured external source that directs traffic to the website by performing a search using the keyword of the subset of first reporting information, the second set of reporting information being different than the subset of reporting information; and

generating an estimation of the corresponding portion of secured reporting information which is not provided from the secured external source by correlating the second set of reporting information with the subset of reporting information;

aggregating the estimation of the corresponding portion of reporting information which is not provided from the secured external source, the first set of reporting information, and the second set of reporting information to provide an estimate of total organic traffic;

analyzing the estimate of the total organic traffic; and

generating a report indicating the analysis of the estimate of the total organic traffic.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the unsecured external source is a unsecured search engine or a toolbar search program.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein generating an estimation of the corresponding portion of reporting information which is not provided from the secured external source comprises performing an extrapolation process to obtain the estimation based on the second set of reporting information.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the method estimates web traffic to a webpage of the website, wherein the secured external source and second external direct traffic to the webpage of the website.

15. The method of claim 11, the second set of reporting information includes a rank of a webpage of the website resulting from searching the keyword using the unsecured external source, and estimating the rank of the webpage, based on a number of visits to the website that result from secured searches of the keyword.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein analyzing the estimate of the total organic traffic comprises obtaining an estimated revenue value of the estimate of total organic traffic based on a revenue value of traffic from the unsecured external source, wherein generating the report includes generating a report indicating the estimate of the value of the total organic traffic.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with a computer program having computer-executable instructions for causing a computing system to perform operations for estimating web traffic to a website, the operations comprising:

obtaining a subset of first set of reporting information from a secured external source that directs traffic to the website, the subset of reporting information having a corresponding portion of secured reporting information in the first set of reporting information which is known by the secured external source but which is not provided from the secured external source, wherein the secured external source is a secured search engine and the subset of reporting information is secured search results and comprises a keyword;

obtaining a second set of reporting information from a unsecured external source that directs traffic to the website by performing a search using the keyword of the subset of first reporting information, the second set of reporting information being different than the subset of reporting information; and

generating an estimation of the corresponding portion of secured reporting information which is not provided from the secured external source by correlating the second set of reporting information with the subset of reporting information.

18. A non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the unsecured external source is a unsecured search engine or a toolbar search program.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein generating an estimation of the corresponding portion of reporting information which is not provided from the secured external source comprises performing an extrapolation process to obtain the estimation based on the second set of reporting information.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the method estimates web traffic to a webpage of the website, wherein the secured external source and second external direct traffic to the webpage of the website.

21. A non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the second set of reporting information includes a rank of a webpage of the website resulting from searching the keyword using the unsecured external source, and estimating the rank of the webpage, based on a number of visits to the website that result from secured searches of the keyword.

22. A non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the computer readable medium comprises a memory device of a computing system.