Web-site performance analysis system and method utilizing web-site traversal counters and histograms

• US 6,963,874 B2
• Filed: 04/22/2002
• Issued: 11/08/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digital River Incorporated (Danube Private Holdings II, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Digital River Incorporated (Danube Private Holdings II, LLC)
• Inventors: Kasriel, Stephane, Swanson, Sara, Mann, Walter
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong, Leslie
• Application Number:
  US10/128,594
• Publication Number:
  US 20030130982A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,296 Days
• Field of Search: 707/10, 707/102, 707/104.1, 709/224, 709/203, 709/219
• US Class Current: 702/180
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A data collection system collects statistics related to each visit to each web-page within a web-site. In addition to collecting path information related to traversals to and from each web-page, the system collects information regarding the particular session, such as the visitor'"'"'s connection speed, the time required to download the web-page to the visitor'"'"'s system, the duration of time that the visitor spent at the page, whether the user clicked the ‘back’ button to leave the site, and so on. The data reporting system presents statistics based on the collected data in an easy-to-use and easy-to-understand form that is customizable by the user. By collecting and reporting performance factors related to each web-page, or sets of web-pages within a web-site, marketers and webmasters can address any perceived deficiencies and/or can optimize the performance of select pages to achieve specific marketing objectives. To optimize performance and minimize storage requirements, the data collection system uses a two-stage storage architecture. Data is collected in one or more registers in a sequential fashion, and transferred to a database periodically.

Claims

1. A web-site performance analysis system comprising:

a register configured to contain data relative to visits to a plurality of web-pages that are associated with a web-site, the data including;

an identification of traversals corresponding to each visit of the visits to the plurality of web-pages, the identification of traversals having one of (i) an identification of an incoming link from which each visit originated and (ii) an identification of an outgoing link to which the visit terminated;

a time duration measure corresponding to each visit; and

a histogram of the identified transversals formed from a plurality of counters arranged such that a traversal from a first web-page of the plurality of web-pages to a second web-page of the plurality of web-pages effects a decrement of a first counter of the plurality of counters, and an increment of a second counter of the plurality of counters;

a database configured to provide efficient long-term storage of the data; and

a performance analysis modifier block, operably coupled to the database and register, that is configured to periodically;

(i) modify the data in the based on the transversals and time duration measures corresponding to the visits, ii) transfer the data from the register to the database, (iii) reset the register, and produce performance measures corresponding to each web-page of the plurality of web-pages based on the data in the database and the register.

2. The web-site performance analysis system of claim 1 wherein the register comprises a plurality of registers arranged and configured to operate in a sequential order such, that the data is ordered in the plurality of registers that correspond to sequentially successive time units, and an active register of the plurality of registers corresponds to a current time unit.

3. The web-site performance analysis system of claim 1 wherein the register comprises a plurality of parameter arrays, each parameter array corresponding to each web-page of the plurality of web-pages.

4. The web-site performance analysis system of claim 1 wherein the performance measures produced by the performance analysis modifier block include at least one of:

(i) a measure of download duration, corresponding to times required to download each web-page of the plurality of web-pages, based on the at least one time duration measure corresponding to each visit, and (ii) a measure of dwell duration, corresponding to time durations of each visit, based on the at least one time duration measure corresponding to each visit.

5. The web-site performance analysis system of claim 4 wherein the performance analysis modifier block is further configured to obtain a connection speed associated with each visit and the measure of the download duration is further based on the connection speed of the associated visit.

6. The web-site performance analysis system of claim 4 wherein the measure of the download duration includes a plurality of time durations associated with tasks required to effect the download of each web-page.

7. The web-site performance analysis system of claim 1 wherein the performance analysis modifier block is configured to provide the performance measures relative to at least one of:

(i) a parameter relative to the web-site, and (ii) a parameter relative to each web-page of the plurality of web-pages.

8. The web-site performance analysis system of claim 1 wherein the performance analysis modifier block is configured to provide the performance measures via a graphic display of each performance measure corresponding to each web-page.

9. The web-site performance analysis system of claim 1 wherein the performance measures include at least one of:

(i) measure of entry rate to the web-site via each web-page of the plurality of web-pages, corresponding to the identification of the incoming link from which each visit originated as a web-page that is external from the web-site, and (ii) a measure of exit-rate from the web-site via each web-page of the plurality of web-pages, corresponding to the identification of the outgoing link to which each visit terminated as a web-page that is external from the web-site.

10. The web-site performance analysis system of claim 1 wherein the performance measures include a measure of backtracks from each web page of the plurality of web-pages, corresponding to the identification of the outgoing link to which each visit terminated being substantially identical to the identification of the incoming link from which each visit originated.

11. The web-site performance analysis system of claim 1 wherein the performance measures include a measure of popularity of each web page of the plurality of web-pages, corresponding to a number of visits to each web page of the plurality of web-pages.

12. The web-site performance analysis system of claim 1 wherein the performance measures include at least one of:

(i) a measure of depth of each web page of the plurality of web-pages, corresponding to a number of visits to other web pages of the web-site during an access to the web-site that includes a visit to each web page, and (ii) a measure of depth-time of each web page of the plurality of web-pages, corresponding to a time duration of visits to the other web pages of the web-site during an access to the web-site that includes a visit to each web page.

13. The web-site performance analysis system of claim 12 wherein the visits to the other web pages correspond to a sequence of visits to effect a checkout procedure.

14. The web-site performance analysis system of claim 1 wherein the performance analysis modifier block is further configured to produce performance measures corresponding to the web-site, including at least one of:

(i) numbers of web-pages visited during each access to the web-site, and (ii) time durations of each access to the web-site.

15. A method of providing a web-site performance analysis service that gathers data relative to visits to a plurality of web-pages that are associated with a web-site, comprising steps of:

identifying traversals corresponding to each visit of the visits to the plurality of web-pages, each identified traversal having one of (i) an identification of an incoming link from which each visit originated and (ii) an identification of an outgoing link to which the visit terminated;

measuring a time duration corresponding to each visit;

forming a histogram of the identified transversals from a plurality of counters arranged such that a traversal from a first web-page of the plurality of web-pages to a second web-page of the plurality of web-pages effects a decrement of a first counter of the plurality of counters, and an increment of a second counter of the plurality of counters;

storing the identified transversals, time duration, and histogram data related to the visits to the plurality of web-pages associated with the web-site in an active register;

transferring the stored data from the register to a database and resetting the active register in when the stored data is transferred; and

producing performance measures corresponding to each web-page of the plurality of web-pages based on the stored data in the database and the register.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein:

the identifying traversals step comprises at least one of identifying;

(i) a first visit to a first page of the plurality of web-pages as corresponding to an initiation of access to the web-site, and (ii) a last visit to a last page of the plurality of web-pages as corresponding to a termination of the access to the web-site; and

the producing performance measures step comprises at least one of producing;

(i) a measure of an entry rate to the web-site via each web-page of the plurality of web-pages, corresponding to occurrences of the web-page being the first page, and (ii) a measure of an exit rate from the web-site via each web-page of the plurality of web-pages, corresponding to occurrences of the web-page being the last page.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein the producing performance measures step comprises producing a measure of backtracking via each web-page, based on a correspondence between the incoming link and the outgoing link.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the producing performance measures step comprises producing a popularity measure of each web-page, based on occurrences of visits to each web-page.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein the producing performance measures step comprises producing statistics for each web-page based on the measured time duration corresponding to each visit.

20. The method of claim 15 wherein the time duration corresponds to at least one of:

(i) a time duration to download the web-page at each visit, and (ii) a time duration of each visit to the web-page.

21. The method of claim 15 wherein the producing performance measures step comprises producing an accumulation of performance measures corresponding to several of the plurality of web-pages.

22. The method of claim 15 wherein the producing performance measures step comprises producing at least one of:

(i) a measure of depth of each web page of the plurality of web-pages, corresponding to a number of visits to other web pages of the web-site during an access to the web-site that includes a visit to each web page, and (ii) a measure of depth-time of each web page of the plurality of web-pages, corresponding to a time duration of visits to the other web pages of the web-site during an access to the web-site that includes a visit to each web page.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the visits to the other web pages correspond to a sequence of visits to effect a checkout procedure.

24. The method of claim 15 wherein the producing performance measures step comprises producing a measure of at least one of:

(i) numbers of web-pages visited during each access to the web-site, and (ii) time durations of each access to the web-site.

25. The method of claim 15 wherein the storing step comprises utilizing a plurality of registers arranged and configured to operate in a sequential order, and the method further includes a step of reordering the plurality of registers when the data is transferred to the database, so that the data in the plurality of registers that correspond to sequentially successive time units, and the active register corresponds to a current time unit.

26. The method of claim 15 wherein the active register comprises a plurality of parameter arrays, each parameter array corresponding to each web-page of the plurality of web-pages.

27. The method of claim 15 further comprising a step of providing a graphic display corresponding to the traversals among the one or more web-pages.

28. The method of claim 20 wherein the time duration to download the webpage includes a plurality of time durations associated with tasks required to effect the download.