U.S. patent application number 13/845671 was filed with the patent office on 2016-07-21 for navigable website analysis engine.
This patent application is currently assigned to Efficient Systems, LLC.. The applicant listed for this patent is Maura D. Stouffer, Scott A. Stouffer. Invention is credited to Maura D. Stouffer, Scott A. Stouffer.
Application Number | 20160210359 13/845671 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 40639495 |
Filed Date | 2016-07-21 |
United States Patent
Application |
20160210359 |
Kind Code |
A9 |
Stouffer; Scott A. ; et
al. |
July 21, 2016 |
Navigable Website Analysis Engine
Abstract
An optimization engine allows website publishers and other
network document publishers to view and navigate statistics and
scoring methodologies of a search engine. Publishers may thus gain
a better understanding of how their website or network document is
scored and how to optimize those documents to increase a search
engine score. The user is thus able to navigate the network from
the perspective of a search engine, viewing webpages, websites, and
links in the same way a search engine would analyze them. Upon
making changes to a website or network document, publishers may
further request on-demand re-crawling of their website or network
document to view changes in the score. Alerts may also be activated
by a user to notify the user when certain conditions are met.
Inventors: |
Stouffer; Scott A.;
(Bradenton, FL) ; Stouffer; Maura D.; (Bradenton,
FL) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Stouffer; Scott A.
Stouffer; Maura D. |
Bradenton
Bradenton |
FL
FL |
US
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
Efficient Systems, LLC.
Cheyenne
WY
|
Prior
Publication: |
|
Document Identifier |
Publication Date |
|
US 20130282684 A1 |
October 24, 2013 |
|
|
Family ID: |
40639495 |
Appl. No.: |
13/845671 |
Filed: |
March 18, 2013 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
12273004 |
Nov 18, 2008 |
8447751 |
|
|
13845671 |
|
|
|
|
60988810 |
Nov 18, 2007 |
|
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 16/951 20190101;
G06F 16/24578 20190101; G06F 16/958 20190101; G06F 16/9535
20190101 |
International
Class: |
G06F 17/30 20060101
G06F017/30 |
Claims
1. A method comprising: receiving, by a computing system having at
least one processor, a request to analyze at least one of a website
and a webpage, wherein the at least one of the website and the
webpage includes a plurality of links to one or more network
documents; determining, by the computing system, a ranking of the
at least one of the website and the webpage among a plurality of
websites or webpages based on an analysis of one or more
traffic-independent attributes of the plurality of links including
analyzing at least one attribute of a first link relative to at
least one attribute of a second link, wherein the one or more
traffic-independent attributes of the plurality of links is
different from attributes of one or more network destinations of
the plurality of links; and generating, by the computing system,
user-viewable information detailing a manner in which the ranking
was determined, the user-viewable information including a list of
the plurality of links including the first and second links, a
first option to view the first link, and a list of the one or more
traffic-independent attributes analyzed in determining the ranking;
if the first option to view the first link is selected, generating,
by the computing system, a display of the at least one of the
website and the webpage, wherein the display highlights the
location of the first link.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the ranking corresponds to a
popularity of the at least one of the website and the webpage.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying an analysis
of the at least one of the website and the webpage, the analysis
including a number of external incoming links and a number of
internal incoming links.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a second
ranking of a second webpage, wherein the second ranking is
determined using the same metric as the first ranking.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the ranking includes
analyzing an anchor text of the plurality of links, wherein
analyzing the anchor text of the plurality of links includes
comparing a value associated with first anchor text of the first
link with a value associated with second anchor text of the second
link.
6. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a list of
broken links from the plurality of links.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the user-viewable information
includes a second option to view the second link, the method
further comprising: if the second option to view the second link is
selected, generating, by the computing system, a display of the at
least one of the website and the webpage, wherein the display
highlights the location of the second link but not the location of
the first link.
8. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing instructions
that, when executed, cause an apparatus to: receive a request to
analyze at least one of a website and a webpage, wherein the at
least one of the website and the webpage includes a plurality of
links to one or more network documents; determine a ranking of the
at least one of the website and the webpage among a plurality of
websites or webpages based on an analysis of one or more
traffic-independent attributes of the plurality of links including
analyzing at least one attribute of a first link relative to at
least one attribute of a second link, wherein the one or more
traffic-independent attributes of the plurality of links is
different from attributes of one or more network destinations of
the plurality of links; and generate user-viewable information
detailing a manner in which the ranking was determined, the
user-viewable information including a list of the plurality of
links including the first and second links, a first option to view
the first link, and a list of the one or more traffic-independent
attributes analyzed in determining the ranking; if the first option
to view the first link is selected, generate a display of the at
least one of the website and the webpage, wherein the display
highlights the location of the first link.
9. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 8, wherein
the ranking corresponds to a popularity of the at least one of the
website and the webpage.
10. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 8, wherein
the instructions, when executed, further cause the apparatus to
display an analysis of the at least one of the website and the
webpage, the analysis including a number of external incoming links
and a number of internal incoming links.
11. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 8, wherein
the instructions, when executed, further cause the apparatus to
determine a second ranking of a second webpage, wherein the second
ranking is determined using the same metric as the first
ranking.
12. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 8, wherein
determining the ranking includes analyzing an anchor text of the
plurality of links, wherein analyzing the anchor text of the
plurality of links includes comparing a value associated with first
anchor text of the first link with a value associated with second
anchor text of the second link.
13. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 8, wherein
the instructions, when executed, further cause the apparatus to
generate a list of broken links from the plurality of links.
14. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 8, wherein
the user-viewable information includes a second option to view the
second link, and wherein the instructions, when executed, further
cause the apparatus to: if the second option to view the second
link is selected, generate a display of the at least one of the
website and the webpage, wherein the display highlights the
location of the second link but not the location of the first
link.
15. An apparatus comprising: a processor; and memory storing
instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the
apparatus to: receive a request to analyze at least one of a
website and a webpage, wherein the at least one of the website and
the webpage includes a plurality of links to one or more network
documents; determine a ranking of the at least one of the website
and the webpage among a plurality of websites or webpages based on
an analysis of one or more traffic-independent attributes of the
plurality of links including analyzing at least one attribute of a
first link relative to at least one attribute of a second link,
wherein the one or more traffic-independent attributes of the
plurality of links is different from attributes of one or more
network destinations of the plurality of links; and generate
user-viewable information detailing a manner in which the ranking
was determined, the user-viewable information including a list of
the plurality of links including the first and second links, a
first option to view the first link, and a list of the one or more
traffic-independent attributes analyzed in determining the ranking;
if the first option to view the first link is selected, generate a
display of the at least one of the website and the webpage, wherein
the display highlights the location of the first link.
16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the ranking corresponds to a
popularity of the at least one of the website and the webpage.
17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the instructions, when
executed, further cause the apparatus to display an analysis of the
at least one of the website and the webpage, the analysis including
a number of external incoming links and a number of internal
incoming links.
18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the instructions, when
executed, further cause the apparatus to determine a second ranking
of a second webpage, wherein the second ranking is determined using
the same metric as the first ranking.
19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein determining the ranking
includes analyzing an anchor text of the plurality of links,
wherein analyzing the anchor text of the plurality of links
includes comparing a value associated with first anchor text of the
first link with a value associated with second anchor text of the
second link.
20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the instructions, when
executed, further cause the apparatus to generate a list of broken
links from the plurality of links.
21. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the user-viewable
information includes a second option to view the second link, and
wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the
apparatus to: if the second option to view the second link is
selected, generate a display of the at least one of the website and
the webpage, wherein the display highlights the location of the
second link but not the location of the first link.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation application of and claims
the benefit of priority from U.S. application Ser. No. 12/273,004,
entitled "NAVIGABLE WEBSITE ANALYSIS ENGINE," and filed on Nov. 18,
2008, which is a non-provisional application of U.S. Provisional
Application No. 60/988,810, entitled "SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
ENGINE," and filed on Nov. 18, 2007. The content of the
aforementioned applications is incorporated herein by reference in
its entirety.
FIELD OF ART
[0002] Aspects of the invention generally relate to analyzing a
network document. More specifically, aspects of the invention
provide methods and systems for evaluating a network document and
providing transparency into the manner in which the network
document is analyzed and scored by a search engine. Thus, a user
may view and navigate a network from the perspective of a search
engine.
BACKGROUND
[0003] Providing quality search results on a search engine can be a
complex process. Analyzing a given document on a network such as
the Internet to determine its relation to other documents on the
network requires millions of calculations, with each calculation
attempting to model human perception as a mathematical or logical
formula. Because of this complexity, website and other network
document owners, whose webpages and other documents are the subject
of these calculations, are often unable to fully appreciate and
understand how and why their webpages or network documents are
scored by search engines. Without a clear understanding of the
analysis and scoring mechanism, publishers of websites and other
network documents might not be able to capitalize on the ability of
search engines to attract users to their websites.
BRIEF SUMMARY
[0004] This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of
concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in
the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify
key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter,
nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed
subject matter.
[0005] According to some aspects of the present disclosure, an
optimization engine may provide a transparent and navigable
interface through which website publishers (and other network
document publishers) may view and understand how a website or other
network document is scored by a search engine. Thus, a user may be
able to examine a desired level of scoring detail by selecting a
corresponding factor used in the scoring analysis. In one example,
a user may review how links embedded in the user's website affect
the website's score by viewing the scoring methodology and data for
those links. Statistics may also be provided to further illustrate
how scores are derived.
[0006] According to another aspect, the optimization engine may
provide suggestions for raising a search engine score for a website
or other network document. Based on the optimization engine's
analysis, potential areas for improvement may be identified and
methods for making such improvements may be generated. Once changes
are made to the website, the user may immediately see the
difference in score by requesting an on-demand re-analysis (or
re-crawl) of the website.
[0007] According to yet another aspect, users may be able to set
alerts for when a website's score, a sub-score or some other
analysis factor reaches a specified threshold. For example, a user
may request an alert be sent if and when the number of broken links
on a website exceeds two.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0008] Certain embodiments are illustrated by way of example and
not limited in the accompanying figures in which like reference
numerals indicate similar elements and in which:
[0009] FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an example
communication network in which one or more embodiments may be
implemented.
[0010] FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an example computing
environment in which one or more aspects described herein may
operate.
[0011] FIG. 3 illustrates an example network diagram of
optimization engines operating in a global environment according to
one or more aspects described herein.
[0012] FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of an example
optimization engine according to one or more aspects described
herein.
[0013] FIG. 5 illustrates an example data flow for processing a
search query according to one or more aspects described herein.
[0014] FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate a navigation map for an
optimization engine according to one or more aspects described
herein.
[0015] FIGS. 7A-7P illustrate portions of an optimization engine
dashboard interface according to one or more aspects described
herein.
[0016] FIG. 8 illustrates an example listing of orphaned webpages
according to one or more aspects described herein.
[0017] FIG. 9 illustrates an example listing of outgoing links
according to one or more aspects described herein.
[0018] FIG. 10 illustrates an example crawl queue status page
according to one or more aspects described herein.
[0019] FIGS. 11A-11B illustrate portions of an example webpage
scoresheet according to one or more aspects described herein.
[0020] FIGS. 11C and 11D illustrate example rule creation
interfaces according to one or more aspects described herein.
[0021] FIG. 11E illustrates an example interface for sending a
scoresheet according to one or more aspects described herein.
[0022] FIGS. 12A-12D illustrate interfaces of an example webpage
scorecard according to one or more aspects described herein.
[0023] FIGS. 13A-13C illustrate interfaces of an example market
focus analysis page according to one or more aspects described
herein.
[0024] FIGS. 14A-D illustrate interfaces of a link scorecard
according to one or more aspects described herein.
[0025] FIG. 15 illustrates an example dialog box providing
suggestions for improving a webpage or network document according
to one or more aspects described herein.
[0026] FIG. 16 illustrates an example broken link listing according
to one or more aspects described herein.
[0027] FIG. 17 illustrates an example method for analyzing a
webpage and navigating the analysis according to one or more
aspects described herein.
[0028] FIG. 18 illustrates an example method for creating and
generating alerts according to one or more aspects described
herein.
[0029] FIG. 19 illustrates a block diagram of an example alert
system according to aspects described herein.
[0030] FIG. 20 illustrates a link flow distribution according to
one or more aspects described herein.
[0031] FIG. 21 illustrates a method for navigating an optimization
engine according to aspects described herein.
[0032] FIGS. 22A-B illustrate private branding of an optimization
engine interface according to one or more aspects described
herein.
[0033] FIG. 23 illustrates an example website including a search
bar for accessing a privately branded optimization engine interface
according to one or more aspects described herein.
[0034] FIGS. 24A-D illustrate example interfaces for creating and
customizing a privately branded optimization engine according to
one or more aspects described herein.
[0035] FIGS. 25A-B illustrate example customer home and account
management interfaces according to one or more aspects described
herein.
[0036] FIG. 26 illustrates a page listing filter interface
according to one or more aspects described herein.
[0037] FIG. 27 illustrates a link listing filter interface
according to one or more aspects described herein.
[0038] FIG. 28 illustrates an example external incoming link report
according to one or more aspects described herein.
[0039] One or more of the drawings include registered trademarks
such as SEOENG.TM. and Search Engine Optimization Engine.RTM..
Other trademarks may also appear in one or more drawings.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0040] In the following description of the various embodiments,
reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part
hereof, and in which are shown by way of illustration various
embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. It is to be
understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural
and functional modifications may be made without departing from the
scope of the present invention.
[0041] FIG. 1 illustrates a network environment 100 in which
aspects described herein may be used. Environment 100 may include
multiple client devices 110 connected to multiple servers 120 via a
network 140. The network 140 may include wired or wireless
connections and networks such as a local area network (LAN), a wide
area network (WAN), a telephone network, such as the Public
Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), an intranet, the Internet, or a
combination of networks. Two client devices 110 and three servers
120 have been illustrated as connected to network 140 for
simplicity. In practice, there may be more or fewer client devices
and servers. Also, in some instances, a client device may perform
the functions of a server and a server may perform the functions of
a client device. The client devices 110 may include data processing
machines, such mainframes, minicomputers, personal computers,
laptops, personal digital assistants, mobile phones or the like,
capable of connecting to the network 140. The client devices 110
may transmit data over the network 140 or receive data from the
network 140 via a wired, wireless, or optical connection.
[0042] FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary client device, e.g., device
110 of FIG. 1. The client device 201 may include a bus 210, a
processor 220, a main memory 230, a read only memory (ROM) 240, a
storage device 250, an input device 260, an output device 270, and
a communication interface 280. The bus 210 may include one or more
conventional buses that permit communication among the components
of the client device 201. The processor 220 may include any type of
conventional processor or microprocessor that interprets and
executes instructions. The main memory 230 may include a random
access memory (RAM) or another type of dynamic storage device that
stores information and instructions for execution by the processor
220. The ROM 240 may include a conventional ROM device or another
type of static storage device that stores static information and
instructions for use by the processor 220. The storage device 250
may include a magnetic and/or optical recording medium and its
corresponding drive. The input device 260 may include one or more
conventional mechanisms that permit a user to input information to
the client device 201, such as a keyboard, a mouse, a pen, voice
recognition and/or biometric mechanisms, etc. The output device 270
may include one or more conventional mechanisms that output
information to the user, including a display, a printer, a speaker,
etc. The communication interface 280 may include any
transceiver-like mechanism that enables the client device 201 to
communicate with other devices and/or systems. For example, the
communication interface 280 may include mechanisms for
communicating with another device or system via a network, such as
network 140 of FIG. 1.
[0043] As will be described in detail below, the client devices 201
may be configured to perform searching-related operations. The
client devices 201 may perform these operations in response to
processor 220 executing software instructions contained in one or
more computer-readable media, such as memory 230. A
computer-readable medium may be defined as one or more memory
devices. The software instructions may be read into memory 230 from
another computer-readable medium, such as the data storage device
250, or from another device via the communication interface 280.
The software instructions contained in memory 230 causes processor
220 to perform search-related activities described below.
Alternatively, hardwired circuitry (e.g., application specific
integrated circuits) may be used in place of or in combination with
software instructions. Thus, aspects described herein are not
limited to any specific combination of hardware, firmware and/or
software.
[0044] Referring again to FIG. 1, the servers 120 may include one
or more types of computing devices such as a mainframe, a
minicomputer, or a personal computer, capable of connecting to the
network 140 and to communicate with the client devices 110. In
alternative implementations, the servers 120 may include mechanisms
for directly connecting to one or more client devices 110. The
servers 120 may transmit data over network 140 or receive data from
the network 140 via a wired, wireless, or optical connection. The
servers may be configured in a manner similar to that described
above in reference to FIG. 2. Additionally, the server 120 may
include a search engine 130 usable by the client devices 110. The
servers 120 may further store network documents such as webpages
accessible by the client devices 110.
[0045] FIG. 3 illustrates a global network infrastructure having
search engines and optimization engines (e.g., SEOENG.TM.
optimization engine). The global network infrastructure 300
includes network 305 (e.g., the Internet) that is configured to
connect clients 380 located across multiple locations such as
Beijing, San Francisco, New York, Dubai, Paris and Tokyo, to each
other and to search engine data centers 330. A load balancer 370
may also be included in the network 305 to distribute search engine
and/or data requests according to the relative processing loads of
data centers 330. Each of search engine data centers 330 may
include one or more servers and may be located in different
geographic locations. For example, search engine data centers 330
may each include a data warehouse server 320 for storing copies of
data from the network 305 (e.g., copies of websites and other
network documents), a search engine server 310 for processing
search queries and a search engine optimization server 335
configured to provide search engine optimization tools.
Alternatively, each of servers 310, 320 and 335 may operate
independently instead of in combination as a single data center. In
independent operation, servers 310, 320 and 335 may still access
services and/or data provided by each of the other servers through
communication channels 301. For example, search engine optimization
server 335 may request data from search engine server 310 to
provide suggestions for improving a particular website or network
document. A website, as used herein, generally refers to a grouping
of any set of webpages and or network documents. Accordingly, a
website might not be limited to just a subdomain. In another
example, search engine server 310 may access copies of network
websites stored in data warehouse server 320 to provide search
results in response to a query. Each data center indirectly
communicates via the catalogue 375 to facilitate shared nothing
architecture. Shared nothing architecture reduces the
communications bandwidth needed for a massively parallel search
engine. In particular, catalogue 375 may be configured to control
which data center a user interacts with. Catalogue 375 may track
which data center is responsible for which part of the Internet and
may also be responsible and configured for storing user settings.
Catalogue 375 may be configured to manage communications such as
search queries or optimization requests from clients 380 and to
distribute those requests to the appropriate server.
[0046] Each of search engine data centers 330 including servers
310, 320 and 335 may be controlled by a deployment infrastructure
350. In particular, deployment infrastructure 350 may be configured
to manage software or firmware updates and may be responsible for
configuring or upgrading servers. In one or more configurations,
commands, requests and other communications may be received from
client 380 via the network 305 on a proprietary communications
channel (nonpublic). Additionally or alternatively, each of data
centers 330 may operate independently of one another (i.e., without
needing to communicate with each other) through the use of
catalogue 375.
[0047] FIG. 4 illustrates a simplified block diagram of an example
optimization engine operating environment. In the environment,
optimization engine 400 includes a search engine optimization
server 406 through which user 404 may interact with optimization
engine 400, e.g., to specify a webpage, website, or link he or she
wishes to explore. Optimization engine 400 may comprise a real-time
interface which allows the user 404 to navigate the search engine
401 data and retrieve it on-demand. Optimization engine 400 may
further be configured to generate suggestions, alerts, and to
trigger re-crawls. The optimization engine server 406 may pass
queries on to search engine 401 that retrieves information from
database 408 as well as crawler servers 409. Search engine server
401 is configured and responsible for sorting, indexing, and
scoring webpages. Search engine 400 may function with typical
search engine behavior using the raw data from the data warehouse
server 402. Optimization engine 400 is a cipher for search engine
401, allowing the user (e.g., user 404) to navigate the data stored
in database 408 in a comprehensible and informative format.
Database 407 may be configured to store historical information such
as previous versions of websites, historical webpage statistics,
other META data derived from search engine 401 and the like.
Crawler servers 409 may be an automated module that is configured
to crawl through websites 411 and obtain relevant search engine
data such as content and link information. Crawler servers 409 may
be configured to crawl a network of websites or webpages on a
predefined schedule or in an on-demand fashion or both. Results of
the queries from user 404 or user 403 may be transmitted from
search engine 401 to search engine optimization server 406 to
generate results for the user's review and perusal. Accordingly,
optimization engine 400 may decode or translate the data and
processing performed by search engine 401 into user friendly
information, statistics, recommendations and the like.
[0048] FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram for providing navigation
into a search engine via search results. Initially, a user may
enter 510 a search query such as a phrase. For example, the user
query may be the phrase "green frogs." The search query may then be
processed 520 by a search engine to generate results that match or
have some level of relevance to the specified query. Various
methods for determining relevance of a webpage to a query may be
used. Once the search results have been generated, the results may
be presented 530 to the user for review. In one arrangement, the
search results may be displayed as in results page 535. Results
page 535 includes a search bar 540 indicating the search phrase or
query that was specified. In addition, page 535 includes a results
listing 545 in which each result is identified by a title 550, a
description 555, a uniform resource identifier (URI) 560 such as a
URL, an optimization engine scoresheet 565 and a cache option 570.
Cache option 570 allows a user to retrieve a webpage or network
document that was previously cached on a specified date and at a
specified time (i.e., versus retrieving the live or current webpage
or network document). Using the cache option 570 may be quicker
because the search engine might not need to query the actual
website for the newest data. To enter the website 580, a user may
select the title 550, the description 555 or the uniform resource
identifier 560. Alternatively, if the user wishes to view 590 an
optimization engine scoresheet of the website, the user may select
scoresheet option 565. Results page 535 is but an example of how a
results listing may be presented and is not intended to limit the
possible configurations of result pages.
[0049] FIGS. 6A-6B illustrates an example diagram for navigating an
optimization engine. Initially, referring to FIG. 6A, a user may
enter a URL for a website or network document that is to be
analyzed by the optimization engine. Upon entering the URL, a
webpage scoresheet 603 may be displayed and the user may navigate
to a website dashboard 600 which may be displayed. The website
dashboard 600 may include overview information such as website
statistics, link statistics, crawl statistics, alerts, reports and
other META data such as robots.txt associated with the website.
From the dashboard 600, a user may navigate to listings of webpages
605 in the website, listings of links (e.g., outgoing, incoming)
607 in the website and a rules creation interface 623. From a
listing of webpages 605, a user may access a webpage's scoresheet
603 or market focus details 611. Each webpage may have its own
scoresheet based on its content. From scoresheet 603 a user may
access market focus information 611, a webpage snapshot 613, a
detailed scorecard 615 and/or the actual webpage 617 or dashboard
600. The user may also access a rules creation interface 623,
listings of webpages 605 and listings of links 607. From the
listing of links 607, a user may further navigate to link
scorecards 619 corresponding to each link and a link snapshot 621.
Listings of links 607a may include links that are resident in any
webpage of the website while listing of links 607b may include
links that are resident in the webpage to which scoresheet 603
corresponds. Link snapshot 621 allows a user to view where the link
exists in the webpage being analyzed while link scorecards 619
provides an analysis of the link as it pertains to the webpage's
score. Additionally, a rule creation page or interface 623 may be
provided to the user from scorecard 615 or 619, scoresheet 603,
market focus 611 or customer home 609. Rule creation interface 623
allows a user to define custom rules to trigger alerts or events.
Further details relating to rule creation interfaces is provided
below. Customer home 609 may be a customizable interface that
provides a user with an entry point into one or more website
dashboards or webpage scoresheets. Through customer home 609, the
user may also configure alerts and may configure re-crawls that are
either on-demand 627 or scheduled 625.
[0050] Referring to FIG. 6B, calculation boxes 629 may be
configured to calculate scores and provide analyses of webpages and
websites. In one or more arrangements, optimization engine servers
406 of FIG. 4 may embody calculation boxes 629. Scores may be
pre-calculated or may be calculated on an on-demand basis. In one
configuration, a queue 633 may be used to schedule the processing
of requests for re-analysis or re-scoring. Queue 633 may be
viewable from either a dashboard 631 or a scoresheet 635 so that a
user may determine when he or she may expect an updated or new
analysis.
[0051] From any of the above pages, a trackback tool may be
provided in a header or other portion of the display to allow the
user to go back to a previous section of the optimization engine.
For example, from market focus information 611, a user may be able
to track back to website dashboard 600 or scoresheet 603. The
navigation flow illustrated in FIGS. 6A and 6B is but an example of
how users may navigate through the content of an optimization
engine and is not intended to limit possible navigation flows.
[0052] FIGS. 7A-F illustrate portions of an example website
dashboard interface that may be presented to a user over a network
for display on a display device at the user's location. Referring
to FIG. 7A, for instance, dashboard interface 700 includes a search
bar 703 where a user may enter a URL corresponding to a website
they wish to analyze for optimization purposes. The dashboard 700
may include webpage statistics 705, link statistics 707, crawl
statistics 709, alerts 711, reports 713, robots 715 and rule
creation option 717. Rule creation option 717 allows a user to
create triggers to alert a user whenever the rule is triggered, or
perform some specified action. Webpage statistics 705 provides
information relating to website page quality 719, missing website
information 721 and duplicate information 723. This information may
affect the website's score. Website page quality 719, in
particular, includes an analysis of a number of documents in the
website 725, a number of HTML webpages in the website 727, a number
of irrelevant webpages in the website 729 and a number of orphaned
webpages in the website 731. The number of documents in the website
725 may refer to all documents regardless of whether they are
webpages, WORD documents, PDF files or the like. Number of HTML
webpages 727, on the other hand, might only count those pages that
are HTML pages. A webpage may be considered irrelevant if the
webpage does not have a sufficiently high webpage score. A webpage
score is the result of the total LINK FLOW minus the penalties
associated with the webpage. This process is shown on the webpage
scorecard. LINK FLOW is discussed in further detail later in this
document. Orphaned webpages, on the other hand, refer to webpages
or network documents to which an external (i.e., not in the same
website) incoming link points, but which is not referred to by a
webpage of the website in which the webpage exists. Thus, a user
may be able to navigate to the webpage from an external website,
but not from the website in which it is actually stored. Other
scoring systems may be used instead of or in addition to webpage
score or LINK FLOW. For example, node ranking as described in U.S.
Pat. No. 6,285,999 may be used instead of LINK FLOW.
[0053] Referring to FIG. 7B, missing website information 721
includes information such as a number of missing META titles in a
website 732, a number of missing META descriptions in the website
733 and a number of missing META keywords in the website 735. A
META title refers to the text that a user will see at the top of a
web browser for a given webpage or network document. Typically, a
META title is defined in HTML using the <title>
</title> tags. META descriptions, on the other hand, refer to
words, phrases and descriptions that define the content of the
underlying webpage or network document. Using HTML, META
descriptions may be specified as follows: <META
NAME="Description" CONTENT="description">. META keywords
correspond to terms describing the theme or context of the webpage
or network document. Using HTML, META keywords may be specified as
follows: <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="keywords">.
[0054] Duplicate website information 723 includes a number of
duplicate META titles 737, duplicate META descriptions 739,
duplicate META keywords 741, duplicate MARKET FOCUS 743, duplicate
URL spellings 745 and exact duplicate webpages in the website 747
as illustrated in FIG. 7C. Duplicate MARKET FOCUS 743, for example,
relates to the grouping of categories or contexts associated with a
website or webpage. MARKET FOCUS 743 may be determined by the
search engine. Duplicate META title 737 refer to webpages in the
website that have the same META title while duplicate META
descriptions 739 and META keywords 741 refer to webpages having the
same META description or keywords, respectively. Duplicate URL
spellings 745, on the other hand, refers to URLs that are spelled
the same but with different capitalization.
[0055] For each of the above analysis factors, an option such as
page listing option 750 may be provided to display a list of the
webpages or network documents that contributed to that factor. For
example, in FIG. 7A, the number of orphaned webpages 731 may
include option 750 that identifies the orphaned webpage(s). FIG. 8
illustrates an example orphaned webpage listing 800.
[0056] Additionally or alternatively, various terms or phrases may
be foreign to a user. Accordingly, such terms or phrases may
include an interactive indicator (such as a question mark) that a
user may select to obtain a definition or further understanding.
For example, in FIG. 7A, the number of irrelevant webpages 729 and
the number of orphaned webpages 731 include indicator 752. Upon
selecting indicator 752, the user may be directed to an explanation
page or provided with a pop-up window with further details about
the corresponding term or phrase. In one example, selecting
indicator 752 may take the user to a corresponding learning center
page containing information and directions relating to how, what,
and why he or she needs to make changes indicated or address the
issues identified. Indicators such as indicator 752 may be provided
throughout the various interfaces of an optimization engine.
[0057] Referring now to FIG. 7D, link statistics section 707
provides information such as outgoing link analysis 753, incoming
link analysis 755, link quality 757, link neighborhood 759 and LINK
LOSS 761. Outgoing link analysis 753 provides information that
includes a number of outgoing links in the website 763, number of
external outgoing links in the website 765, and number of internal
outgoing links in the website 767. Outgoing links refer to links
that are directed to other webpages (i.e., not a link within the
webpage), while the number of external outgoing links 765 refers to
the number of links to webpages outside of the website. Number of
internal outgoing links 767, on the other hand, refers to the
number of links directed to webpages within the website. Generally,
the number of external outgoing links 765 added to the number of
internal outgoing links the website 767 will equal the number of
outgoing links 763.
[0058] In FIG. 7E, incoming links analysis 755 provides similar
data, except that it refers to incoming links. For example,
analysis 755 includes number of total incoming links 767, number of
external incoming links 769 and number of internal incoming links
771. The number of total incoming links 767 refers to the total
number of links from other pages and websites to pages in the
website. The number of external incoming links 769 refers to the
number of links from other websites to pages in the website while
the number of internal incoming links 771 refers to the number of
links from pages in the website to other pages in the website.
[0059] Link quality analysis 757 displays factors that contribute
to the value and strength of links in the website as illustrated in
FIG. 7F. Thus, link quality analysis 757 might include a number of
broken links 773 (i.e., links that do not lead to a valid
destination), number of dangling links 775 (i.e., links to
non-indexable or webpages that do not have any followable links),
number of nofollow links 777 (i.e., links tagged with the
rel=nofollow attribute) and number of non-editorial links 779.
Non-editorial links 779 refer to links that were not mentioned in
the context of writing about a particular subject matter that was
of importance to the webpage being linked to.
[0060] In FIG. 7G, Link neighborhood 759 provides information such
as an average LINK FLOW of external webpages linking to the website
781 and an average LINK FLOW of external webpages linked from the
website 783.
[0061] Finally, with respect to FIG. 7H, LINK LOSS 761 shows a user
a website's total internal incoming LINK LOSS score 785, total
external incoming LINK LOSS score 787, total external outgoing LINK
LOSS score 789 and a total LINK LOSS score 791. LINK LOSS refers to
a condition which is caused by inefficient linking Factors
contributing to a LINK LOSS score include external outgoing links,
dangling links and orphaned webpages. External LINK LOSS refers to
LINK FLOW that is being sent out to other websites while internal
LINK LOSS is LINK FLOW that is not being preserved in a website due
to its internal linking structure. For websites, total internal
LINK LOSS is calculated by subtracting the total internal LINK FLOW
from the maximum theoretical total LINK FLOW, which is, in turn,
determined by the formula 1* the number of webpages in that website
or set of webpages.
[0062] For one or more of the above link statistics factors, an
option may include an option for displaying links that contributed
to the factor score. For example, referring to FIG. 7D, number of
outgoing links 763 may include option 793 that displays a listing
of outgoing links. FIG. 9 illustrates a listing of outgoing links.
Each link listing, e.g., link listing 901 may include a view link
option 903 which highlights the link in the corresponding webpage
or network document and a view link scorecard option 905. Link
scorecards are discussed in greater detail below.
[0063] Referring to FIG. 7I, webpage crawl statistics 709 provides
information such as a first crawled date and time 702, a last
crawled date and time 704 and a number of crawls that have occurred
706. An option 708 may be provided that displays the website's
status in a crawl queue. FIG. 10 illustrates an example crawl queue
status page 1000.
[0064] Referring to FIG. 7J, alerts page 712 may display all
notifications that reflect negatively on the website's score or
that a user has selected for display. For example, alerts 714 may
include the presence of external outgoing LINK LOSS, duplicate
content, duplicate META titles and the like. In one or more
configurations, alerts page 712 may further display an average
response time of webpages in the website. Referring to FIG. 15,
hovering over an alert may provide a dialog box 1500 explaining the
alert and suggesting corrective measures.
[0065] Clicking on an alert, on the other hand, may provide a
listing of links or pages that are associated with the alert. For
example, selecting broken links are present alert 714a in FIG. 7J
may generate a link listing showing all links that are broken. FIG.
16 illustrates a broken link listing 1600.
[0066] Referring to FIG. 7K, various website reports 720 may be
provided in interface 722. Reports may include LINK FLOW analysis
reports, an external incoming link (i.e., a backlink) analysis
report showing the overall interaction of LINK FLOW coming to the
website and the like.
[0067] FIGS. 7M-O illustrate portions of a LINK FLOW report 758.
FIG. 7M, for example, includes a listing of webpages 760 as well as
a LINK FLOW distribution 762, internal incoming LINK FLOW 764,
external incoming LINK FLOW 766, total LINK FLOW 768, number of
internal incoming links 770 and total number of external incoming
links 772 for each listed webpage. FIG. 7N illustrates a second
portion of report 758. Report 758 may further include information
such as a number of external incoming links 726, number of external
outgoing links 728, market focus 774, META Title 776 and META
Description 778 for each page. Still further, and as illustrated in
FIG. 7O, report 758 may provide META Keywords information 780. The
various data provided for each webpage may further be color coded
(not shown) to denote various warnings or alerts. For example, if
the MARKET FOCUS of a webpage is a duplicate of another webpage or
if the META Title 776 is the same as another webpage, the entry may
be highlighted or include some indicator (not shown) signifying
such. The report may also contain additional tabs 718 showing other
or additional report information relating to Internal Incoming Link
Loss, External Incoming Link Loss, External Outgoing Link Loss, and
Total Link Loss.
[0068] FIG. 28 illustrates another example report providing
external incoming link information. External incoming link report
may include data such as a webpage from which the link originates,
a destination webpage, a LINK FLOW, a number of followable links, a
LINK FLOW share and the anchor text associated with the link.
[0069] Referring to FIG. 7L, Robots section 715 displays any
Robots.txt files that are included in the website. Robots.txt files
are directives to automated computer programs used by search
engines to crawl the Internet and store information about webpages.
For example, directives may instruct a robot to not index a certain
webpage.
[0070] FIG. 7P illustrates a website-level rule creation interface
784 in which a user may specify conditions for which an event or
action should be performed. Rule creation interface 784 includes a
rule name entry field 788 for defining a name of the rule, rule
description field 792 for describing the intent or purpose of the
rule, available variables 794, variable description 796 and rule
definition area 798. A tutorial option 730 may be provided to guide
a user through how a rule is defined. Additionally, the user may
save the rule 732, delete the rule 734 or run/validate the rules
736. Running or validating the rule using option 736 may allow a
user to determine whether the rule is defined correctly, working
and/or providing the intended result. Because the rule creation
interface is configured at the website level, variables 794 may
include website-level variables (in addition to webpage-level
variables). Rules may further be executed or validated against all
webpages, links and other attributes of the entire website. Results
738 may display the rule as defined 740, the variables used 742 as
well the value 744 corresponding to the variables and a result
746.
[0071] FIGS. 11A-B illustrate various portions of a webpage
scoresheet. Referring to FIG. 11A, webpage scoresheet 1100 may
provide statistics and analyses for a webpage in the website such
as the homepage. Scoresheet 1100 may include multiple information
sections including vital statistics 1101, link statistics 1103,
crawl statistics 1105, alerts 1107, repair station 1109, create
rules 1111 and email option 1113. Create rules for webpage option
1111 as discussed herein allows a user to create a trigger for a
specified condition such as a LINK FLOW score dipping below a
certain threshold. Email option 1113 on the other hand, allows a
user to email a webpage scoresheet or a link to the webpage
scoresheet.
[0072] In vital statistics section 1101, scoresheet 1100 may
provide information such as a webpage score 1115, a webpage MARKET
FOCUS 1117, penalties 1119, LINK FLOW distribution 1121, internal
and external incoming LINK FLOWS 1122 and 1123, respectively, total
LINK FLOW 1125 and total LINK LOSS 1127. A relevance field 1129 may
further indicate whether the webpage or network document is
irrelevant. Scoresheet 1100 may further include information such as
a content type 1140, encoding 1142 (i.e., how characters and/or
text are encoded in the webpage), response time 1144 (i.e., how
fast a webpage loads) and crawl depth 1146 (i.e., the minimum
number of times a website visitor must click on a Link from the
"root" webpage in order to get to a particular webpage).
[0073] Webpage score 1115 may provide an overall score for the page
that is selectable to display additional levels of detail regarding
the score. FIG. 12A illustrates a webpage scorecard 1200 that
provides a detailed view of how webpage score 1115 of FIG. 11A was
derived or calculated. For example, scorecard summary 1205 explains
that the webpage score was derived by adding together the total
LINK FLOW of the webpage multiplied by 100 and the penalty factor
(the penalty factor being negative). The percentages may be
calculated based on a maximum score, penalty factor and total LINK
FLOW.
[0074] FIG. 11C illustrates a webpage-level rule creation interface
1102. Similar to the website-level rule creation interface 784
shown in FIG. 7P, webpage-level rule creation interface 1102 may
include a rule name entry field 1104 for defining a name of the
rule, rule description field 1106 for describing the intent or
purpose of the rule, available variables 1108, variable description
1110 and rule definition area 1112. Additionally, the user may also
save the rule 1114, delete the rule 1116 or run/validate the rules
1118. In contrast to a website-level rule creation interface,
webpage-level rule creation interface 1102 might not include
variables that are website specific or of website scope.
[0075] FIG. 11D illustrates a link rule creation interface 1150.
Link rule creation interface 1150 may be similar to webpage rule
creation interface 1102 (FIG. 11C) and website rule creation
interface 784 (FIG. 7P). Instead of website level or webpage level
variables, link rule variables 1152 might only include link level
variables. Link rules may be defined for a single link or for
multiple links as desired.
[0076] FIG. 11E illustrates an interface 1160 for sending a webpage
scoresheet. Interface 1160 may include an address field 1162 for
identifying the address of an intended recipient. Once entered, the
user may select send option 1164 to the addressee.
[0077] FIG. 12B illustrates a detailed listing of penalties and how
they affect the overall webpage score. For example, the number of
unique words on the webpage 1207 affected the overall webpage score
by -22.87% while the percentage of "incoming paid links" 1209
affected the overall webpage score by -3.85%.
[0078] FIG. 12C illustrates a repair station 1220 that aids a user
in repairing various errors or issues with the webpage. For
example, upon selecting Add Missing Links for drop down menu 1222,
replacement page code may be automatically generated. FIG. 12D
illustrates a display of replacement page code 1224 that a user may
copy and paste to correct the missing links error.
[0079] Referring again to FIG. 11A, selecting the MARKET FOCUS text
1117, for example, may display a MARKET FOCUS RANK of the various
MARKET FOCUS words or phrases that were considered. FIG. 13A
illustrates a MARKET FOCUS details page 1300 that includes a
listing of MARKET FOCUS words, contexts and phrases 1305 considered
and their ranks 1310. The MARKET FOCUS rank may be calculated using
a shingle analysis which includes considerations of webpage
content, META title, META descriptions and incoming anchor text.
FIGS. 13B and 13C illustrate the incoming anchortext analysis and
the shingle analysis, respectively. For example, FIG. 13C
illustrates the phrases considered 1330 and the number of
occurrences 1335 in the website or webpage. In FIG. 13B, on the
other hand, anchor text (i.e., text used in a link) is measured for
LINK FLOW and ranked in accordance with the determined LINK
FLOW.
[0080] Referring now to FIG. 11B, link statistics section 1103
provides link analysis information similar to that of link
statistics section 707 of FIG. 7A. However, FIG. 11B shows link
statistic information for the particular webpage and FIG. 7A shows
link statistic information for the entire website. In particular,
link statistics section 1103 displays outgoing link information
1131, incoming link information 1133, link quality data 1135, link
neighborhood information 1137 and LINK LOSS analysis 1139. In
addition to providing an option 1145 to view a listing of links
contributing to each of the factors analyzed (e.g., factors 1143),
an option 1141 to view the link in the webpage is also
provided.
[0081] As noted above, the optimization engine may provide a
listing of links that contribute to one or more factors used in
determining the website or webpage score. Referring again to FIG.
9, each of link entries 901 may include a view link option 903 and
a link scorecard option 905. Upon selecting link scorecard option
905, a scorecard may be displayed detailing how the link was
scored.
[0082] FIGS. 14A-D illustrate various portions of an example link
scorecard. Referring to FIG. 14A, link scorecard 1400 may display a
scorecard summary 1401 that provides a description of the factors
used in determining an overall LINK FLOW share score 1403. For
example, the overall LINK FLOW share score 1403 may be determined
based on the total LINK FLOW on the webpage, a number sharing LINK
FLOW, a gross LINK FLOW share (i.e., the amount of LINK FLOW passed
from one webpage to another through a particular page), a penalty
score, a percentage of LINK FLOW share remaining after penalties
and gained LINK FLOW from other links' penalties. Scorecard 1400
may include a general information section above the section tabs
that provides information about the webpage on which the link
exists and the webpage to which the link is directed. A view link
option 1405 and an indication of when the statistics were generated
1407 may also be provided.
[0083] FIG. 14B illustrates an additional level of detail relating
to the link's penalties. Penalties section 1410, for example,
provides a breakdown of how the penalty score is determined.
Various penalty factors include the link's order on the webpage,
anchor text font size, whether the link is non-editorial, relevance
of the link, number of duplicate anchor text on and to webpage and
a percentage LINK FLOW share to be considered.
[0084] FIG. 14C illustrates an alert section of the link scorecard
1400. In particular, the alerts may include whether the link is
relevant, the font size of the link, whether the link is editorial
or not and whether the link has the same anchor text as another
link on the website. As noted previously, selecting or hovering
over one of alerts 1413 may provide a suggestion on how to
eliminate the alert.
[0085] FIG. 14D illustrates a link details section of scorecard
1400. Link details section 1420 provides a listing 1425 of the
various link characteristics including net LINK FLOW share, anchor
text, font size, whether the link has a session ID, whether the
link is tagged with nofollow and whether the link is broken,
dangling, reciprocal, or editorial.
[0086] Other factors that may be considered in determining a
ranking of a webpage, a website or a link may include reverse
redirect information (i.e., which webpages are being redirected to
a webpage), forward redirect information (i.e., which webpages are
being redirected to from a given webpage, total or alternative
search volume by MARKET FOCUS (i.e., how many people on the
Internet or the network are searching for a given webpage or
website), age of website, statistical deviation analysis of
external incoming anchor text (i.e., analysis of differences in
text being used to link to a particular webpage/website), purchased
or relevant link detection (i.e., links being used to subvert a
search engine's algorithms), and/or unnatural keyword stuffing
(i.e., use of keywords or phrases to subvert a search engine's
algorithms).
[0087] FIG. 17 illustrates an example method by which a user may
request a search engine optimization analysis of a website or
webpage and retrieve and view details of the analysis. In step
1700, a user may specify a website, webpage or network document
address. The address may comprise a uniform resource identifier
such as a URL. In step 1705, the optimization engine may analyze
the website according to various search engine algorithms to derive
a website score. This may occur before or after the user requests
in step 1700. The analysis may include some or all of the factors
described herein such as LINK FLOW, duplicate information, missing
tags, word length and the like. Once the analysis is complete, a
summary may be displayed in step 1710. In one or more
configurations, the analysis may already have been pre-compiled and
available upon receiving the request. Thus, the optimization engine
might not need to perform an analysis upon receiving the request;
instead, results from the previous analysis may be retrieved. The
summary may contain a first level of scoring detail such as
information similar to that displayed in dashboard 700 of FIG. 7A.
In particular, the summary may include information considered by
the search engine during the analysis. This provides transparency
into the search engine process and allows a user to optimize his or
her website, webpages, or links based on the actual analysis used
by the search engine.
[0088] From the scoring or analysis summary, the user may
subsequently navigate to a second level of scoring detail in step
1715. For example, the user may select a penalties section to view
the factors that negatively affected the website's score. In
another example, the second level of scoring detail may include a
breakdown of the overall website score or a subscore contributing
to the overall score. In step 1720, the second level of scoring
detail may be displayed to the user. As with the first level of
detail, the second level of scoring detail may provide factors and
scoring used and generated by the scoring engine in determining the
website, webpage, and link's overall score or rank.
[0089] In step 1725, the optimization engine may receive a request
to view suggestions for improvement. In step 1730, the optimization
engine may generate and present the suggestions to the user. The
optimization engine may generate such suggestions based on the
factors negatively impacting the website's score. For example, if
the website has broken links, the optimization engine may suggest
that the broken links be fixed to raise the website's score. In
step 1735, the optimization engine may receive a request to
re-analyze the website and update the score. Such a request may be
received, for example, once a user has updated his website with
certain fixes or made improvements based on the generated
suggestions. In step 1740, the optimization engine may instruct or
request a search engine to re-analyze the website in response to
the request (i.e., on-demand). The optimization engine may further
re-analyze and re-display the search engine data to the user.
Re-analysis may include a re-crawling of the website and
corresponding webpages, network documents, and websites. A new
scoring summary may then be displayed to the user as in step 1710.
Alternatively, the re-analysis of the website may be queued for a
later time (e.g., a time when the website is scheduled to be
re-crawled).
[0090] FIG. 18 illustrates an example method for creating and
receiving alerts through an optimization engine or tool. In step
1800, the optimization engine may receive a user specification of a
rule or condition that they wish to monitor for in the website,
webpage, or link. The rule or condition may include a number of
broken links, a LINK FLOW score, amount of duplicate content and
the like. In step 1805, the optimization engine may store the rule
specifications in a catalog configured to store rules that are
applied by the optimization engine. In step 1815, the optimization
engine may determine the rule or condition has been met or
satisfied. If so, the optimization engine may generate and send an
alert to the user in step 1820. If not, the engine may continue
monitoring for the condition or rule in step 1825. The rule may,
additionally or alternatively, trigger an external action such as a
process outside of the search engine or re-crawling. In one
example, the search engine may send an alert along with suggestions
for eliminating or improving the condition met.
[0091] FIG. 19 illustrates a block diagram of an alert system.
Inputted alerts 1900 may be sent to catalog 1903, which maintains
rules that are applied by the calculation engines 1905. The
calculation engines 1905 may be configured to organize and analyze
data either by schedule 1907 or by on-demand requests 1909. During
the course of organizing and/or analyzing data, an alert triggered
may be triggered by one or more of alerts 1900. When such an event
occurs, the calculation engines 1905 may send an alert to client
devices 1911 and/or 1913. Alerts catalog 1903 and calculation
engines 1905 may be part of a single system or may be separate from
one another. For example, alerts catalog 1903 and calculation
engines 1905 may be part of a distributed optimization engine.
[0092] According to one or more aspects, an optimization engine may
provide a user with LINK FLOW distribution information. LINK FLOW
distribution refers to the set of transition probabilities or
adjacency functions of a random surfer as determined using node
ranking. Further details regarding a method for node ranking in a
linked database may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,285,999. Node
ranking refers to a numerical weighting to each element (e.g., a
webpage) of a hyperlinked set (e.g., a website of webpages) of
documents, such as the World Wide Web (WWW), with the purpose of
"measuring" its relative importance within the set.
[0093] FIG. 20 illustrates a diagram depicting LINK FLOW
distribution within a website 2005. Each of webpages 2000 is shown
as having a specific node rank 2001.
[0094] The node rank values 2001 are the entries of the dominant
eigenvector of the modified adjacency matrix. The node ranking is
represented as the dominant eigenvector in the set PR(p.sub.n). The
eigenvector may be expressed as:
R = [ PR ( p 1 ) PR ( p 2 ) PR ( p N ) ] ##EQU00001##
[0095] where R is the solution of the equation
R = [ ( 1 - d ) / N ( 1 - d ) / N ( 1 - d ) / N ] + d [ ( p 1 , p 1
) ( p 1 , p 2 ) ( p 1 , p N ) ( p 2 , p 1 ) ( p i , p j ) ( p N , p
1 ) ( p N , p N ) ] R ##EQU00002##
[0096] where the adjacency function l(p.sub.i, p.sub.j) is 0 if
page p.sub.j does not link to p.sub.i, and normalized such that,
for each j
i = 1 N ( p i , p j ) = 1 , ##EQU00003##
[0097] That is, the elements of each column sum up to 1. The
dominant eigenvectors are shown as a result of this calculation,
embodied as node ranks 2001, and assigned to each of webpages 2000
in the graph of webpages. By visiting each of webpages 2000, a user
can see the "importance" of a webpage in relation to the rest of
the webpages 2000 in that graph.
[0098] By displaying the scoring mechanism of each link's weighting
of this probability, the optimization engine may display the entire
process of the algorithm for node ranking in a linked database,
rather than simply the final dominant eigenvectors (i.e., node
rankings 2001) which are assigned to each webpage or network
document. Providing users with this detailed information may be
important to assist them in distributing, funneling, and
controlling the final dominant eigenvectors (i.e., node ranking)
within their website (i.e., website 2005). Without this knowledge,
the method for node ranking webpages in a linked database is
essentially a "black box." That is, while users may know the node
ranking of a webpage or network document, they do not know the LINK
FLOW Distribution, or the set of transition probabilities or
adjacency functions (e.g., l(p.sub.i, p.sub.j)) that determine
those final eigenvectors. Typically, website owners simply make
changes, and wait for the search engine to recalculate the node
ranking algorithm and to display the revised results (which can
take up to a month or more for a typical search engine to re-crawl
the website). By showing them the LINK FLOW Distribution, and by
allowing users to request immediate re-crawls of a website, each
adjacency function can be modified to tweak the final eigenvectors
by a precise amount. An optimization engine may further provide
individual link scorecards 2002 for each link within website 2005.
Link scorecards 2002 each provide a score 2003 for the
corresponding link.
[0099] Using the optimization engine, a user may visually navigate
through the path taken by a search engine when analyzing a website
and crawling through the network of websites or webpages during the
analysis. As illustrated above, a user may begin by requesting the
analysis of a website. In order to determine how the website was
analyzed and scored, the user may navigate through the analysis,
essentially following the path taken by the search engine to
produce the score. Referring again to FIG. 6, a user may begin by
viewing the website dashboard 600 displaying an overview of the
website for which analysis was requested. The user may then
navigate to each of the webpages in the website contributing to the
website's score through webpage listings 605 and view a
corresponding scoresheet, e.g., scoresheet 603. Scores may be
determined based on the same metric and thus, an analysis and score
for a first page, website or link may be compared with a second
page, website or link, respectively, using the scores. In one
arrangement, an optimization engine may provide a comparison of an
analysis of the first page with an analysis of the second page
(e.g., a side by side comparison). A user may drill down to a
further level of detail by reviewing factors contributing to each
webpage's score (e.g., by viewing scorecard 615). The user may
further follow links that are analyzed by the search engine when
scoring the website or webpage. Using these links, the user may
navigate the path taken by the search engine when crawling for data
and performing the website analysis. For example, from scoresheet
603, a user may view link listings 607b that were analyzed by the
search engine. The user may then navigate to link scorecards 619 or
proceed to a webpage scoresheet 623 of a linked page using the
link. Thus, the user is navigating through the network (e.g.,
Internet) from the perspective of the search engine.
[0100] FIG. 21 illustrates an example method of navigating through
a series of websites, webpages, and links using an optimization
engine. In step 2100, a user may request an analysis of a
particular website. In step 2105, the optimization engine may
return a score and an analysis of the website. The analysis may
include scoring data generated and algorithms used by the search
engine. In step 2110, the optimization engine may receive a request
to navigate to a portion of the analysis that includes an analysis
of at least one link. For example, a user may request to see the
scoresheet (e.g., scoresheet 603 of FIG. 6) of a particular webpage
in the website. The scoresheet may include an analysis of one or
more links. In step 2115, the optimization engine may display the
requested portion of the analysis (e.g., the scoresheet of a
webpage) to the user. In step 2120, the user may subsequently
request to view a scorecard (e.g., link scorecard 619 of FIG. 6) of
a link contributing to the score of the webpage and website. In
step 2125, the link scorecard may be displayed to the user. In step
2130, the user may request to follow the link. In response to the
request, the optimization engine may generate and display a webpage
scoresheet of the page to which the link is directed in step 2135.
Accordingly, a user may continue to navigate the network in this
fashion, viewing the path taken by the search engine and the
analysis performed along the way. This provides the user with an
in-depth view of how a search engine operates and ranks various
webpages and network documents and how the user may affect his or
her website's ranking from the perspective of the search
engine.
[0101] FIGS. 22A and 22B illustrate a private label interface for
accessing and using an optimization engine. A private label
interface 2200 allows a customer or client to have their logos,
brands, images, banners, audio, video, text and the like placed in
the optimization engine interface. Thus, instead of a generic or
optimization engine specific interface, the interface may include
logos 2203 and images 2205 that create the appearance and feel of
the customer or client's website. FIG. 22B shows that the customer
or client's branding persists through each portion of the
optimization engine.
[0102] To provide access to a private label interface such as
interface 2200 of FIGS. 22A & B, a customer or client may place
a search bar on their website as illustrated in FIG. 23. The search
bar 2303 of FIG. 23 may include code which allows the optimization
engine to remember from where the user originated and will display
the appropriate branding even when the user returns at a later
date. In particular, the optimization engine may associate a user
with a particular customer or client's website if they originated
from the customer or client's optimization engine search bar even
when the user enters via the generic optimization engine's
website.
[0103] FIGS. 24A-C illustrate interfaces through which an
optimization engine may be customized. FIG. 24A, for example,
illustrates a customization overview where each of the images,
banners, symbols, text chunks are listed to identify what will be
shown in a live version. Customization overview 2400 may further
provide an option 2403 to preview the optimization engine prior to
publishing the branded engine to a live environment. Each listing
2401 may further specify a date that the advertisement piece was
pushed live. Additionally, each listing 2401 may include a location
2405 of the advertisement piece (e.g., where an image is pulled or
uploaded from) and an option 2407 to upload or change the listing.
Once a user has finalized the engine, the user may choose the go
live option 2409 to publish all of the advertisement pieces to
their live customized engine.
[0104] FIG. 24B illustrates an interface from which a code segment
may be copied or downloaded onto a customer's website for
integration of a search bar that links to the customized
optimization engine.
[0105] FIG. 24C illustrates a text upload interface for inserting
text into the customized optimization engine and FIG. 24D
illustrates an advertisement or image upload interface for
inserting images into the customized engine.
[0106] FIG. 25A illustrates a customer home interface where an
optimization engine customer may manage one or more aspects of his
or her account. For example, in interface 2500, a user may choose
from a variety of options including editing customer information,
purchasing or canceling an OEM package, adding or managing
websites, managing a custom optimization engine (e.g., interface
2200 of FIGS. 22A & B), viewing OEM information, viewing child
OEM customers, viewing the latest OEM customer manual, reviewing an
agreement with the optimization engine company, taking a test drive
and learning more about the optimization engine.
[0107] FIG. 25B illustrates an interface through which a user may
view the websites to which he or she has subscribed or for which
the user has purchased an analysis. In interface 2501, for example,
the customer has one subscription 2503 to www.seoeng.com. Options
2505 may be provided for viewing the website dashboard 2505a,
re-crawling the website 2505b, managing scheduled crawls (e.g.,
deleting, adding, changing schedule) 2505c and managing rules
2505d.
[0108] FIG. 26 illustrates an interface through which an
optimization engine customer may filter a page listing based on a
specified criterion. Filtering criteria may include URL, MARKET
FOCUS, META Titles, META Descriptions and/or META Keywords. A user
may enter the wildcard phrase or keyword to filter in field 2601,
select the criteria to be filtered through drop down menu 2603 and
filter option 2605. The pages listed may then be filtered and a new
page list may be displayed that match the specified parameters.
[0109] FIG. 27, on the other hand, illustrates an interface 2700
through which an optimization engine customer or user may filter a
link listing based on various criteria. For example, link in
listing 2701 may be filtered based on a keyword in the anchortext.
Alternatively, a user may choose quick filtering options 2703.
Options 2703 are predefined filters that may be used to identify
broken links 2703a, dangling links 2703b, editorial links 2703c,
nofollow links 2703d, reciprocal links 2703e and sessionid links
2703f.
[0110] As described in detail above, a navigable, transparent
search engine which can be utilized to inspect how a search engine
works may be used to optimize websites and other network documents.
Such an optimization engine or tool may reside alongside a
traditional search engine, and represent the navigation and
transparency of that search engine.
[0111] It should be understood that any of the method steps,
procedures or functions described herein may be implemented using
one or more processors in combination with executable instructions
that cause the processors and other components to perform the
method steps, procedures or functions. As used herein, the terms
"processor" and "computer" whether used alone or in combination
with executable instructions stored in a memory or other
computer-readable storage medium should be understood to encompass
any type of now known or later developed computing devices and/or
structures including but not limited to one or more
microprocessors, special-purpose computer chips, field-programmable
gate arrays (FPGAs), controllers, application-specific integrated
circuits (ASICs), combinations of hardware/firmware/software, or
other special or general-purpose processing circuitry.
[0112] The methods and features recited herein may further be
implemented through any number of computer readable media that are
able to store computer readable instructions. Examples of computer
readable media that may be used include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash
memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, DVD or other optical
disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic storage
and the like.
[0113] Although specific examples of carrying out the invention
have been described, those skilled in the art will appreciate that
there are numerous variations and permutations of the
above-described systems and methods that are contained within the
spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended
claims. Additionally, numerous other embodiments, modifications and
variations within the scope and spirit of the appended claims will
occur to persons of ordinary skill in the art from a review of this
disclosure.
* * * * *
References