The present invention deals with generating content, accessible over a network such as a web. More specifically, the present invention deals with verifying the effectiveness of web content so that the chances of a web site being presented first by a search engine in response to a keyword search is increased.
In order for a business, or content provider, to have network information available and searchable by a network search engine, the business or content provider generally submits its content for indexing by the search engine. The indexing process is conventional and well known.
Conventional search engines use a tool referred to as a spider, or crawler. The crawler accesses sites on a computer network (which may be a global computer network such as the Internet or World Wide Web) and generates lists of words that are found on those sites. The crawler also follows each link on the site it is currently crawling. Based on the words and links, the web crawler creates an index of the words associated with the uniform resource locator (URL) of the site on which the crawler found the words.
When the search engine is used by a user attempting to locate information on the network, the user typically types in one or more keywords that form the basis of a search. The search engine then searches its index based on the keywords entered by the user and returns a list of web sites related to those keywords. By performing certain commonly known indexing and analysis techniques, the conventional search engine will generally rank order the list of web sites based on how closely they are believed to be related to the keywords entered by the user.
Of course, the content provider or business typically wants its web site to be listed first in results returned by the search engine when relevant keywords are entered. There have been some attempts to arrange content on web pages in such a way as to optimize the web pages for searching (i.e., to increase the chance that the content provider's web site will be returned in a relatively high position in the rank ordered search results).
The present invention provides a system and method for automatically suggesting optimizations that can be made to content pages to increase the chances that a network site containing the content page will be indexed and returned high in the rank ordered list of results from a search engine. In one embodiment, the present invention also includes a keyword generation tool for use in generating effective keywords for which a content page can be optimized.
In accordance with another embodiment, the present invention uses hierarchical rules that apply in determining the effectiveness of a web site. The hierarchical rules can be configured to apply differently based on how important the keyword is to a network site.
Appendix A is one illustrative list of messages that indicate rules applied in checking content pages for readiness.
The present invention deals with generating content pages that will be accessible through a search engine over a computer network. More specifically, the present invention deals with a system that checks to determine whether content pages are configured in a proper way to increase the chances that they will be indexed and returned by a search engine in response to a keyword search. The present invention can be used to examine content in a network environment or in a standalone environment. However, before describing the present invention in greater detail, one illustrative embodiment of an environment in which the present invention can be used is discussed.
The invention is operational with numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing system environments or configurations. Examples of well known computing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with the invention include, but are not limited to, personal computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and the like.
The invention may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote computer storage media including memory storage devices.
With reference to
Computer 110 typically includes a variety of computer readable media. Computer readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by computer 110 and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation, computer readable media may comprise computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes both volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by computer 100. Communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier WAV or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, FR, infrared and other wireless media. Combinations of any of the above should also be included within the scope of computer readable media.
The system memory 130 includes computer storage media in the form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) 131 and random access memory (RAM) 132. A basic input/output system 133 (BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within computer 110, such as during start-up, is typically stored in ROM 131. RAM 132 typically contains data and/or program modules that are immediately accessible to and/or presently being operated on by processing unit 120. By way o example, and not limitation,
The computer 110 may also include other removable/non-removable volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media. By way of example only,
The drives and their associated computer storage media discussed above and illustrated in
A user may enter commands and information into the computer 110 through input devices such as a keyboard 162, a microphone 163, and a pointing device 161, such as a mouse, trackball or touch pad. Other input devices (not shown) may include a joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner, or the like. These and other input devices are often connected to the processing unit 120 through a user input interface 160 that is coupled to the system bus, but may be connected by other interface and bus structures, such as a parallel port, game port or a universal serial bus (USB). A monitor 191 or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus 121 via an interface, such as a video interface 190. In addition to the monitor, computers may also include other peripheral output devices such as speakers 197 and printer 196, which may be connected through an output peripheral interface 190.
The computer 110 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer 180. The remote computer 180 may be a personal computer, a hand-held device, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described above relative to the computer 110. The logical connections depicted in
When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 110 is connected to the LAN 171 through a network interface or adapter 170. When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 110 typically includes a modem 172 or other means for establishing communications over the WAN 173, such as the Internet. The modem 172, which may be internal or external, may be connected to the system bus 121 via the user-input interface 160, or other appropriate mechanism. In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to the computer 110, or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device. By way of example, and not limitation,
It will be understood that the present discussion may proceed with respect to a global computer network (such as the Internet or World Wide Web). However, the present invention is not so limited but could be used on any searchable network, and the discussion herein is exemplary only.
In one illustrative embodiment, system 200 is configured to crawl through the entire site represented by content store 210 based on a keyword phrase entered by the user. Then user is shown all pages that are ready for submission to a search engine for indexing. The user can select pages for optimization as well. In optimizing a page, system 200 is configured to access web pages or content pages 214 in content store 210 and determine whether they are written and laid out in a manner which is likely to increase the possibility that they will be returned at a relatively high position in the rank ordered list of web sites returned by conventional search engines in response to user queries.
This operation of system 200 is illustrated by the flow diagram shown in
Once the keywords are received, component 202 accesses rules in rule store 208. This is indicated by block 252 in
The crawler in component 202 crawls through the content and formatting on the pages 214 in content store 210, applying the rules from rule store 208 to determine whether the content or formatting complies with, or violates, any of the rules being applied. Crawling the content pages and applying the rules is indicated by block 254 in
Component 202 then outputs a report to the user, again illustratively through user interface 206. This is indicated by block 256 in
In order to determine whether keyword generator 204 will be invoked, component 202 first receives from the user through user interface 206, a selection as to the mode by which keywords will be input. One embodiment of such a screen shot is illustrated in
When the user has selected the mode indicating that keyword generator 204 is to be used, component 202 then receives from the user, through user interface 206, one or more root keywords which the user desires to initiate the process of keyword selection with. These root keywords are illustratively words that describe what the user's content page to be analyzed is about. One illustrative screen shot for receiving the root keywords from the user is shown in
Some search engines offer information that can be used to identify alternative keywords. For instance, such search engines track the keywords used by an individual user in a given search process. These search engines can be queried for this information to locate alternative keywords. An initial keyword is input and the search engine returns additional words used by other users who also used the initial keyword in conducting a search.
Thus, keyword generator 204 accesses one or more search engines 212 to obtain a list of alternative keywords that could be used by the user in describing the content of the content store 210. Invoking the keyword generator to identify additional possible keywords is illustrated by block 304 in
Component 202 then requests the user to select all of the returned keywords which are applicable to, or related to, the content of the user's content page to be checked. In doing so, the user can simply select the relevant keywords on the screen shot shown in
Component 202 then performs statistical analysis on the selected keywords in order to determine which are most effective as search terms in uniquely identifying the content page. This can be done in a wide variety of ways. However, in one illustrative embodiment, component 202 invokes information from the records kept by search engines 212 to determine how many searches were run using each of the keywords selected, and also how many search engine results are returned based on the search using that keyword.
For instance, if a search term is used a very large number of times, and there are only a very few result listings returned for that search term, then it is determined that the search term will be quite highly effective in uniquely identifying the content page and obtaining a high ranking in the rank ordered search results. However, if a search term is not used by many searchers (i.e., if not many searches are performed using that term) but the number of search results returned using that term is relatively high, then the search term will be less effective in obtaining a high rank in a rank ordered list of search results. One embodiment of the statistical processing uses a ratio of these numbers. Based on this statistical processing, component 202 returns to the user through user interface 206 a rank ordered list of keywords. One screen shot illustrating such a rank ordered list is shown in
As the screen shot in
Component 202 then displays that subset of words to the user and requests that the user select one of those keywords as the primary keyword. This is illustrated by block 310 in
Once the keywords are selected and the primary keyword is identified, component 202 has sufficient information to perform a readiness check on the specified web page 214 in content store 210.
As discussed with respect to
After examining all of the pages 214 in content store 210, component 202 provides a report to the user through user interface 206. Of course, the report can take a wide variety of different forms, but a number of different illustrative embodiments of such reports are illustrated in
When the user clicks each of those items shown in
The user can then select one of the broken links shown in
The reports provided by component 202 can also include a report of incoming links or those web pages which have links to the present web site under consideration. One illustrative screen shot for showing this information is shown in
The reports output by component 202 can also include a download time report. Such a report can include such information as how long it takes the page to load. One illustrative screenshot for showing this information is set out in
Component 202 will also illustratively output a readiness check report. Such a report will illustratively be provided for each page 214 of the web site under consideration. The readiness check report will include information that indicates how effectively the page will be used by search engines. In other words, the information will give the user an indication as to how likely it is that any of the user's web pages 214 will be ranked high in the list of search results returned by a search engine using the keywords selected.
In one illustrative embodiment, component 202 not only outputs a report indicating problems with an associated web page, but also outputs suggested actions which can be taken to remedy or reduce the problems.
In any case, the boxes associated with each of the areas of scrutinization shown in
By clicking on any of the issues listed in
It can thus be seen that the present invention provides a component which can be used by a network content provider to select keywords to be identified in the content. The present invention can also be used to scrutinize a content provider's web pages to determine how effective they will be when subjected to searches by conventional search engines. Similarly, the present invention can be used to identify problems that may arise in attempting to get a web site or web pages listed at, and indexed by, search engines.
Although the present invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments, workers skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60524329 | Nov 2003 | US |