Analyzing changes in web analytics metrics

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9521205-B1
Application number	US-201113136507-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Aug 1, 2011
Priority date	Aug 1, 2011
Publication date	Dec 13, 2016
Grant date	Dec 13, 2016

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for analyzing changes in web analytics metrics. In one aspect, a method includes identifying a change in a web analytics metric for a website over a period of time, the web analytics metric being based at least in part on visitor data for the website over the period of time; computing a respective segment contribution score for each of a plurality of segments of the web analytics metric, wherein a segment contribution score for a particular segment is based at least in part on a comparison between a value of the web analytics metric and a value of the particular segment during the period of time; and identifying one or more of the plurality of segments as contributing to the change in the web analytics metric based on the respective segment contribution scores.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
obtaining, by one or more data processing apparatus, from a data store, and over a network, visitor data collected from one or more client devices accessing, over the network, one or more remote servers that manage websites visited by the one or more client devices;
identifying, by the one or more data processing apparatus, a change in a web analytics metric for a given website over a period of time, the web analytics metric being based at least in part on the visitor data associated with the one or more client devices accessing, over the network, the one or more remote servers to visit the given website during the period of time;
computing, by the one or more data processing apparatus, a respective segment contribution score for each of a plurality of segments of the web analytics metric, wherein each of the plurality of segments of the web analytics metric is defined by a respective set of one or more attribute-value pairs such that values of the segment are determined only from visits to the given website that have attribute values that satisfy each of the attribute-value pairs that define the segment, and wherein computing the respective segment contribution score for each of the plurality of segments comprises:
determining a first comparison between (i) a value of the web analytics metric at an earliest time in the period of time and (ii) a value of the segment at the earliest time in the period of time,
determining a second comparison between (iii) a value of the web analytics metric at a latest time in the period of time and (iv) a value of the segment at the latest time in the period of time, and
computing the respective segment contribution score for each of the plurality of segments of the web analytics metric from the first comparison and the second comparison; and

identifying, by the one or more data processing apparatus, one or more of the plurality of segments as contributing to the change in the web analytics metric based on the respective segment contribution scores,
wherein the web analytics metric is an additive metric and wherein the respective segment contribution score for each of the plurality of segments is equal to:
VS t2 /V t2 −VS t1 /V t1 , or
k *( VS t2 −V t2 ) WS t2 −( VS t1 −V t1 ) WS t1 , and

wherein V t1 is the value of the web analytics metric at the earliest time, V t2 is the value of the web analytics metric at the latest time, VS t1 is the value of the segment at the earliest time, VS t2 is the value of the segment at the latest time, WS t1 is a value of a weight time series of the segment at the earliest time, WS t2 is a value of the weight time series of the segment at the latest time, and k is a normalization constant.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identifying one or more of the plurality of segments comprises:
ranking the plurality of segments according to the respective segment contribution scores; and
identifying one or more of the plurality of segments as contributing to the change in the web analytics metric based on the ranking.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, for each of the identified one or more of the plurality of segments, computing a probability that the identified segment caused the change in the web analytics metric based on the respective segment contribution score for the identified segment.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing data identifying the identified one or more of the plurality of segments for presentation in a user interface.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining the plurality of segments of the web analytics metric, and wherein determining the plurality of segments comprises:
identifying a plurality of candidate segments of the web analytics metric, each candidate segment being computed only from visits to the given website that have attribute values that satisfy one or more respective attribute-value pairs; and
selecting one or more candidate segments that each have a number of visits that exceeds a threshold value.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of segments includes single-dimensional segments and multi-dimensional segments.

7. A computer-readable storage device having stored thereon instructions, which, when executed by one or more data processing apparatus, cause the one or more data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:
obtaining, by the one or more data processing apparatus, from a data store, and over a network, visitor data collected from one or more client devices accessing, over the network, one or more remote servers that manage websites visited by the one or more client devices;
identifying, by the one or more data processing apparatus, a change in a web analytics metric for a given website over a period of time, the web analytics metric being based at least in part on the visitor data associated with the one or more client devices accessing, over the network, the one or more remote servers to visit the given website during the period of time;
computing, by the one or more data processing apparatus, a respective segment contribution score for each of a plurality of segments of the web analytics metric, wherein each of the plurality of segments of the web analytics metric is defined by a respective set of one or more attribute-value pairs such that values of the segment are determined only from visits to the given website that have attribute values that satisfy each of the attribute-value pairs that define the segment, and wherein computing the respective segment contribution score for each of the plurality of segments comprises:
determining a first comparison between (i) a value of the web analytics metric at an earliest time in the period of time and (ii) a value of the segment at the earliest time in the period of time,
determining a second comparison between (iii) a value of the web analytics metric at a latest time in the period of time and (iv) a value of the segment at the latest time in the period of time, and
computing the respective segment contribution score for each of the plurality of segments of the web analytics metric from the first comparison and the second comparison; and

identifying, by the one or more data processing apparatus, one or more of the plurality of segments as contributing to the change in the web analytics metric based on the respective segment contribution scores,
wherein the web analytics metric is an additive metric and wherein the respective segment contribution score for each of the plurality of segments is equal to:
VS t2 /V t2 −VS t1 /V t1 , or
k *( VS t2 −V t2 ) WS t2 −( VS t1 −V t1 ) WS t1 , and

wherein V t1 is the value of the web analytics metric at the earliest time, V t2 is the value of the web analytics metric at the latest time, VS t1 is the value of the segment at the earliest time, VS t2 is the value of the segment at the latest time, WS t1 is a value of a weight time series of the segment at the earliest time, WS t2 is a value of the weight time series of the segment at the latest time, and k is a normalization constant.

8. The computer-readable storage device of claim 7 , wherein the identifying one or more of the plurality of segments comprises:
ranking the plurality of segments according to the respective segment contribution scores; and
identifying one or more of the plurality of segments as contributing to the change in the web analytics metric based on the ranking.

9. The computer-readable storage device of claim 7 , the operations further comprising, for each of the identified one or more of the plurality of segments, computing a probability that t

Assignees

• Liao Lin
• Ni Jiang
• Liebert Elizabeth L
• Google Inc

Inventors

• Liao Lin
• Ni Jiang
• Liebert Elizabeth L

Classifications

• G06Q30/02 Primary

  Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising · CPC title

• H04L67/22 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L43/08

  Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters · CPC title

• H04L67/02

  based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP] · CPC title

• H04L67/1097

  for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title