Granted Patent B2

US 8,001,131 · App. 12/337,550 · Granted Aug 16, 2011

Abstract

Claims (37)

1. A computer implemented method for ranking a search term by profitability comprising:

receiving, via a physical computing device, information regarding a total number of people who are searching on the search term;

receiving information regarding an amount advertisers pay for the search term;

receiving information regarding a click-thru rate of the search term;

determining a traffic estimate of the search term; and

determining longevity of the search term.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining a traffic estimate of the search term includes determining a frequency of views of content for the search term.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining a traffic estimate of the search term includes:

determining a gross competitive score; and

determining a percentile competitive score.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the determining a gross competitive score is based on at least one of a cost per click, a click-thru rate, a search volume, a third party rating, an aggregate page rank, a word count, and a letter count.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising validating at least one of the total number of people who are searching on the search term and the amount advertisers pay for the search term.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the validating includes comparing the information regarding the total number of people who are searching on the search term from various sources.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the validating includes comparing the information regarding the amount advertisers pay for the search term from various sources.

8. A tangible machine-readable medium having stored thereon a set of instructions, which when executed on a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method comprising:

receiving, via a physical computing device, information regarding a total number of people who are searching on a search term;

receiving information regarding an amount advertisers pay for the search term;

receiving information regarding a click-thru rate of the search term;

determining a traffic estimate of the search term; and

determining longevity of the search term.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the determining a traffic estimate of the search term includes determining a frequency of views of content associated with the search term.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the determining a traffic estimate of the search term includes:

determining a gross competitive score; and

determining a percentile competitive score.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the determining a gross competitive score is based on at least one of a cost per click, a click-thru rate, a search volume, a third party rating, an aggregate page rank, a word count, and a letter count.

12. The method of claim 8 further comprising validating at least one of the total number of people who are searching on the search term and the amount advertisers pay for the search term.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the validating includes comparing the information regarding the total number of people who are searching on the search term from various sources.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the validating includes comparing the information regarding the amount advertisers pay for the search term from various sources.

15. A system for determining profitability of a search term comprising:

a physical computing device coupled to external database sources;

a competitive ability module, coupled to the sources, to determine a traffic estimate of the search term; and

a longevity module, coupled to the sources, to determine the longevity of the search term.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the competitive ability module and the longevity module are integrated within the computing device.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the sources include an audience source having information regarding a total number of people searching on the search term, an advertising rate source having information regarding an amount advertisers pay for the search term, and a click-thru rate source having information regarding a number of people who clicked on advertisements regarding the search term.

18. The system of claim 15 wherein the computing device computes a ranking value for the search term based on outputs from the audience source, the advertising rate source, the click-thru rate source, the competitive ability module, and the longevity module.

19. The system of claim 15 wherein the computing device validates information from the audience source.

20. The system of claim 15 wherein the computing device validates information from the advertising rate source.

Assignments (9)