Recommending link placement opportunities

Abstract

Techniques for recommending Web pages or other content sources as candidates for link placement are described. Some embodiments provide a marketing activity support system (“MASS”) configured to recommend candidate Web pages for link placement. Recommending candidate Web pages may include determining multiple Web pages that include or reference one or more keywords that describe some subject matter domain. Recommending candidate Web pages may then further include ranking or ordering at least some of the multiple Web pages based on how many times each of the at least some Web pages references another one of the multiple Web pages. The ordered Web pages may then be presented as recommended candidate sites for link placement.

1 . A computer-implemented method for providing Web page recommendations for the creation of inbound links to a target Web page, comprising:
 receiving one or more keywords that describe a subject matter domain;   determining one or more domain-specific Web pages that refer to the received one or more keywords;   based at least in part upon the determined one or more domain-specific Web pages, determining an ordered set of Web pages that contain links to highly ranked Web pages of the determined domain-specific Web pages; and   providing indicators to one or more Web pages of the determined ordered set of Web pages as recommendations for the creation of inbound links to a target Web page.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising adding at least one link to the target Web page on one or more of the determined ordered set of Web pages to create at least one inbound link to the target Web page. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the determining the one or more domain-specific Web pages that refer to the received one or more keywords is accomplished using one or more search engines. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3  wherein the one or more search engines include an off-the-shelf and/or publicly available search engine. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  wherein the search engine is provided by at least one of Google, Bing, or Yahoo. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 creating a graph that represents links contained in each of the determined one or more domain-specific Web pages;   determining which ones of the determined one or more domain-specific Web pages are ranked above a threshold number;   using the graph, selecting, as a resulting set of potential Web pages to be recommended, one or more of the determined domain-specific Web pages that contain links to one or more of the determined one or more domain-specific Web pages that are ranked above the threshold number;   ordering the selected resulting set of potential Web pages; and   providing indicators to the selected resulting set of potential Web pages.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6  wherein the graph is stored as an intermediate data structure. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 6  wherein the domain-specific Web pages that are ranked above the threshold number are Web pages that are ranked using a ranking algorithm of a conventional search engine. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8  wherein the conventional search engine is an off-the-shelf and/or publicly available search engine. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the indicators are links to one or more Web sites. 
     
     
         11 . A computer-readable storage medium containing content that controls a computer processor, when executed, to determine a list of indications to an ordered set of Web pages, by performing a method comprising:
 receiving a plurality of keywords that describe a subject matter domain;   determining, using one or more search engines, a set of Web pages that refer to the received keywords;   based at least in part upon the determined set of Web pages, determining an ordered set of resultant Web pages that contain links to one or more Web pages of the determined Web pages; and   providing indicators to one or more resultant Web pages.   
     
     
         12 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11  wherein the one or more Web pages of the determined Web pages are ranked over a prescribed threshold by the one or more search engines, and wherein the links to the one or more Web pages of the determined Web pages include direct and indirect links. 
     
     
         13 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11  wherein the ranking results from application of at least one of a PageRank algorithm or a Hubs and Authorities algorithm. 
     
     
         14 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11  wherein the determining of the ordered set of resultant Web pages is performed by creating a graph of links between some of the determined Web pages. 
     
     
         15 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11  wherein the computer-readable storage medium is a memory in a computing system, and wherein the contents are instructions that, when executed, cause the computing system to perform the method. 
     
     
         16 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 providing an online user interface that is configured to receive the plurality of keywords and list the provided indicators as selectable links to Web pages.   
     
     
         17 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11  the online user interface further configured to display an indication of search engine rank for each resultant Web page. 
     
     
         18 . A computer-implemented method for providing messaging influencer recommendations, comprising:
 receiving a plurality keywords that describe a subject matter domain;   determining, using one or more search engines, a set of Web pages that refer to the received keywords;   determining one or more messaging users who are referenced by at least some of the determined Web pages, the determined messaging users posting messages about the subject matter domain; and   providing indicators of the one or more messaging users as messaging influencers with respect to the subject matter domain.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18  wherein the determined messaging users are blog users who generate blog postings that are related to the subject matter domain. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18  wherein the determined messaging users are microblog users who generate short messages related to the subject matter domain. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 20  wherein the microblog users are Twitter users. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising ordering the determined one or more messaging users based at least in part on a number of followers and/or readers associated with each of the messaging users. 
     
     
         23 . A computing system comprising:
 a memory; and   a module that is stored on the memory and that is configured, when executed by the computing system, to provide Web page recommendations for the creation of inbound links to a target Web page by:
 receiving a plurality of keywords that describe a subject matter domain; 
 determining a set of Web pages that refer to the received keywords; 
 based at least in part upon the determined set of Web pages, determining an ordered set of resultant Web pages that contain links to one or more Web pages of the determined Web pages; and 
 initiating a link placement of at least one link to the target Web page on one or more of the ordered set of resultant Web pages, thereby creating at least one inbound link to the target Web page. 
   
     
     
         24 . The computing system of  claim 23 , wherein the module is further configured, when executed by the computing system, to:
 determine one or more messaging users who are referenced by at least some of the determined set of Web pages, the determined messaging users posting messages about the subject matter domain; and   provide indicators of the one or more messaging users as messaging influencers with respect to the subject matter domain.