Method, apparatus, and computer program product for predicting web browsing behaviors of consumers

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• based on data retrieved from a database, generating a link graph for a website comprising a plurality of webpages, the data comprising, for each webpage of the plurality of webpages, a respective webpage, one or more hyperlinks associated with the respective webpage, and historical data associated with at least the respective webpage,
• wherein the link graph comprises a plurality of nodes and a plurality of links,
• wherein a node of the plurality of nodes represents a webpage and a link of the plurality of links represents a hyperlink, and wherein each link is associated with a weight value representing a number of times a hyperlink represented by the link was accessed by a user device;
• generating a threshold for each weight value based at least in part on one or more of a desired computational expense or a desired accuracy;
• eliminating those links of the plurality of links from the link graph associated with a weight value below the threshold;
• accessing, from the database, historical data for a particular user of the website;
• and
• generating a programmatically expected path for the particular user through the link graph based on a transition probability calculated based on a ratio of weight values between a first node, a second node, and a sum of all weight values for transitions from the first node to any other node of the link graph.

A computer program product, the computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code portions stored therein, the computer-readable program code portions configured to:

• based on data retrieved from a database, generate a link graph for a website comprising a plurality of webpages, the data comprising, for each webpage of the plurality of webpages, a respective webpage, one or more hyperlinks associated with the respective webpage, and historical data associated with at least the respective webpage,
• wherein the link graph comprises a plurality of nodes and a plurality of links,
• wherein a node of the plurality of nodes represents a webpage, a link of the plurality of links represents a hyperlink, and wherein each link is associated with a weight value representing a number of times a hyperlink represented by the link was accessed by a user device;
• generate a threshold for each weight value based at least in part on one or more of a desired computational expense or a desired accuracy;
• eliminate those links of the plurality of links from the link graph associated with a weight value below the threshold;
• access, from the database, historical data for a particular user of the website;
• and
• generate a programmatically expected path for the particular user through the link graph based on a transition probability calculated based on a ratio of weight values between a first node, a second node, and a sum of all weight values for transitions from the first node to any other node of the link graph.