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* Who currently advertises on
site? You may want to ask them about their advertising experience. Some ad networks such as AdBright show past advertisers average cost per click and ad renewal rates. * How many ads are on page? Each additional ad will split up some of traffic. * Where does your ad sit? Ads that are tucked away in footer or in common ad space may get less exposure and drive less traffic. Ads near content may gain additional exposure and drive more traffic. * What ad formats can be used? Certain ad creatives may provide greater value than other ads. * What is ad turnover rate? Advertisers tend to stay with a site that delivers traffic. A high turnover rate may indicate other problems. * Have advertisers made any suggestions? Ask if any of their past advertisers made any suggestions or stated that they found any particular setup as being especially helpful. * Is traffic seasonal? Some sites have large shifts in traffic volume due to seasonal factors.
2. Viral Effect of Advertising: Some ads go through click tracking systems which may prevent them from being indexed by search engines. This means that only value of those particular links would come from direct traffic. Sometimes ads lead to additional exposure though.
3. Effect of Link Rentals on Search Relevancy:
Many links have a greater indirect value than direct value.
When someone links to your site it is seen by search engines as a vote of quality. The anchor text and other page elements such as page title and headers may also help search engines further classify link. On image links image alt text plays roll of anchor text.
On commercial web many links are bought and sold, and thus for search engines to remain relevant they must find ways to regulate link purchasing.
Some of things you may want to look for when buying links to help maximize your ROI and minimize your risks:
* Are links direct links? Links that go through an ad server usually do not help build your link popularity. * Is page on theme? On topic links from industry hubs are given significantly more weighting in clustering or community based algorithms such as Teoma's topic distillation and Google's Hilltop. If site allows off topic links then it has a greater chance of having its link popularity blocked or devalued. * How many links are on page? If a page sells an unlimited number of ads then outbound link popularity is split up many ways, and that also could look a bit unnatural to search engines. If there are hundreds of internal links on a page then each additional link will be getting an exceptionally small share of link popularity. * What anchor text can I use? If you can use descriptive anchor text then value of link is greater since link text helps search engines understand what your site is about. * What is cost difference between site wide and individual page links? Generally site wide links may drive significantly more direct traffic, but likely they do not provide much additional weight beyond a single link from best page on site. * What is PageRank of page? Generally many people place too much value on PageRank, but a higher PageRank does equate to greater connectivity and slightly additional value. * Who links to page and to site? If page or site is well connected within your topical community then search engines will likely consider links from it as being far more important than links from pages which are not as well connected.
Summary: To best determine value of a link you need to consider both its direct and indirect effects. Generally it is best to buy on topic links since they provide both direct and indirect value.
