Online Advertising Page-View Fraud Growing

“Page views” rank as one of the major metrics of online advertising.

PAGE VIEWS = MONEY

Generally, the more page views, the more money an online publication can charge for their advertising.

FALSELY INFLATING PAGE VIEWS IS DISHONEST

But artificially inflating the number of page views by cutting articles into smaller and smaller chunks is nothing but fraud.

The following is a solid, well-done and valuable piece of journalism that has been ruined by page-view fraud.

ADVERTISERS BEWARE

There is no user readability advantage of cutting an article onto snippets. In fact, research shows that readers do not like it and a substantial number will simply not click on a continuation link and wait for another page load.

Users are being disrespected, and advertisers who are buying into multiple page views when only one is justified are being ripped off.

Advertisers should look closely at what a page view really means. Not all page views are honest.

A GROWING PRACTICE

The Press-Democrat is only one of a growing number of online publications who are adopting this fraudulent practice. Online publications desperately need advertising, but they need to be honest and transparent about what they are selling.