Ad Agencies Lack SEO Know-How

Ad Agency Problem

I just read this post by Mike Valentine and I could not agree more. Many ad agencies hide their ads behind redirects, javascript and flash while downplaying the SEO importance of the ads. There are a few text link brokers that require webmasters to manually plug in new ads which is good for SEO but losses out to the masses of one-stop plug and play webmasters.

Ad Serving Alternative

So, how do we get ad agencies to service up good old fashioned text instead of flash and bang? Why not offer a php solution similar in nature to the two major ad co-ops out there. (Digital Point and LinkVault) This would take a few extra steps for webmasters to set up but it would be well worth it in the long run.

Possible Solution

Better yet, why don’t we stop buying and selling unrelated footer and side bar ads and start putting the ads where they mean something. By this I mean contextually or, to put it simply, within the context of the articles, blogs or content. If such a service arises I would be willing to drop AdBrite and Adsense completely.