I still seeing a lot of websites self-auditing, despite the need for cirulation audits being well established for print titles. Although this move is no doubt going to have most impact in the consumer sector, I was interested to see ABCe announce enhanced certificates, where audit information will be supplemented by demographic information that is collected through a survey. With no qualification criteria, websites can see search engines driving traffic that doesn’t add value to advertisers. Although I don’t expect to see a pile of these enhanced certificates arriving in my inbox, I think this is part of a trend where advertisers are trying to get a better understanding of the quality as well as the quantity of people who are viewing their online ads. This has to be a good thing, both for advertisers who want to advertise to people who are interested in their products and also for website owners who should ultimately be able to charge a premium for higher-quality eyeballs!
