Keyword advertising

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Keyword advertising is a variation on pixel advertising, popularized by The Million Dollar Homepage. In pixel advertising, graphic advertising space is sold on a site. Often advertisers are charged per pixel, with a minimum of 10 by 10 pixel blocks. With keyword advertising, advertisers buy a text link on an advertising site. When the advertising space is sold out, a "word cloud" is formed, with an apparently random group of words, each linking to another internet site. Two of the first keyword advertising sites were 500words.com and awordsworth1000pictures.com, which were launched in mid-2006.

Keyword advertising is based on a principle of search engine optimization, which states that the anchor text of incoming hyperlinks to a site will cause search engines to associate the site with that term and improve the site's Search engine ranking for that keyword.