Linking one record to another record

[Squiggy2]

I have two tables:

Ads

Articles

I've created a way to link specific ads to specific articles so that relevant ads are shown to whoever is reading an article. However, I think my method is going to require a lot of upkeep. I thought about entering keywords for the ads and articles, but I wanted it to be more specific so the results were more relevant.

How would you go about it?

[Dan_Bracuk]

I would design a normalized database for this information.

[Squiggy2]

The data is very efficiently laid out. I'm not sure I see how normalizing it would help.

[Adam Cameron.]

Don't you just need a link table to implement a many-to-many relationship between those two tables?

--

Adam

[Squiggy2]

Correct. The problem I'm having with the entire thing is that when a new ad comes in, you have to go back through every old article to link the relevant articles to that ad. I'm not sure there's a way around that though, unless I go back to using keywords instead.

[Dan_Bracuk]

If you did go back and link old articles to new ads, what criteria would you use?

[Squiggy2]

Good question. The criteria right now is my estimation of how relevant I believe the ad is to any given article. Ads for pool builders naturally link to articles about re-doing your backyard, for instance. Using keywords to link those types of ads/editorials that clearly have something in common would be a simple and organic process, but when you have advertisers like lawyers or photographers, it's likely that they'll never get any eyeballs unless they're manually linked to an article.