I think this same thing is what's happening at reddit, and that's part of why they allow these botnets and shill networks to run rampant all over reddit. Because it drives the pageview numbers way up, which in turn means a proportional increase in ad revenue for reddit.

Because of the ad situation, both are motivated to game their visit numbers as high as possible, rather than create a quality environment for the users.

This is why saidit doesn't have ads.