Wikipedia is now one of the most trusted information sources online. Not only does it contain information about everything, but the approval process to post it is strict. There are ways to ease parts of the process if you want a place in one of the most well-known online encyclopedias in the world. It’s worth the investment, as the page can be an avenue for digital marketing and drive traffic to you through backlinks.
The Benefits of a Wikipedia Page
Over the years, Wikipedia has built its popularity and trust among the online crowd. It’s a powerful tool, as long as you adhere to its guidelines. Even then, the benefits of creating one greatly outweigh the challenges. Here are some of the reasons why your business or organization needs one.
- Create a reliable source of information about your business or brand
- Wikipedia boasts very high SEO ranking scores, often appearing at the top of searches
- Improves business credibility since your page ties in with Wikipedia’s reliability
- Can improve website traffic and sales
- Can become a marketing tool
- Improves your online visibility in search engines like Google
- Can become a useful backlinking option for your business
Checking if Your Business is Eligible
Wikipedia measures notability to determine if you can create a page on their website. They want evidence that you’ve made enough notice or impact to garner a page. That means having numerous resources to talk about the company or having national (or greater) recognition.
Wikipedia provides guidelines, but they can be vague. The most significant factor that helps is coverage from reliable secondary sources. Wikipedia examines resources like industry journals, and newspapers to determine notability. You’ll also have to provide information about your company, its services/products, and how people know it.
Your company should have three or more profile articles published by well-known sources. The criteria for these writings are as follows:
- Should not be written by anyone in your company
- Should focus specifically on the company
- Should not be from small-time niche publications or blogs. It should be from a large publication with good editorial practices and a positive reputation.
Creating a Wikipedia Account and Page
Creating an account on Wikipedia is simple. At the top right corner, you’ll see a create account page. Put in your information, submit it and verify your account.
Before you can begin writing a Wikipedia page, you’ll have to participate in the community sandbox. It’s a way to practice with editing tools. Search for your business page as well as you cannot create duplicate pages. If there is an existing page, you can edit the information through contribution.
Contributing to Existing Pages
Contribution is often the ideal option as you can get around the long review times. You can contribute as long as you’ve made the ten edits and your account is older than three days. Edit any existing entries you have to ensure they’re factual. Improving the content will also increase the chances of the edit going through.
Remember that not all of the information you post can end up on the site long. Editors may delete content if they believe it does not fit Wikipedia’s requirements.
Research and Create an Outline
Wikipedia has an AfC submission template to help you with your new page drafts. Multiple people can access and write on it. The first thing you need to do is research all the information you want to put on a page. Organizing them and creating an outline will make a better structure before publishing. For example, you can create a page sorted chronologically or by achievement.
Create a Draft
After you’ve finished the outline, it’s time to fill in the details. As you complete the article, you can check the Helpful Resources box if you need tips on the format. The bulk of your writing will be in this stage.
Submit & Contribute as Needed
After creating your draft, hit the publish button to submit it for review and fact checking. The article will go to Wikipedia editors, and it can take three months or longer to get it approved. Save a copy of your own through the download link. Afterwards, all you need to do is add contributions if you want more information on your page.
Creating a Wikipedia page can be challenging at first. It takes time to adjust and learn how to write pages here. However, the benefits will be great as you can potentially improve your online presence. It is a worthy investment to take.