When it comes to boosting the visibility of your business or digital marketing in general, Wikipedia is a highly underrated platform. We often think of Wikipedia as an online dictionary dump where you can find any fact about any historical figure for your class presentation – and it definitely does just that – but it also has a lot of use beyond that as well.
While a Wikipedia page for your company can greatly boost its visibility and credibility, creating a lasting digital footprint comes with both advantages and challenges. This article explores the pros and cons of having a Wikipedia page for businesses. We’ll delve into the benefits of utilizing Wikipedia for businesses alongside the challenges associated with creating and maintaining a page on the platform.
Benefits of a Wikipedia Page for Your Business
Increased Customer Trust and Credibility
Wikipedia is one of the most visited sites in the world. Think about it from your own daily use. Every time you need to look up a quick fact on the internet or look up a definition of a tricky word, the first result that pops up on any search engine is that of Wikipedia. Having a dedicated page for your business on Wikipedia would mean that customers will likely consider your work to be more legitimate and trustworthy. This is good for your clientele and also for potential partnerships and investments.
Healthy SEO and Increased Online Visibility
As we mentioned earlier, Wikipedia pages generally tend to rank higher on search engine results. This means that if your business’ Wikipedia page is well-written then it is highly likely to boost your company’s SEO. This is great for customers since they are likely to find your services easily in the vast sea of internet searches which means more traffic for your website and other pages associated with it.
Comprehensive Business Information
Apart from being good for SEO and increasing the visibility of your business, Wikipedia is also generally a great place for you to talk about your business in-depth and give people all the relevant information they need about your services. The standard Wikipedia way of breaking down articles would prove useful. You can create sections to talk about your company’s history, missions, achievements, and services. It is a one-stop information base for your business.
Brand Awareness That You Don’t Need to Pay for
Wikipedia would implicitly be very beneficial for your brand awareness. Think about it. If you specialize in producing custom car wraps and someone is looking for a business of your domain in their nearby area then it is highly likely for them to stumble across your Wikipedia page even if they have not directly searched for it. Using SEO tools, your Search Engine would match their search in likelihood with your page. This is brand awareness for free!
Challenges Associated With Building a Wikipedia for Businesses
Strict Notability Requirement to Follow
Contrary to popular belief, people cannot just post anything they want on Wikipedia. The platform has very strict notability requirements that must be followed for your business to qualify for presence on Wikipedia. The most important one is that your business needs to be somewhat well-established already. This means that if your business has significant online coverage through reliable sources then Wikipedia will consider dedicating a page to it. Otherwise, every business (whether it is functional or not) would have a page on the platform, greatly clogging up their resources.
Neutral View Point
One thing you may or may not have noticed about the content on Wikipedia is that it is never biased towards any opinion or ideology. This is because Wikipedia has a strict neutral point of view policy which requires articles to take a neutral position on whatever is being talked about. This has several problems for businesses. First of all, you would need to be very particular in what you write about your business. Secondly, you cannot directly use the platform for marketing your business. Thirdly, all the content that you post needs to be backed up by reliable sources which is another issue when it comes to marketing for a business page.
Threat of Online Vandalism
Wikipedia pages can technically be edited by anyone which means that this constantly opens up your business page to the threat of being edited by anyone to represent false or harmful information. This means that you would constantly need to ensure that you are monitoring and managing your page so that it is protected from negative changes. This can be a time-consuming process and a costly one if you choose to hire someone. If you choose to overlook such threats then it will reflect on the image of your business.
Loss of Editorial Rights
Once your Wikipedia page goes live, you lose all editorial control over it which means that Wikipedia’s own group or community of editors is now responsible for ensuring that your page aligns with their standards. They can make edits that you may not necessarily like or agree with. Once your Wikipedia page goes live, your business image on the platform is in someone else’s hands.
Regardless of which direction you choose to go in, we think that you could benefit greatly from some advice regarding how to actually manage and run a Wikipedia page effectively…
Recommended Practices for Creating and Maintaining a Wikipedia Page for Your Business
Notability Guidelines
You have to make sure that your business page strictly meets all of Wikipedia’s notability guidelines to the dot. There is an increasing amount of research on how to do that but, for now, we will summarize the criterion in the following list:
- Independent Sources: All of your content sources should be independent of the subject which means that self-published content, press releases, or promotional content will not fly.
- Reliable Sources: Ensure that all coverage comes from publications that are reliable. Reliable publications include books, newspapers, academic journals or research papers, and academic magazines.
- Significant Coverage: It is important that the subject matter should have received a significant amount of coverage from your sources.
- Multiple Sources: Make sure that your subject matter does not depend on a single or a few references. Usually, multiple sources are required to increase legitimacy.
- Non-temporary Notability: You have to ensure that the subject matter is not something that has temporary fame but is something that has a long-lasting chance of user interest and notability.
- Sustained Interest: This is similar to the point mentioned above, wherein the subject matter needs to have gathered interest over a long period of time.
- Original Research: Original research or personal analysis of any subject matter is not considered reliable therefore avoid including any.
- Specialized Criteria: Different sorts of publications on different topics have a range of acceptability criteria, which is why it is important that you go through these before writing.
Using Reliable and Authentic Sources
Wikipedia puts the most focus on this particular point. Your go-to authentic sources would include books, newspaper articles, and academic journals. JStor, for example, is a great source for citations in a Wikipedia article. However, this obviously has little to do with a business page. What you need to make sure for your Wikipedia business page is that you don’t use any press releases, external blogs or articles, or direct content from your website as a source.
Monitoring and Maintaining the Page
Make sure that you regularly check up on your page to ensure that all content is up to date and accurate. If you come across any vandalism-related issues, then use the mechanisms provided by Wikipedia to deal with the matter promptly. Also, ensure that you engage with the Wikipedia community with a certain level of respect so that your page maintains its integrity.
Hiring a Professional Editor
If you do not exactly understand how to create a Wikipedia page for your business and you do not have the time or energy to invest in learning resources then perhaps it is best that you hire a professional Wikipedia editor to do the heavy lifting for you. These experts are familiar with Wikipedia guidelines and can ensure that you meet all the necessary requirements.
Quick Guideline on How to Make a Wikipedia Page for Your Business
Create a Wikipedia account
If you don’t have one then the first and foremost step is to fire up Wikipedia and create an account.
Draft your Business Page Article
Using your personal Sandbox on Wikipedia, you can create a draft for your article and experiment with how you want it to look without actually publishing it. Make sure that you keep all the publishing policies that we talked about earlier in mind.
Structure your Article
Normally, you would find that a business page article on Wikipedia is structured in the following manner:
- Introduction: Write a summary of your business, including its name, purpose, and founding details.
- History: Provide a detailed history of your business, how it started, what were the major milestones along with the dates associated with these.
- Products and Services: Describe the products or services your business offers.
- Notable Achievements: Highlight any significant achievements, awards, or recognitions.
- References: Cite all sources using proper citation formats (check Wikipedia publishing guidelines for these).
Submit your Article
Make sure you review the article in thorough detail and ensure that it follows all required guidelines. Click on Submit for Review and wait for your article to be reviewed by experienced Wikipedia editors.
Conclusion
We can see how having a Wikipedia page for your business offers significant advantages, but it also clearly comes with a lot of work and some challenges to face. By carefully considering the factors mentioned above, we don’t see why you cannot create a successful Wikipedia page for your growing business. If you cannot do it yourself then there is a sea full of professionals for hire ready to do it for you given the right amount.
Happy Publishing!
FAQ’s
Who qualifies for a Wikipedia page?
There are multiple factors that decide who qualifies for a Wikipedia page. The first is the notability criteria which require a person, organization, or a topic, to have a significant amount of coverage via independent and reliable sources. You also have to ensure that the topic in question has a sustained amount of relevance in the world and that it is not just temporarily famous. There are other specific guidelines for different subject matters, make sure to check them out on Wikipedia’s website.
How do I claim ownership of a Wikipedia page?
Technically speaking, Wikipedia pages are entirely community-run and edited which means that no sole person or organization can lay ownership of any article. However, if there is a situation where you are closely linked to the subject matter then it is important that you reveal any conflict of interest to the community. Ultimately, the control over how articles are edited is entirely in the hands of the Wikipedia community.
Is Wikipedia free for commercial use?
Yes, the platform is entirely free to use for commercial purposes which is one of the best things about Wikipedia, making it one of the most popular online dictionaries and sources of knowledge. But there are certain intellectual property rights restrictions that you have to follow. For example, any source that you use in your article has to be backed by a proper reference to the original source.
Is Wikipedia backlinks worth it?
Wikipedia has what is called a very high domain authority. In simple terms, it means that backlinks from Wikipedia are highly valued by search engines and this can greatly increase your business website’s SEO. A backlink from a Wikipedia article also adds majorly to referral traffic to your business website.