Wikipedia SEO Tips & How to Use Wikipedia for SEO Success

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Wikipedia SEO strategies are undoubtedly outstanding and yet one of the simplest. The probability of you coming across Wikipedia’s link on the first SERP for any possible search is exceptionally high. This is because Wikipedia’s information is believed as almost 100% accurate.
So much so that some marketers believe Google favors the site.
However, we cannot deny the fact that Wikipedia is the largest knowledge hub. And its editors are doing a great job in preserving the authenticity of its content.
With the fact that any user can edit Wikipedia’s article content, it becomes a lucrative platform for self-promotion. However, Wikipedia is too particular and stringent about its policies. It does not allow any link spam or promotional activities through its platform. So, one cannot expect direct SEO benefits from Wikipedia.
Now, a smart SEO strategy is to take inspiration from the top-performing sites on Google. And SEOs can draw insights from Wikipedia SEO strategies to inform their on-page efforts.
So, here we will help you by listing down some essential SEO learnings from Wikipedia. Let us dive deep to find the treasures in Wikipedia’s SEO strategy.

What Is the List of SEO Strategies That You Can Learn from the Wikipedia Website?

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1. Internal Linking is the Right Way to Lead

Wikipedia builds a huge internal linking network for its content. A general Wikipedia article has over 500-600 internal links. These links point to relevant Wikipedia pages that add value to the main article.
This interlinking strategy helps Wikipedia make its article insightful and useful. It also helps increase the informational value of the article pages.
This creates fascination among readers on one or the other page.
The strong interlinking strategy of Wikipedia articles allows them to feature great engagement potential. And it, as a result, helps decrease the bounce rate significantly. The total time on the site also increases. And these positive user metrics further improve the site’s ranking potential.
A well-established internal linking structure means no orphan pages on the site. It makes sure that the crawlers can notice and index each webpage added to the site. Thus, making each page eligible to rank on the SERPs.
Wikipedia surely establishes the smartest internal linking strategy. And it would be beneficial if you implement this SEO strategy for your business.

2. Posting Unique & High-quality Content Paves the Road to SEO Success

The editors at Wikipedia ensure that the content sores high for Google’s EAT ranking factor. Wikipedia’s content exudes expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.
And Wikipedia ensures that the content on each of its pages is unique. The uniqueness of each content piece is irrespective of its huge content database. It also makes sure that it does not commit any copyright breach for visual content.
This is why you don’t miss to see the reference block after each page.
The site ensures that the readers find its content reliable, useful, and authentic. And it is likely to be a strong reason why Google favors Wikipedia.
Wikipedia’s online presence claims that your content quality strongly impacts your rankings. So, start building unique and quality-oriented content. And refresh it regularly to keep it compatible with the latest information.

3. Add Highly-relevant External Links or No Links

Wikipedia’s SEO strategy focuses on minimal external links. Most of the links on Wikipedia articles are internal links or links to Wikimedia’s visual content.
Wikipedia links to a site only when the linked content is highly-relevant. For example, as it has linked a site that put accurate information about Apple’s alumni.
This link should build upon or add value to Wikipedia’s content. Moreover, these linked sites are mostly high trustworthy and have a great reputation. The content on these linked pages adds useful insights for the readers. It generally elaborates the already discussed content topic of the Wikipedia article.

4. Do Not Entertain Any Spam Attempts

Wikipedia’s policies are in place to keep a check on every possible spam attempt.
As any user is eligible to edit Wikipedia articles, they try to use it for SEO benefits. You might have seen a superscript “Citation needed” a plethora of times on Wikipedia. This is something where the users can add relevant references or add links.
A user may try to promote his page by adding a backlink on Wikipedia’s article. Or he can even mention his brand name or product offerings for popularity. However, Wikipedia considers any self-promotional activity on its site as spam.
Despite its huge database and billions of users, it maintains its authentic content quality. The team of editors at Wikipedia scrutinizes every user’s content before it makes it live.
They ensure that the users’ content is not promotional and matches the quality standards. It would be best if you took responsibility for every piece of content or link on your website.
A user can spam your content by:

• Adding spammy or promotional content to your website in the form of a guest post
• Adding a low-quality and irrelevant link to your content through a guest post or any other way
• Adding a spammy link in the blog comments

You must establish a strict review process before allowing any external additions.

5. Do Not Generate Duplicate Content & Make Use of Canonical Tags

Wikipedia is highly particular about the uniqueness of its content. Each Wikipedia page is unique and authentic.
However, Wikipedia offers content in several different languages. And to offer readability and quality, it builds different webpages for different languages. It means that you repeat the same content in different languages over different webpages.
Now, search engines are likely to count this content as a duplicate content. And therefore, Wikipedia uses Canonical Tags to tell Google which is the original page.
It avoids the risk of losing authority of the page.
Moreover, Wikipedia uses different subdomains for different language pages. It does not just eliminate the issue of duplicity but improves user experience.

Related : The Role of UX in Enterprise SEO

It is advisable to use Canonical Tags when you need to create duplicate content pages. It helps you inform the crawlers about the original page they need to index. Moreover, you can also build subdomains for duplicate pages. It will safeguard you in case there is any major algorithm update regarding duplicity.

6. Wikipedia Does Not Share its Authority

Owing to the undisputed popularity of Wikipedia, it is a lucrative target for link building. The site allows any user to edit its article content, and it makes the chance more lucrative.
People wish to attract Wikipedia’s link authority by linking their sites in its content.

• They may add promotional links with the content;
• Or add multiple relevant links pointing to their site;
• Or edit the content for their brand mentions.

However, Wikipedia brought its Nofollow policy into action in 2007. This policy helped it curtail the innumerable promotion edit requests that it received.
So, it neither passes link juice nor authorizes a third-party site.
After 2007, Wikipedia started adding a Nofollow value to every external link on its site. This Nofollow practice is about simply adding a “nofollow” meta tag to an HTML link. It tells the crawlers not to crawl the Nofollow link and thus not to share any link equity. This practice only excludes the links pointing to Wikimedia sites.

7. Deliver Value Through Your Content - It Will Always Be Essential

We might debate Wikipedia’s position on the first SERP for almost every search term. However, we cannot deny the fact that its core motive is to provide informational content.
Wikipedia is one of the most useful knowledge hubs on the internet. It does not bombard the users with any advertisements or promotional content. The editors here strive to build the most authentic and trustable data resource. And it is one reason why Wikipedia pages have a low bounce rate.
Wikipedia’s ‘no advertising’ might make advertisers grumpy, but it makes readers happy. And the site thrives owing to its happy readers. It might be one reason why Google might be favoring Wikipedia.
Also, Wikipedia has mentioned why they don’t do ads here.
It is advisable to write for your readers and offer value from your content. And search engines will always appreciate trustworthy and useful content. It will also help you increase user engagement and conversions through your pages.

8. Use Authentic Articles with Only Reader-useful References

Contributors tend to add reference citations in the form of hyperlinked text to Wikipedia content. But many a time, the editors remove these references if they don’t find these useful.
They don’t mind even if there is no single reference but never allow a non-trusted reference link.
Wikipedia limits its references to only reader-useful references from trusted sites. Its editors nuke any reference citation that points to self-published content.
In many a case, it seems impossible to add reference citations or links to Wikipedia. On the other end, it helps Wikipedia to establish unwavering authenticity across its site.
You can also follow it to improve the trustworthiness of your website.

9. Wikipedia Can Even Block a Website or User from Its Platform

A site, Suite101.com, tried to spam Wikipedia by adding its promotional links on the articles. Wikipedia has clearly given their policies and guidelines that it’s going to ban the users or IPs who try to vandalize their pages. “A site, Suite101.com, tried to spam Wikipedia by adding its promotional links on the articles.
Wikipedia editors came across multiple such attempts from Suite101.com in 2006. So, they removed all these links and even blacklisted this site and user.
Moreover, Wikipedia filed a lawsuit against Suite101.com for violating its policy. According to the case, Suite101.com had to pay Wikipedia a certain amount per visitor. And after this incident, Wikipedia employed the Nofollow approach for all external links.
Even after Suite101.com met the compensation amount, Wikipedia kept the site blacklisted. Wikipedia doesn’t allow any link from Suite101.com on its site, even as reference citation.
So, if you are thinking of drawing a promotional link from the site, halt your thoughts. Instead, try to learn how Wikipedia builds its authenticity.

10. Pay Attention to Content Structure and User Metrics

Wikipedia is a trusted knowledge hub, and it features purely informative content. It aims at helping readers get comprehensive information about almost every term.
It covers each detail about a concept from the beginning to the end.
Wikipedia does a great job by building an impressive content structure for its articles. With a minimalistic design, the site makes excellent use of sidebars, tables, header tags, etc.
It tries to deliver high readability to its users with the use of images and visual data. Moreover, the exceptional interlinking practice reduces the bounce rate on its pages. The website attracts positive user metrics like:

• More time on page
• Increased pages per session
• High readability and low bounce rate
• Higher engagement and more clicks on each page

Implementing these practices for your website can help you attract significant SEO gains.

How Can You Use Wikipedia for Your SEO?

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Wikipedia’s policies are strictly against self-promotion, and it only favors “neutral” content. The platform only accepts highly relevant content and links. And it adds the Nofollow value for each external link.
If you exercise multiple promotional attempts on Wikipedia, they might block you. And so, it is challenging to use Wikipedia for SEO. Below are some way in which you can employ Wikipedia to grow your SEO gains:

1. Establish a Credible Profile

When you have a Wikipedia account, focus on developing credibility for your profile. You need to rise as an authoritative contributor. And the first step is to create a user page. It’s free for everyone and allows a limited number of password resets.
Grow your contribution page as per the age of your account. As the authority of your user page grows, your profile becomes noteworthy.
You must utilize your Talk page to connect with the Wikipedians and talk with them. An active Talk page helps you stand-out as a genuine contributor. Make sure you stay logged in every time you make edits to any article on Wikipedia. Every edit adds to your contribution history, which is important to grow your profile.

2. Be Prepared for the Notability Test

To edit or contribute to Wikipedia, you must pass its Notability test. You must prove your authorship credibility with the help of various notable mentions. This mentions can be in the form of:

• Published books (with ISBN)
• Reputed press mentions
• The author mentions for authentic research papers

You must include all your mentions on your website. It would be advisable to have a dedicated page that exudes your notable mentions. It will help you clear Wikipedia’s Notability test.
So, now when you contribute an article, you can add references from your mentions. It is crucial to back your every contribution with references. And there are higher chances that Wikipedia will accept highly relevant references.

3. Try to Collaborate with Wikipedia Sister Sites

Wikipedia is a lucrative platform for SEOs but drawing any SEO gains from it is challenging. However, there are Wikipedia sister sites that can help you meet some of your objectives. These sites fall under Wikipedia’s internal link network.
A backlink or a mention from any of these sites will also bring a lot of credibility.
One such site is Wikinews, which like any other site, gets ranked on the SERPs. The site receives a good amount of traffic and can also help you with link building.
You can connect with Wikinews like any other media site to pitch your PR story. If you can connect and convince a journalist there, you are likely to get a PR mention. Mentions from Wikipedia’s sister sites can help you build credibility for your profile.

4. Focus on Contributing Through Content

Employing Wikipedia for your SEO benefits is not at all simple. And one should concentrate on contributing through content instead of drawing links. After clearing Wikipedia’s Notability criteria, you must build contribution history.
When submitting articles on Wikipedia, you can add highly relevant links. These links must be pointing to highly reputed blog sites or news sites. Only add reader-useful links, or the editors will wipe it off. You can add links to the references section, where it makes the most sense. Even if there is a link to your site as a reference, editors must find it highly useful.

5. Keep a Watch on Potential Opportunities and Walk One Step at a Time

You need to understand that contributing to Wikipedia isn’t a ‘write and submit’ task. But, you need to find the right opportunity and establish credible authorship.
The watch function on Wikipedia can help you keep track of the right opportunities. You need to keep looking for articles that may require essential edits or references. Now when you watch certain articles, the watch function captures the information. And when you log into your Wikipedia account, it informs you about any changes made to these pages.
Sometimes, research to find “dead links” on Wikipedia pages, where a link is broken and you can replace it with a relevant backlink from your site.
Moreover, when you are looking for opportunities, start with more achievable goals. Initially, try to contribute to the pages that are less popular and receive low traffic. In case you try to fish the popular pages, you will only receive failure.
The editors might also mark your content and link as spam. So, it is better to start with less-visited pages and grow your profile progressively. It is a great way to build trust and authority.

Does Wikipedia Link Add Value to Your Website?

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Since 2007 Wikipedia is following a stringent Nofollow link policy. The platform adds a “Nofollow” tag to each of the external links on its pages. Wikipedia devised this policy so to curtain any link spam on its platform. So, now any business cannot draw link authority or link value from Wikipedia.
However, we should not forget that Wikipedia pages serve as a huge knowledge hub. Almost all these pages rank on the first page of SERP for millions of different terms. They attract millions of visitors every month. And if any business successfully links its site on a popular Wikipedia page, it can draw massive traffic through Wikipedia.
So, even if you cannot attract Wikipedia’s authority, you can earn a significant no. of visitors. And therefore, Wikipedia links are highly valuable for every business. It is one crucial reason why Wikipedia is always on the radar of marketers and SEOs.
However, attracting links from Wikipedia is another huge struggle. Owing to the platform’s harsh policies, SEOs can’t use it for any self-promotion purposes. Smart contributions (while abiding by the rules) are the only way to use Wikipedia for SEO gains.

Wikipedia SEO FAQs

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1. Can I Grow Traffic on My Client’s Website by Building His Wikipedia Page?

First of all, creating a Wikipedia page is not a mainstream SEO strategy. Building a Wikipedia page is not as simple as it may seem. Wikipedia is a platform dedicated to human knowledge. And it will only allow a business page if it is a well-known, reputed brand.
Moreover, Wikipedia does not allow business promotion through its content. It will remove any content that has even the slightest hint of promotion. The platform assigns a Nofollow value to any external link. And it only allows highly-relevant and reader-useful links on its pages.
You also have to stand-up for Wikipedia’s Notability criteria. You cannot submit an article from scratch, and it should already have notable mentions. The information must be covered by reputable press platforms, books, or journals. So, to create a noteworthy reference database. You must understand and follow Wikipedia’s Guidelines to contribute to its platform.

2. If a Business Has a Wikipedia Page, Does It Gain Any SEO Advantage?

Any business that has a Wikipedia page gets an abounding SEO advantage from it. Wikipedia pages mostly rank on the top of SERPs and earn a significant amount of search traffic. So, if Wikipedia allows your link or even reference link, you might draw huge traffic. A Wikipedia page is a strong social proof, and it drives great credibility for a business.
However, for a Wikipedia page, you already need solid credibility and recognition. You must not even try to make your Wikipedia page yourself.
Wikipedia is strictly against promotions, and it will delete any such attempt right away. The community might also blacklist your business in case of multiple such attempts.
You need to have a notable authorship experience and credibility as a contributor. And you would have to build your authority as a Wikipedia contributor as well. After sincere efforts, you might be able to create a neutral page about your brand.

3. Is It Possible to Utilize Wikipedia for SEO?

Most businesses crave a presence on Wikipedia. The site has an impressive online presence and can deliver huge SEO benefits. Moreover, having a Wikipedia page can grow your business credibility substantially.
However, utilizing Wikipedia for SEO is not something that comes easy. Wikipedia only allows “neutral” content that is non-promotional and authentic. Moreover, it marks all external links as Nofollow. So, if you want direct SEO gains from Wikipedia, you will be disappointed. However, there are some tips to create a Wikipedia presence:

• Build a strong contributor profile on Wikipedia by contributing actively
• Try to build engagement with the community, on and off the platform
• Make sure you are eligible for the “Notability” criteria
• Try to collaborate with Wikipedia sister sites
• Keep a watch on potential pages that require references or edits (use Watch function)
• Start contributing on lesser-known pages and grow gradually

4. What Can I Learn from Wikipedia’s SEO?

Marketers may think that Google favors Wikipedia, but the platform has its SEO in place. Here are some SEO tips to learn from Wikipedia:

• Wikipedia builds an extensive internal linking network for each of its pages. You can learn from it to eliminate any orphan pages and inform crawlers about each page.
• Wikipedia focuses on authentic informational content. Moreover, their content is unique and non-promotional.
• Wikipedia articles only contain highly-relevant links and only useful references. Thus, growing the content’s authenticity and credibility.
• Wikipedia uses canonical tags for pages in different languages. These tags inform the crawlers about the original page.
• Wikipedia does not allow any advertising or promotions on its articles. Plus, it has strict policies against link spam.
• Wikipedia focuses on growing readability through its content structure. And the wide interlink networks help it reduce the bounce rate on the articles.

Into the Conclusion

The popularity of Wikipedia proves that quality content is the right way to online success. Moreover, you must focus on delivering value and building credibility.
Above are various Wikipedia SEO tips that you must use to inform your SEO efforts. With this, you can follow the above-listed tips to contribute your content on the platform.
Schedule a free consultation with our SEO experts to know more about SEO and how Wikipedia gains organic search traffic from Google.