Wikipedia currently has about 6,459,612 articles in English. That’s an impressive amount of content.
Whatever search term you enter when you’re looking for a useful site and solid information, chances are that Wikipedia is likely to be on the top page of the search results.
What does this mean for you and your business?
Well, as a platform with an average of 258 million page views daily, it means there is a vast potential in terms of SEO and content marketing.
On top of that, over 86% of traffic on Wikipedia is organic.
IN this post, we discuss ways to use Wikipedia to boost your traffic but first, let’s talk about why Wikipedia is relevant for your SEO and content marketing strategy.
Why Use Wikipedia for SEO and Content Marketing?
It’s no secret that Wikipedia ranks for about half of all searches.
That’s because content creators and Internet users worldwide link to its pages often.
Even though some tend to dismiss Wikipedia as an unreliable online encyclopedia that anyone can access and edit its content, this vast online source of information undoubtedly remains one of the favorites for millions of people.
Even Google relied on Wikipedia for big parts of the Knowledge Graph.
Wikipedia is known as a trustworthy, neutral source for people looking for information about something, regardless of what the topic is.
What about nofollow links?
In terms of SEO, you may argue that investing time and effort into Wikipedia is useless since all its outbound links are nofollow.
However, it has never been 100% confirmed if Google really disregards all nofollow links. Hence, many SEO specialists still consider them valuable.
Nofollow links may help increase brand awareness, enable users to connect with your content, search for your company website and social media pages, and ultimately, purchase a product or service from you.
Given its sheer size and the fact it’s constantly growing (about two edits occur every second), Wikipedia should be part of your digital marketing strategy, including SEO and content promotion.
Create a Page for Your Business and Build Trust
Creating a page on Wikipedia for your company is another obvious but clever way to promote your business.
But why doesn’t every business have a Wikipedia page if it’s so beneficial?
Yes, that might be one of the first questions to pop into your mind when you read this. But not every business needs a Wikipedia page.
If that were to happen, Wikipedia would lose its status as a neutral platform and become a commercial one.
But if your business is well-established and you can provide value to Wikipedia users, you should create a page for it.
Provide accurate, useful information about subjects you have great knowledge of and earn the trust of the readers.
Using Wikipedia for content marketing is beneficial in many ways. Unlike a blog, it doesn’t require fresh content all the time, and it’s also far less costly.
You can also become a regular Wikipedia contributor, but you will need to follow the guidelines the platform has set to ensure that all content remains neutral yet of high quality.
We suggest you start by becoming an editor. You can start by modifying small parts of existing pages until you get used to the style.
Explore Content Ideas
SEO specialists and content marketers can also use Wikipedia to generate new content ideas.
How?
By exploring the reference pages found below an article.
At the bottom of every article are reference pages that can serve as inspiration for new topics.
When you generate a content idea, you can produce a quality piece of writing and then optimize it for keywords.
For example, if you have a topic in mind, but you aren’t sure about which angle to take, you can go to Wikipedia’s main page and explore that topic.
You can check the full list of search results to see all the articles related to your search term.
You can also check the categories and subcategories for more inspiration.
It’s an endless pool of inspiration for content creators if you know how to use it.
Explore Keywords
If you need help exploring keywords for your SEO strategy, Wikipedia is a good place to start.
Being such a large repository of free information used by people around the globe, Wikipedia is also a great source of keywords.
Whatever your business or niche is, there are probably search terms on this online encyclopedia related to some of your keywords.
Go to Google and enter your keywords + “Wikipedia” next to it. You will get a list of search results from Wikipedia, leading you to pages related to your keyword.
This way, you can explore keywords related to yours but which are a bit more specific.
For example, if you search for “web design Wikipedia”, the search results will show related terms such as “web development”, “responsive web design”, “what is web design”, etc.
Using this, you can create a list of long-tail keywords to use in your content.
Another way to search for keywords is to go to Wikipedia, locate the search box (top right corner shown in the image below) and type your keyword there.
You will get a list of search results you can explore for inspiration.
Get Backlinks
Perhaps this link-building strategy isn’t something many SEO specialists use, but they should!
Why?
Google sees Wikipedia as an authoritative, trustworthy source of information, which means it’s a great place to get backlinks.
Great backlink opportunities on Wikipedia are:
- Dead links
- Broken links
Dead links are links that are no longer active. These links do not lead you to a source of information anymore. These dead links should be updated and that’s exactly what Wikipedia editors do.
You could replace a dead link with a link to your content.
When you click on a broken link, it shows an error message because the page can’t be reached for some reason.
Broken links are another great opportunity to get backlinks from Wikipedia because you can replace them again with a link to your content. This is a bit time-consuming since you need to search for dead or broken links across Wikipedia.
However, it is very rewarding, especially if you discover that a broken link on Wikipedia is also broken on other sites that link to the same source.
This means you can potentially replace multiple broken links with a link to your content.
If you don’t already have quality content to link to, you can set aside time to create it. It is worth it.
Take Advantage of Citation Needed Links and Statements
Wikipedia is an open-source platform, so anyone can edit the pages and provide sources for uncited claims.
These are unproven statements that could use further proof or a link to a reliable source.
However, it is important to stick to content that’s relevant to your business and what it does because you want to gain credibility.
This does require investing time to produce quality content, but it’s worth it in the long run.
Avoid Spamming
It may sound obvious, but spamming should be out of the question. There is no promotion content on Wikipedia.
You should not take every opportunity to add a link to your site. This isn’t in line with Wikipedia’s non-commercial nature.
You must not appear biased or as directly promoting a brand or service.
Only link to your website when the topic is actually related to it, and you can offer some value to the readers.
Only Link to Relevant Content
Another important aspect is the quality of content you’re referencing.
You should only link to relevant sources to help readers clarify something and add value.
Avoid linking to your content just for the sake of it, especially if it isn’t related to the topic and/or doesn’t really offer any useful information.
Keep an Eye on the Edits
If you started using Wikipedia for content marketing and SEO purposes, you can’t just create a page and abandon it altogether.
You should keep an eye on all the changes that may happen because, once again, Wikipedia is an open-source encyclopedia, so anyone can modify its pages. Not just editors but literally anyone who visits a page.
Some of your edits or reference links could be red flagged which may cause them to be deleted.
To avoid this, you should regularly check your page and any information you posted on Wikipedia to stay on top of the changes. If something is flagged, you can edit it to adhere to Wikipedia guidelines, so it doesn’t get deleted.
Stay Up to Date
Even though Wikipedia is not a blog that needs regular maintenance and fresh content, you should check your company page frequently to add accurate data.
For example, if your company stats change, such as the number of employees, you should keep the info on Wikipedia updated.
It is important to keep the information accurate and relevant because this helps build trust among Wikipedia users.
If done properly, Wikipedia can help bring more traffic to your website and increase brand awareness. This means taking it seriously and dedicating time to your Wikipedia content marketing/SEO strategy.
If you’re ready to stay consistent with your efforts, great results are inevitable.
The post was written by Harold Ader and Roksolana Kozakevych, two Digital Marketing Specialists at DigitalStrategyOne and UPQODE.