How to get an imposing entry on Wikipedia?
Wikipedia is one of the most important and largest encyclopedic websites. 40 per cent of all top 1 search results on Google refer to them. Journalists have long admitted that they use Wikipedia for a first overview. All of this makes the online encyclopedia extremely interesting for companies. Wikipedia itself sees it a little differently.
There are great advantages to being listed on Wikipedia. First, an entry brings prestige, second, Wikipedia can provide a lot of traffic on a website. However, writing about Wikipedia in the context of PR or marketing strategies is borderline. So a few warm words in advance: If any company would try to get an entry in Wikipedia without knowing its criteria, it would be very strange. However, one should not forget that Wikipedia is also an encyclopedia.
“Wikipedia is not a general directory of people, associations, organizations or companies.”
Manipulation doesn’t work
It is, therefore, a good thing that the community is petty, especially with regard to advertising content. Probably the spam and advertising sensitivity on the net is nowhere higher than among the Wikipedia creators and writers. The focus is always on the encyclopedic relevance – a central term for working with and on Wikipedia that you can remember.
The Google algorithm was also not invented to be manipulated. Nevertheless, there is an entire industry that specializes in preparing websites technically and in terms of content for precisely this algorithm – the search engine optimizers. Search engine optimization and Wikipedia are all about moving within the guidelines and acting in the spirit of the inventor. That’s how it should be. But first, you have to understand what makes Wikipedia tick.
The vision – enable access to knowledge
The “Wikipedia” principle is very simple: anyone who has Internet access can take notes on the worldwide information. And even without being logged in. Usually, an author writes a short contribution to a keyword. The contribution will then be jointly expanded by Wikipedia users, updated and corrected if necessary. In this way, snippets of information and expertise from all over the world should be brought together to create a complete and constantly growing documentation of our knowledge. Free access to knowledge is the vision of the project.
Control is good, the organization is better
To avoid errors in the articles, Wikipedia relies on the control mechanisms of the global community. And that works amazingly well. There are enough jokers who spike articles with incorrect information just to test if the controls work. It usually only takes a few seconds for the misinformation to be deleted. However, it depends on the meaning of the respective entry. Much discussed topics and articles with high relevance are kept in mind by significantly more people so that corrections can be made more quickly.
Registered members use the very convenient observation function for this. As soon as a change is made to an entry on the watch list, you will receive a notification and can react to it. Some users specialize in certain subject areas and meticulously search through corresponding entries.
The hierarchy of the Wikipedia provides several levels, over which you can work your way up from a simple member to one of around hundreds of administrators. Active participation is the key to promotion. Finally, you have to be elected administrator. There are also arbitration tribunals, bureaucrats, stewards etc. The processes are much more structured than occasional users might think.
“I’m writing an entry”
Since everyone can participate, many companies find it easy to create their own entry about themselves. After all, everyone can write about everything here. However, this is a major misunderstanding. New articles created in this way are usually deleted in no time. Because all new entries also go through the described control mechanisms.
When it comes to content, Wikipedia is very strict. There are about 150 rules and guidelines in which the user behaviour, but above all the admissibility of the content, is specified.
The four main principles
- Wikipedia is an encyclopedia.
- Contributions are to be written in such a way that they comply with the principle of a neutral position.
- Applicable law – especially copyright – must be strictly observed.
- Other users must be respected and the wikiquette must be observed.
Neither individuals nor institutions should write about themselves, as this contradicts the principle of a neutral point of view. However, Wikipedia does not directly prohibit you from writing about yourself as long as the post is appropriately neutral.