How To Build Backlinks With Wikipedia

You probably know about the power of backlinks, but have you heard about Wikipedia backlinks before?

If you want your website rank high on Google, you first need to understand how the Google algorithm works. The basic principle is that Google displays a website with high credibility at the top of its search result page. The credibility of a website is based on several factors, but one of the most important factors is the number of links the website earns from other credible websites.

For example, if your website earns many links from governmental or educational websites, media, or other influential sources, your website will be deemed as highly credible. In this way, cherry-picking a website and creating a link pointing to yours is called “backlink building.”

In this article, we’re going to learn about how Wikipedia affects SEO and how to build backlinks from Wikipedia.

 

SEO And Wikipedia

First, you might wonder what kind of site is suitable for building backlinks. Especially for online marketing companies, we need to find a new website every time depending on the nature of the project, the type of product, the target, etc.

 

Wikipedia is a representative site that can be used without such worries. Whatever you search in Google, you will notice that Wikipedia’s page is exposed on the first page of search results. This means that Google considers Wikipedia as highly reliable. Therefore, if there are many links on Wikipedia pointing to your or your client’s website, chances are high that the website’s ranking will improve.

 

Is It Really Helpful?

Technically speaking, it may not be. As spam-like links increased, Wikipedia applied rel=”nofollow” to every outbound link. That is to say, “links that directly point to a certain website” can no longer influence its search engine ranking position. For example, even if you create a link on Wikipedia that directs to www.twinword.com, it doesn’t affect its ranking on search results. In addition, Google made it clear that it “generally does not count nofollow links.” That is why SEO experts are divided on the effectiveness of Wikipedia.

 

Then Why Wikipedia?

Despite the controversy over its effect, Wikipedia is worthwhile to use for backlink building. First of all, having a lot of content related to you or your client on Wikipedia simply can boost your SEO. As mentioned above, no matter what information users search for, Google is showing Wikipedia’s answer on the first page. If a lot of your content is exposed to Wikipedia through not only outbound links but also internal links, the traffic to your website is expected to increase.

 

How to Create A Wikipedia Page

Let’s learn how to create a Wikipedia page of your brand which also has a positive impact on search engines.

 

1. Create A Wikipedia Account

First, go to Wikipedia’s homepage and click “Create account” in the top right.

Enter your user name, password, and email address (optional), and then click “Create account” to complete the process.

 

2. Get Promoted To An Auto-Confirmed User

Before creating a page, there is a step that anyone who has just joined Wikipedia must take, which is getting promoted to an “auto-confirmed” user.

According to Wikipedia, users whose accounts are more than four days old and who have contributed to at least ten edits are automatically promoted to an “auto-confirmed” status.

Since this step requires patience, you can visit other Wikipedia pages for a few days after the account is opened and click the ‘Edit’ button in the upper right corner to make additional corrections or contributions.

💡 If you’re not sure which pages you should contribute, refer to Wikipedia articles in need of updating provided by Wikipedia.

 

3. Create The Page

First, go to Wikipedia’s Writing an article page. If you scroll down the page, you’ll see a blue button that reads “Article Wizard.”

Clicking this button gives you two options. You can immediately start off your article by clicking “Next,” or practice writing your page by using Wikipedia’s sandbox.

Let’s click “Next” to create your page.

💡 When writing a Wikipedia article for your brand, keep in mind that you must maintain a neutral tone and avoid writing it in a promotional way; once it is considered as advertising, Wikipedia will delete your page instantly. 

 

4. Provide Quality Citations

Wikipedia is basically an “encyclopedia.” So, to prove the validity and objectivity of your page, you must include various reliable citations provided by the third parties.

Wikipedia clearly announced that “The topic of an article must already be covered from trusted third-party sources that are independent of the subject. The source may be academic journals, books, newspapers, magazines, or websites. Social media, press releases, and corporate/personal profiles do not qualify.”

Therefore, it is desirable to cite magazine and newspaper articles that mention your company, or other websites from which you have earned backlinks.

 

5. Submit the Page For Review

Once you’re finished with your page, submit it for review.

Click the pencil icon on the top right corner on the editing page to switch the page to “Source editing.”

Then, enter

{{subst:submit}}

at the top of the document.

If you see a yellow box that reads, “Review waiting, please be patient,” you have successfully requested for review.

 

6. Regularly Updating The Page 

If you have completed the aforementioned five steps and your page start ranking top on Google’s search result page, regularly update your Wikipedia page with the latest information.

A regular update of your Wikipedia page will make both of your existing and potential customers think that your company is transparent, eventually improving SEO.

Backlinks earned from a trusted website are an important factor for ranking high in Google search results.

So, monitor topics related to your website and manage related links on Wikipedia or even create a Wikipedia page for your brand to improve the SEO of your website.

 

 

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Want to learn more about backlinks and its effect on SEO? Check out our recommended article below!

• What Are Backlinks And Their Effect On SEO Search Engine Ranking