Wikipedia is open-source material. It’s just like an encyclopedia created by people for people. Wikipedia allows the user to create a Wikipedia page, add information, create articles and general knowledge. Wikipedia contains a wide range of topics spanning from very micro topics to wide-area topics.
Creating a Wikipedia page is not child’s play. It’s a very challenging task. Adding a page for your business requires you to know the rules that determine the content that can be added and a determination to write a highly researched page with all the proofs and facts intact.
- Wikipedia has five pillars to guide the creators to write content for the platform:
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. - Wikipedia is written from a neutral perspective.
- Wikipedia is free, editable, usable, and distributable by all.
- Respect and civility must guide interactions among Wikipedia editors.
- The platform has no firm rules, only guidelines, and policies.
After publishing a page volunteer editors are allotted to add and make changes to the page to keep the page updated. The guidelines may seem challenging but those marketers who are capable to work the Wikipedia page in their favor will derive great benefits from the page.
Benefits of a Wikipedia Page
Wikipedia averages over 2.5 billion unique visitors per month, earning the title of the most visited site in the world. The benefits offer by Wikipedia to the business owners and marketers are:
- Earn traffic and drive backlinks to your site: After publishing your articles in Wikipedia and becoming a regular contributor you will be able to create backlinks to your site. You will be able to identify pages that are related to your niche. After identifying you will be able to find out broken links and missing citations and can add backlinks to your site to gain traffic.
- Guide to your services and offerings: As the structure of Wikipedia, you can provide basic information about your business such as location, brand story, and executive list. You can also provide the list of services and offerings and through a direct link, you can lead them to the respective pages of your website.
- Build Credibility: As Wikipedia is not a valid source for scholarly research as it is user-generated, people tend to visit the platform for information. By building a page for your organization on the site, you can further develop your credibility as an established company.
As we’ve discussed, publishing your page on Wikipedia can be a complex process. However, the benefits far outweigh the challenges.
Steps to create a Wikipedia Page
In this post, we break down the ten steps on how to create a Wikipedia page.
1. Create Account
The first step is to create an account that enables you to create pages that have the following benefits:
- access a permanent user page where you can share a brief bio and a few photos
- access a talk page where you can interact with other users
- build your reputation as a Wikipedia author
- customize the ways your pages appear
To register an account, complete this form.
2. Contribute to Existing Accounts
As we know Wikipedia is user-generated content, so to build credibility you have to contribute to some existing accounts and pages.
You can do this by regularly editing other pages, updating links, add some new information, or replacing the old content with new ones.
This regular engagement and improving content will boost your credibility on the site. So when the time comes your page will have a chance to get published seeing your past activates on the site.
3. Verify a Page Doesn’t Already Exist
Perhaps you’re an expert on a particular niche and you’re certain no one has attempted to write on that niche in the expansive landscape that is Wikipedia.
Regardless of how unique you think your topic is, you should still dig to determine whether someone has already staked their flag in your topic.
Use the search bar to explore any pages that may be related to your intended topic.
4. Check Your Topic’s Notability
Notability is a test editors use to determine whether a topic is substantial or relevant enough to need a unique article.
You have to earn this title to get your page published as a different article, to create a Wikipedia page. To get this title there are two specific qualifications: general notability and subject-specific notability.
If you are able to get past these qualifications that you are a step closer to getting your page published. But editors can still merge some related topics and can eliminate the need to publish a stand-alone page.
5. Research Your Topic and Gather Resources
First of all, do thorough research and gather all resources about your topic before diving into writing a Wikipedia page. Use as many resources as you can. Include both internal and external resources to solidify your page and create credibility and reliability of your page. This can also lead you to earn the notability title.
6. Create an Outline
After you’ve gathered your research sources, build an outline for your page. Here, break your information into digestible sections that can be indexed through the site’s table of contents that accompany every page.
7. Write a Draft of Your Wikipedia Page
Take your time while writing your Wikipedia page. The page must be well designed, maintaining proper sub-topics and content. Your content must be thorough thoughtful, and helpful, providing searchers with what they want to know. Wikipedia pages can do a lot of benefits to your marketing efforts, keep in mind that the true intent of the platform is encyclopedic and impartial.
8. Add Citations
Citations mean providing valid proof for the statement written on your Wikipedia page. It’s important to provide citations on your Wikipedia page as this credible source is a way for people to verify your information and trust your content.
Before you start creating your page, Wikipedia shares the disclaimer that: “The topic of an article must already be covered in reliable sources that are independent of the subject. These include journals, books, newspapers, magazines, and websites with a reputation for fact-checking. Social media, press releases, or corporate/professional profiles do not qualify.”
9. Submit your Article for Review
After you have drafted your page and added citations, now it’s time to finally submit your page for the review process to Wikipedia. The review process can go from few days to few weeks.
As we have already mentioned that creating a Wikipedia page will be challenging, you may have your page or it can take three to four rejections to finally getting your page published.
10. Continue making improvements
Once you’ve completed your page and gained approval, it’s not time to rest on your laurels. As your page gains traction on Google, you must conduct regular updates to ensure it provides the most relevant information about your offerings.
Conclusion
Wikipedia is a great source to increase your traffic, improve your Search Engine Optimisation, or build credibility.
Marketers can use a number of strategies that can make the user-generated encyclopedia work to their benefit, doing much more than simply providing information to interested parties.
As you begin to learn how to create a Wikipedia page, keep in mind that the process may be complicated. For your page to be approved, you need reliable sources that stack up to imbue credibility in your page.
However, regardless of how long the process takes, the end product will be well worth it.