wikipediaFirst of all let me start by saying that a link from Wikipedia isn’t going to magically boost your website’s performance in Google search. It can be helpful and is interesting to have as part of your portfolio but just don’t expect a night and day difference of your site’s rankings. I have access to multiple sites with Wikipedia links and it really isn’t that big of a deal. But, if you want a Wiki-linky, read on.

Methods to get a Wikipedia link

  • Create great content. Yeah, believe it or not, Wikipedia links to relevant sources around the web. It is sort of how Wikipedia and the rest of the Internet is supposed to work. Sometimes you can do this backwards. In this case you would find a Wikipedia page that needs citations. You can find millions of these by site-searching Wikipedia for “citation needed”. There you go- these are all Wikipedia pages which need to link out to something. NOTE: Sometimes an evil Wikipedian won’t let you link out from a page no matter what. For a funny story on this and puppies, visit my article Why Wikipedia Won’t Link To You- A Case Study.
  • Dead links. Wikipedia is full of dead links. Now before you fire up your 300 proxy servers and whip out you crawler (you do have all this stuff, right?) you should know that Wikipedia has done the leg work for you. Check it out, son: Wikipedia entries with dead links.
  • Be an editor. If you have a few hundred free hours on your hands you can become a reliable editor who can sneak links in while appearing to adhere to Wikipedia’s guidelines.
  • Become friends with an editor. Wikipedians are people, too, and they need friends. Be one of them. If that doesn’t work, pay them. Money makes the world go around. Many of the links you see on the Internet are bought and paid for if you realize it or not.
  • Be notable! Bill Gates and Microsoft have Wikipedia pages. 🙂
  • Write about Wikipedia. I can’t seem to find it, but it does exist. Wikipedia has a page where they link to pages about Wikipedia.
  • Edit low traffic pages. Have a town near you that nobody has ever heard of? Edit that one. People in the sticks are still communicating via smoke signals and tin cans. You’re more likely to get away with dropping a link there than you are on the “Google” Wikipeida page.

Recap

Ok, this was a “fun” article for me to do. Seriously though, don’t be a spammer. If you have content that will enhance a Wikipedia entry, add it. You’re still going to have a 50/50 shot at having your link removed, or at least some back and forth with other moderators.

Len
Latest posts by Len (see all)
On February 20, 2016   /   Uncategorized   /   Leave a comment

Leave a Reply