A Wikipedia page offers the opportunity to get featured in one of the most influential websites on the internet. Having your own Wikipedia page can be extremely beneficial, whether you’re an entrepreneur looking to get exposure or a person who wants to gain credibility in their industry. Whether you’re an individual looking to establish your credibility as an expert in your field or a business hoping to expand its reach and increase its online presence, having a Wikipedia page (or better yet, several of them) can help you accomplish those goals and more. Here are 8 benefits of having your own Wikipedia page.
Why Does Having a Wikipedia Page Matter?
The most compelling benefit to having your own Wikipedia page is simple: Having one shows search engines that your business or personal brand is notable enough to be referenced in an encyclopedic resource. In turn, it will generate more organic traffic from Google and other search engines. However, while it may seem obvious that generating more traffic should always be a goal, you should think carefully about how much time you want to devote to managing your Wikipedia page because it can easily become an all-consuming activity. There are plenty of benefits to having a Wikipedia page, but don’t expect perfection.
1) Create Traffic from Search Engines
By creating an informative page on Wikipedia you can drive more traffic to your business’s website, which is great for SEO purposes. When you create a Wikipedia page for your business, editors will check it and decide whether or not it belongs on their site. If they decide that it does belong there, then they’ll put it up! Once you have an informative page on Wikipedia with keywords related to your business, you can increase your rankings in search engines like Google. Those rankings translate into more traffic from search engines like Google as people try to find out more about your company or personal brand.
2) Boost Your Authority as an Expert
If you want to be seen as an authority in your niche, your Wikipedia page is going to be one of your most powerful assets. Since you can link to yourself from other sites on your page, not only does it help bring more traffic to your website, but it also helps send visitors directly to a spot where they can learn more about you or what you do. What’s more, since Google shows Wikipedia pages at the top of its results whenever anyone searches for information on a particular topic, having a presence on Wikipedia can also boost your SEO efforts. If someone looks up information related to what you do or sell, they may just stay right there on that Wikipedia page rather than navigating away like they would with most search engine results.
3) Future Customers/Employers Will See It
They say that any publicity is good publicity, but that’s only true to an extent. While it’s true that potential clients or customers may check your Wikipedia page. If they find out you founded a successful business or contributed heavily to charity efforts, they’ll be impressed! Your attributes will give them insight into who you are as a person and how impressive is your business. For some people, it may take longer to get hired because someone will need to verify what’s on your page before putting in an application.
4) Increase your Visibility on Google
Media outlets are always on their toes looking for new, relevant content. If you can write an interesting Wikipedia page that provides media outlets with useful information, there’s a good chance they will use it in one way or another. Media can even translate your Wikipedia page into different languages; you could easily get international exposure through news outlets abroad. And don’t forget about social media; your Wikipedia page could get picked up by popular blogs or shared widely on Facebook—increasing its authority in Google searches. Overall, creating an informative Wikipedia page offers many benefits to both individuals and businesses alike.
5) Get Attention from Media
Having a Wikipedia page can help you get press. According to an infographic from Keevy Media, about 35% of journalists use Wikipedia as a primary source, making it one of their first stops when reporting on new subjects. Having your page on Wikipedia makes getting attention from those reporters that much easier. For example, Sky News reported that Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web had a personal Wikipedia page, complete with a photo. Because Berners-Lee had his own Wikipedia page, Sky News was able to report on his opinions about net neutrality without having to go directly to him. If he didn’t have his page they might not have been able to reach him so easily.
6) Build Trust with Customers
Google rewards those with popular links from high-ranking, authoritative domains. If you can get a link to your Wikipedia page from a major publication or a site that ranks well in Google, it will be great for SEO purposes because you’ll immediately have an extremely high-ranking backlink. Not only does your Wikipedia page have huge potential as an asset through which you can drive traffic, but it could also help boost your search engine rankings over time. One meta-analysis showed that adding one new piece of content to Wikipedia can increase search ranking by up to 200 positions! The more popular your Wikipedia page becomes, the more powerful your link will be.
7) Establish yourself as a Thought Leader
Writing a Wikipedia page will help you gain more visitors to your site through search engines. The more links that point back to your site, generally speaking, help you rank higher in Google’s search engine. And getting onto Wikipedia itself? That’s even better because it’s harder to get on there than regular ol’ Wikipedia pages. There are 1.8 million active English language Wiki articles, but only about 20,000 have been awarded featured status by being deemed important or notable enough for their entry.
8) Link Popularity for SEO Purposes
If you want to create links from Wikipedia, there are two main schools of thought. One says you should create a page about yourself or your business and then actively seek out references on Wikipedia. Another says you shouldn’t reference Wikipedia at all—that’s counter-productive because it shows Google that you don’t care about your content enough to link to it. Instead, create useful content on your website and increase traffic organically. Once you have lots of incoming links, someone will probably decide to create a Wikipedia page to maximize visibility for those incoming links.
Conclusion
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that provides detailed information on a plethora of topics, from current events to pop culture. It’s one of humanity’s greatest creations, but you might not know about all its potential uses. Using your own Wikipedia page as a reference point is a great way to highlight your accomplishments or provide helpful information. Whether you’re trying to make yourself look better or improve public perception around your business, you need a good Wikipedia page. You can take help from a digital marketing agency to have your Wikipedia page.