Wikipedia and SEO: Everything you need to know

Do you remember what life was like before the internet was widespread?

What would you do if you wanted to know who the head coach of the 1986 Detroit Pistons was or learn about the migration habits of the European turtle dove? You had to rely on your memory (spotty at best), ask a friend (possibly unreliable), or take a trip to your local library (does anyone know how Dewey’s decimal system works?).

Now a simple Google search can give you the answer to just about any question you could ever have.

And one of the most popular sources for finding all kinds of information is Wikipedia.

This community-curated encyclopedia has over 56 million pages in 328 languages, most of which can be edited by anyone.

And yet, despite this free entry, it maintains a surprisingly high level of accuracy.

Cunningham’s law may contribute to this, which states that “the best way to get the correct answer on the Internet is not to ask a question; it is to post the wrong answer.”

That’s great and all, you’re probably saying right now, but what does that have to do with search engine optimization? It turns out to be quite a lot.

If you think about it, it makes sense.

Wikipedia, the seventh most popular website in the world, appears on the first page of search engine results for all types of searches, including some of the queries you are likely to be looking for.

And with a little strategy and digital knowledge, you can put it to work for you through both off-site and on-site SEO tactics.

Ready to learn more? Keep reading.

Wikipedia Guidelines

Although Wikipedia pages are built and maintained by users, you cannot just create new pages.

Otherwise, people who want to feel important and every mom-and-pop store in the world would pollute the online encyclopedia with unimportant entries.

Imagine the headache it would cause if you researched Rene Descartes (the famous 17th-century philosopher and mathematician) and instead ended up on a page about Rene Descartes, who works in the produce department of a supermarket.

To avoid this scenario, Wikipedia has strict guidelines on how to handle topics.

But here’s the thing: Wikipedia is clear in its five pillars that it has no hard and fast rules.

It understands that policies evolve, so if you have enough time to spare, you can find published Wikipedia articles that violate any of the guidelines listed above.

Now let’s take a look at how you can make Wikipedia work with your SEO efforts.

Google And Wikipedia

Google and Wikipedia are two of the most prominent players on the Internet.

And while each exerts a huge influence in its field, such as chocolate and peanut butter, they are even better together.

How Does Google Use Wikipedia?

As you’ve probably noticed from your searches, Google mostly relies on Wikipedia for recommended snippets about people and places. But the relationship between the two sites goes much deeper.

Wikipedia is the online source for knowledge.

People know, use and trust it to provide information about just about anything. And it’s not just people who feel this way.

Wikipedia has a domain authority of 100, and in a 2018 Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) Google Webmaster Trends analyst John Mueller confirmed that the Google Knowledge Graph uses Wikipedia.

When asked about data sources, he said, “We use the knowledge graph (which comes from several places, including Wikipedia) to try to understand entities on a page.”

With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that many marketers link to Wikipedia pages in hopes that the search engine giant will notice their site and give it some reflected authority.

There’s only one small problem: Google doesn’t do that anymore.

Sites link to Wikipedia, CNN and Disney homepages in hopes of being seen as important sites by search engines.

Well, they did, almost 30 years ago.

— johnmu from switzerland (personal) (@JohnMu) Dec 23, 2021

Well, what about backlinks? Wouldn’t a link to a Wikipedia entry improve your ranking with all those citations?

Unfortunately, all of these links are nofollow in an effort to reduce spam and discourage the creation of advertorials or other marketing initiatives masquerading as encyclopedia items.

John Mueller confirmed the futility of actively seeking Wikipedia backlinks in a 2021 Reddit post:

“Randomly dropping a link on Wikipedia has no SEO value and will do nothing for your site. All you do is create extra work for the Wikipedia administrators who will remove your link drops. It’s a waste of your time and theirs.”

Okay, so Wikipedia doesn’t help SEO through inbound or outbound links, and the guidelines specifically prohibit listing for marketing.

What Should a Search Engine Optimization Program Do?

Just because you can’t use some of the more popular SEO tactics with Wikipedia doesn’t mean the online encyclopedia can’t help you improve your search engine rankings.

SEO Strategies For Wikipedia

From keyword planning to content ideas, building credibility or generating clicks, there are several ways you can use Wikipedia for both off-page and on-page SEO.

Ways To Use Wikipedia For Off-Site SEO

In the past, many SEO professionals have found all kinds of spammy ways to use Wikipedia for extra web traffic.

And as you’d expect, these people ruined it for everyone.

But that’s not to say there aren’t ways you can use Wikipedia for your off-site SEO purposes.

Here are some ways to do that:

1. Collect referral traffic through quotes and broken links.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that nofollow links aren’t valuable.

When a citation links to your site, you can get referral traffic from people looking for the original source of information.

(If you’ve ever cited a Wiki article in an online argument just to hear “lol, Wikipedia,” you know the value of clicking those citation links.)

In addition, other sites looking for a reliable source for their web pages are more likely to link directly to you. As a Wikipedia source, you have instant credibility.

2. Use Wikipedia to develop linking opportunities.

When people are looking for a high-level overview of a topic, Wikipedia is often the first stop. This means that it is often the most relevant link for broad match keywords.

Using a tool like Semrush, you can discover who is linking to a page and then use this information to build links to those sites. This will increase your authority and thus improve your ranking.

You can also browse the reference pages to grow your network of related websites, people and organizations.

3. Create your own Wikipedia page.

Okay, this is a little tricky. Your sole proprietorship, Jill’s SEO Shop, is probably not remarkable enough to live up to Wikipedia’s expectations. But a company like John Deere or Louis Vuitton does.

If your business deserves its own Wikipedia page, you should have one.

If you think you meet the requirements, you should work with an experienced Wikipedia editor to develop well-structured content that meets the requirements and tells the history of your company.

Be careful not to be labeled as spam.

Using Wikipedia For On-Site SEO

It’s easy to forget, but the purpose of any encyclopedia, online or physical, is to provide information.

And as the world’s most comprehensive encyclopedia, Wikipedia is an excellent resource for SEOs looking to maximize their ranking.

Here are a few ways it can help:

Finding the right words and phrases is a big part of what search engine optimization is all about.

Wikipedia is an excellent resource for uncovering industry nomenclature and actual language.

Since most Wikipedia articles are written or at least edited by experts on the subject, you can expect them to use the phrases and language your target audience will use in searches.

This is especially useful if you work in a technical field.

2. Determine interest in a topic.

One of the best things about Wikipedia from an SEO perspective is that it makes all of its traffic statistics available to the public.

If you have an idea for a new blog and want to see if there’s any interest in that topic, it’s a good place to start by checking out the visits to related Wiki pages.

It’s not a hard and fast rule, but in general, if a Wikipedia page has a lot of traffic, more people will search for information on that topic.

Likewise, an article topic that only gets a handful of visitors a month may not drive a lot of traffic to your site either.

3. Use it as a content planning tool.

Coming up with new content ideas is a constant challenge for many SEOs. This is where Wikipedia can be your best friend.

Start combing the quotes. Look at the linked pages and steal and borrow their ideas.

Make boring content fun and you will start getting clicks from those sites.

You also want to look for stubs and pages with dead links and quotes that are needed.

Providing information to flesh out topics, replacing dead links with your own live links, and serving as a source of information are all great ways to build your authority and create content for underexposed topics – which can lead to to high search results.

Putting Wikipedia To Work For You

Wikipedia is an interesting unicorn of a site.

With no marketing angle, nofollow links and no paid advertising option, it might seem like something an SEO can ignore at first glance – this would be a mistake.

While you should take care not to spam, if done correctly, Wikipedia can be an incredible resource for search engine professionals.

Creating high-quality content that is relevant to a page can serve as a resource.

But even if you’re not, you can use Wikipedia as a research tool for finding new ideas, topics, and linking sites.

With such strict guidelines it might feel strange at first, but with some work you can use the online encyclopedia to help your site rank higher and get more traffic.

Featured Image: Oleksiy Mark/Shutterstock

How do I start SEO?

How do you start an SEO campaign?

• Step 1: Set KPIs & Goals. …
• Step 2: Analyze your current website settings. …
• Step 3: Create Subject & keyword research. …
• Step 4: Develop a pillar content strategy. …
• Step 5: Conduct an SEO audit. …
• Step 6: Work on audit findings. …
• Step 7: Work on Local SEO. …
• Step 8: Work on backlinks.

Is SEO good for beginners? If you’re serious about improving search traffic and are unfamiliar with SEO, we recommend reading the Beginner’s Guide to SEO front-to-back. We’ve tried to make it as concise and easy to understand as possible, and learning the basics of SEO is an essential first step in achieving your online business goals.

Can I do SEO on my own?

You can absolutely do SEO yourself or DIY SEO (Do It Yourself SEO). With some research and a lot of practice, anyone can learn how to do SEO for their business. A quick way to get started with SEO is to enter your URL here and then focus your SEO efforts on the recommended action items.

How much does it cost to do SEO yourself?

Type	Cost	Who uses it?
DIY SEO	Free	Solopreneurs
Cheap SEO	$500 to $3,000 per month	Small companies
Middle Class SEO	$3,000 to $15,000 per month	Established companies
High-quality SEO	$15,000-$30,000 per month	High traffic websites

Can I do SEO for free?

The Ahrefs SEO Toolbar is a free Chrome and Firefox extension that allows you to check for broken links, track redirect chains, and flag nofollow links for any web page. It also generates an on-page SEO report that includes the web pages: Title. Meta description.

Is SEO a waste of money?

The short answer is that SEO works and it can grow your business and provide your business with an ROI. The reality is that it can also waste a lot of money if done wrong.

What is the first step to start SEO?

Defining the relevant keywords is the first step in creating search engine optimized website content. Using the keywords and building your themes around it creates content that answers Google searches.

How much does Wikipedia cost?

Ultimately, Band and Gerafi conclude that the website is worth “tens of billions of dollars” and has a replacement cost of $6.6 billion dollars. For context, it costs the site $25 million every year to run. And by comparison, Twitter’s recent IPO announcement has valued their company at about $12.8 billion.

How much money does Wikipedia make from donations?

Does Wikipedia earn profit?

Wikipedia makes money through donations, investments, and merchandise sales. In the future, it plans to launch an API that will charge companies a fee to access their data. Founded in 2001, Wikipedia has become one of the world’s most visited websites.

Does the owner of Wikipedia make money?

Since Wikipedia has no ads, it relies almost entirely on donations from millions of readers around the world. A small portion of the website’s total revenue is generated from merchandise, including t-shirts, pencils, notebooks, and pins embossed with Wikipedia’s logo.

Should I pay for Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is free in every sense of the word: it’s a repository of the world’s knowledge, written by volunteers around the world and available to everyone for free without ads.

How much does it cost to maintain Wikipedia?

For context, it costs the site $25 million every year to run. And by comparison, Twitter’s recent IPO announcement has valued their company at about $12.8 billion.

Should you pay for a Wikipedia page?

Wikipedia is a free, open access encyclopedia written and maintained by volunteer editors. These volunteers do much more than create and edit articles – they also ensure that the site remains reliable, neutral and accurate by enforcing Wikipedia’s policies and guidelines.

Does anyone actually donate to Wikipedia?

â We depend on donations from exceptional readers, but less than 2% give. If you just donate? 150, or whatever you can… Wikipedia could continue to thrive.

How much does it cost to run Wikipedia each year?

The Wikimedia Foundation’s 2021-2022 annual plan clarifies that the total operating budget requires $150 million in spending, including $15.6 million in grant spending.

Is Wikipedia going to go broke?

Since Wikipedia is a charity website, it survives on donations from users and companies. But is the website on the brink of bankruptcy? The answer is no. Run by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia’s balance sheet looks pretty healthy.

Where does Wikipedia get its funding?

Since Wikipedia has no ads, it relies almost entirely on donations from millions of readers around the world. A small portion of the website’s total revenue is generated from merchandise, including t-shirts, pencils, notebooks, and pins embossed with Wikipedia’s logo.

Does Wikipedia make a profit?

Wikipedia is the dominant website on the Internet. It is a non-profit, open project that has funded twelve other projects.

What nofollow means?

Nofollow links are links with a rel=”nofollow” HTML tag applied. The nofollow tag tells search engines to ignore that link. Since nofollow links don’t pass PageRank, they probably won’t affect search engine rankings.

What does nofollow mean? What are nofollow links? Nofollow links are links with a rel=â nofollowâ HTML tag applied. The nofollow tag tells search engines to ignore that link. Since nofollow links don’t pass PageRank, they probably won’t affect search engine rankings.

Why we use no follow links?

Nofollow basically tells Google (or any other search engine that supports this feature) not to vouch for the target link. While it was previously used in the page-level() meta tag, it is now much more common to use it per link.

Why do people use no follow links?

Nofollow links are links with a rel=â nofollowâ HTML tag applied. The nofollow tag tells search engines to ignore that link. Since nofollow links don’t pass PageRank, they probably won’t affect search engine rankings.

What does a no follow link mean?

A no-follow link is one that doesn’t count as a point in favor of the page, doesn’t increase PageRank, and doesn’t help a page rank in the SERPs. No follow links get no love.

What is the use of no follow?

Nofollow Tags Explained When added to a hyperlink, webmasters can determine whether search engines follow a link or not. The inclusion of a nofollow tag instructs the search engines NOT to visit the site or rather not to grant credit to increase the ranking of the destination site based on the link.

Are nofollow links bad?

In fact, building nofollow links can be a great way to drive traffic, boost SEO, leverage social signals and influencer marketing, and create a knock-on link building strategy. In other words, nofollow links aren’t nearly as bad as they sound.

Do no follow links hurt SEO?

Finally, nofollow links are still valuable for SEO – and will be in the near future. Essentially, you should implement them as part of your link building strategy. That is, even if you don’t actively contact to get nofollow links, don’t reject contextual links marked with â rel=nofollowâ.

Is follow link better than nofollow?

“The difference between a Dofollow and a Nofollow link is that a Dofollow link passes PageRank signals (some call this SEO or link juice), and a Nofollow link doesn’t,” said Paul Ronto, CMO of RunRepeat. In other words, the distinction lies in how the Google algorithm treats each link.

When should you not use nofollow?

Where nofollow was previously used as a generic term for links that you didn’t want through PageRank, it is now supposed to be used when the other two rel attributes (sponsored and UGC) are not relevant and you don’t want the link to PageRank to pass.

When should I use nofollow?

The nofollow tag allows a site to add a link that is not an editorial voice. Using nofollow is a safe way to buy links as it is a machine readable way of indicating that a link does not need to be counted as a vote by a search engine.

Is nofollow good for SEO?

Finally, nofollow links are still valuable for SEO – and will be in the near future. Essentially, you should implement them as part of your link building strategy. That is, even if you don’t actively contact to get nofollow links, don’t reject contextual links marked with â rel=nofollowâ.

Should I use no follow?

Using nofollow on all outbound links is just a ridiculous practice built out of fear of linking out. Using nofollow at the page level can harm your own website. I advise you not to. Be careful not to use noindex and nofollow together in all situations just because you think they should be used together.

Why is nofollow important?

Nofollow links inherently strengthen your domain authority, improve brand awareness and drive traffic to your website. They also help normalize your link profile so you don’t have to worry about spam or suspicious links hurting your search engine rankings.

Why does Wikipedia cost so much to run?

What does Wikipedia need the money for? Like any website, Wikipedia has server costs, administration costs, staff costs and more. For a website the size of Wikipedia, these costs are enormous. According to Statista, it claimed more than 5.5 unique visitors and more than 40 billion page views every month during 2021.

Is Wikipedia making a profit? Wikipedia is the dominant website on the Internet. It is a non-profit, open project that has funded twelve other projects.

Is Wikipedia going to go broke?

Since Wikipedia is a charity website, it survives on donations from users and companies. But is the website on the brink of bankruptcy? The answer is no. Run by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia’s balance sheet looks pretty healthy.

How much money does Wikipedia cost to run?

For context, it costs the site $25 million every year to run.

Does Wikipedia have profit?

So how does it make money? Given Wikipedia’s status as part of the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization, it makes money in a very different way than other major websites. Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation and is primarily funded by donations from readers.

How much money does Wikipedia cost to run?

For context, it costs the site $25 million every year to run.

Why do we have to pay for Wikipedia?

With the money it generates through these contributions, Wikipedia can keep its servers running and also maintain the site and ensure that it is secure, loads quickly and protects user data. Generous donations from the huge user base also help the site maintain its independence.

Should you pay for Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is free in every sense of the word: it’s a repository of the world’s knowledge, written by volunteers around the world and available to everyone for free without ads.

How much does it cost to fund Wikipedia?

The Wikimedia Foundation is primarily funded by donations from millions of individuals around the world. The average donation is about $15 USD, and we are grateful that so many people find value in Wikipedia and want to preserve its future.

Does anyone actually donate to Wikipedia?

â We depend on donations from exceptional readers, but less than 2% give. If you just donate? 150, or whatever you can… Wikipedia could continue to thrive.

Is having a Wikipedia page good for SEO?

Despite NoFollow, Wikipedia is likely contributing to a higher ranking in Google’s SERP, and several SEO authorities have reported a positive impact. The anecdotal evidence consistently reports that SEO rankings improve with links from Wikipedia. We have found that links in Wikipedia improve SERP rank.

Is a Wikipedia page good for business? Wikipedia can be an excellent source of credibility, backlinks and organic traffic to your site. It can also increase the visibility of your business.

Is Wikipedia a good backlink?

A Wikipedia backlink is worth having because it improves the reliability and authority of your website and its content. Wikipedia backlinks are also worth it for increasing the number of citations from other site owners who found your link on Wikipedia and can lead to more relevant website traffic.

Are Wikipedia backlinks good?

Is Wikipedia a good backlink? Wikipedia backlinks are actually one of the most powerful backlinks you can get. This can be explained by the fact that Wikipedia is one of the oldest, largest and most authoritative websites on the web, which makes Wikipedia backlinks extremely valuable.

Is it worth having a Wikipedia page?

One of the main reasons your business should have a Wikipedia page is the fact that it can help you maintain your online reputation, help you gain exposure and improve your business’ credibility in the ever-busy and busy world. always so competitive market.

What is Elon Musk main business?

As the co-founder and CEO of Tesla, Elon leads all of the company’s product design, engineering and global manufacturing of electric vehicles, battery products and solar products. Since the company was founded in 2003, Tesla’s mission has been to accelerate the global transition to sustainable energy.

What is Elon Musk’s real name?

What is Elon Musk’s race?

His mother is Maye Musk (née Haldeman), a model and dietitian born in Saskatchewan, Canada, but raised in South Africa. His father is Errol Musk, a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant and property developer who half-owned a Zambian emerald mine near Lake Tanganyika.

Is linking to Wikipedia bad for SEO?

Google’s John Mueller said on Reddit that Wikipedia links not only have no SEO value, but those links “will not do anything for your site” from a Google search perspective. In fact, John said all you’re doing is “creating extra work for the Wikipedia administrators who will remove your linkdrops.”

Is it OK to link to Wikipedia?

You are welcome to link to Wikipedia articles (and other Wikipedia pages, such as this one) from your own website. You don’t have to ask us first.

Are links from Wikipedia good for SEO?

Wikipedia is a relevant resource that is highly trusted due to their strict view of spam or using their website with commercial intent, making them good for SEO.

Is too much linking bad for SEO?

Google says that using too many internal links on the same page can reduce their value. Google’s John Mueller explains that using too many internal links on the same page can diminish their value, and discusses what to do instead. This topic will be discussed during the Google Search Central SEO hangout, recorded on July 2, 2021.