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8 Must Know Wikipedia Tips for SEO
By Shalom Issenberg | April 17, 2008
I’m a big fan of Wikipedia and also the chairman of the “I hate Wikipedia club”. My split feelings towards Wikipedia depend on the keyword I’m targeting. In general I believe that it’s a great place to get free links for traffic. The links are “no follow” so they won’t help boost your search rankings directly, but they can contribute to a steady flow of traffic depending on the wiki page and the location of your link. On the other hand, Wikipedia’s traffic comes from its strong hold over the SERPs and SEOs know it’s not always easy outranking Wikipedia for a top organic position.
The Good:
- Free links
- Traffic
- Lends authority to your site
- Builds visitor trust
- Other potential “link sites” find your content and link to it as well
- The warm fuzzy feeling you get from knowing you got a “wiki link” (OK maybe not)
The Bad:
- Spiteful editors – removing your links
- Hard to control reaction – may require reputation management
- Traffic is passive (information seekers) low conversion on leads/sales
- Nothing to stop your competitors from gaming the same page
- Wikipedia pages might compete with your site
If you are going to use Wikipedia here are some marketing tips:
- Find relevant pages and place links to your site within the content not just the footnotes.
- Whenever possible place your links high on the page.
- If a Wikipedia page does not already exist for your keyword target, don’t create it – rather try to use the most relevant existing page. Essentially you don’t want to foolishly create a new strong competitor.
- Be objective. This will help avoid being edited
- Be honest – don’t create false information just to sell something.
- Link to relevant content.
- Link to informative, high quality content.
- Don’t link with competitive keyword anchor text, Its raises flags and the “no follow” on the links make it pointless anyway.
By the way membership to the “I hate Wikipedia club” is now open to the public. Membership is free!
Topics: SEO: Search Engine Optimization |