Wikipedia is a popular encyclopedia that has the potential to boost your site’s SEO and get much better rankings in search results. In this article on the smart strategy blog, you will get acquainted with the methods of strengthening external SEO with Wikipedia.
Why is Wikipedia important for SEO?
Wikipedia is one of the largest and most important visitors to the Google search results page. This site, as an internet reference, is present in the results of almost half of all searches. In addition, a large portion of Google Knowledge Graph information is available from Wikipedia.
In addition, Wikipedia is a rich source of SEO resources, and for at least two reasons, it can help boost your site’s internal SEO and external SEO:
- Wikipedia is a unique source of humanities. In Wikipedia, language is used the same way humans use it; ordinary people mostly make this encyclopedia. Wikipedia links topics and keywords in a way that only humans can handle.
- Wikipedia is a unique online resource: people trust it, use it, and cite it in their posts.
So whether you’ve just started planning for your site’s keywords, are looking for new ideas, or want to increase your site’s trustworthiness, you should not overlook Wikipedia’s potential for boosting SEO. But how can this free encyclopedia be used to advance SEO-related goals? In this article on innovative strategy, you will get acquainted with the methods of strengthening external SEO (Off-Page SEO) and internal SEO (On-Page SEO) with the help of Wikipedia.
Ways to improve external SEO with Wikipedia
One of the most important criteria for Google to evaluate content reliability and quality is receiving backlinks from reputable and trusted sites. There are four types of links such as Dofollow, Nofollow, Sponsored, And UGC Links.
Naturally, Wikipedia is one of the most reputable Internet sites and a source of resources needed by users; As a result, due to the editable content of this vast encyclopedia by all Internet users, the temptation to leave a link in it can not be easily ignored. Unfortunately, this freedom of action and the potential of Wikipedia have led to this encyclopedia being targeted for a large amount of spam.
In 2007, Wikipedia changed its links from following to rel = “nofollow” to stop the steady growth of spam; This means that Wikipedia links do not transmit PageRank or anchor text to the recipient of the association. Unfortunately, this change significantly reduced the attractiveness of Wikipedia for SEO enthusiasts and activists who have a formulaic view of SEO (i.e., link + keyword = rank).
Google’s official position on Nofollow links is “In general, we do not follow them.” According to this sentence, SEO activists are divided into two categories. The first group believes link building in Wikipedia is of no use or value. But the second category focuses on the term “general” and looks for more innovative ways to use Wikipedia. However, experience has shown that Google does not entirely ignore Wikipedia links and values them. This value is due to what is called the “Boomerang Effect.”
When Wikipedia pages rank high in search results, they create a state for their internal links, which we call the “boomerang effect.” In this case, nofollow links in the Wikipedia article weigh from Google. In other words, a link in a Wikipedia article that ranks high in search results shows its reference value to Google, and as a result, the value of that article can increase the reference tab rank.
One thing to remember is that Wikipedia editors are strict about spam and use the encyclopedia for commercial purposes. So even if you can link to Wikipedia, it is not unlikely that the editor will publicly or privately favor you, and your link will be labeled spam.
So it would help if you looked for the right and acceptable methods such as the following that make your link in Wikipedia a win-win deal for both parties.
1- Use broken links and links that need a source or citation
As we have said, just because Wikipedia links are not followed does not mean they are worthless. Even if we ignore the boomerang effect and value of the link from Google’s point of view, Wikipedia links can generate referral traffic for you (i.e., people click on your link and enter your site). In addition, it is not uncommon for the same people who click on your Wikipedia link to link to you on their site; Because your site is a Wikipedia resource anyway.
To be able to put links in Wikipedia and at the same time not be stamped with spam or commercial content on Wikipedia, you have to help improve Wikipedia in some way. Of course, finding the right place to put a link usually is difficult, but fortunately, Wikipedia editors have made your job easier.
Just do a Google search for the following phrase:
site: wikipedia.org [Keyword] + “Dead link”
If you want to see all the links that have broken links, you can refer to this page from Wikipedia. The WikiGrabber tool can also help find broken links and items that need citations.
Once you find a broken link or need documentation, you need to ask yourself if you have a resource or if you can create one that can fill the gap.
If your answer is yes, get that link! With this, you will receive a nofollow link from one of the most popular internet websites, which can be of great value.
Note that there are two similar but slightly different options.
- If you find a link or resource that is no longer available, you should use the Broken link-building method. For this purpose, you can look at old content through the Wayback Machine site and recreate it in the language, style, and context you want (i.e., do not copy), publish it on your site, and link to it on Wikipedia.
- An alternative and relatively gray version of this method are to, if possible, purchase and renovate an expired domain that has a link in the Wikipedia article and put a link to your site in it. Many lesser-known SEOs use a similar method to create private blog networks by registering large numbers of expired domains. At the same time, it is unlikely that using this method once or twice will harm your site.
But if you want to use links that require a resource, you must produce content matching the source and required documentation. In this case, you will need more research and planning, but your framework is clear, and you have a guaranteed opportunity to get the link. Keep in mind that the credibility of the content is significant to Wikipedia, So you need to find a well-known expert or use reliable information and data. If this is impossible, you should use the same broken link method.
After that, use one of the backlink checking tools (for example, Moz Link Explorer) to find the sites linked to the broken link and contact them.
Wikipedia has recently started working with Archive.org to repair broken links automatically. However, even if you move the link to Archive.org, the resource is still not up to date, and you will still have a good opportunity.
2. Look for link-building opportunities on pages relevant to your target topic on Wikipedia
As mentioned, Wikipedia pages rank in the top half of all searches. This, in turn, creates a reaction cycle; In this way, people help to get better rankings for these tabs by linking to them. So, for example, when a reporter wants to define a word or a blogger needs to name a specific character, a simple search can link to a related page on Wikipedia.
In most cases, Wikipedia pages rank best for public keywords, and people link to such pages more often. However, you can find people who might be interested in linking to you by finding relevant business tabs on Wikipedia and reviewing the people they relate to.
To do this, enter the URL of the tab in one of the backlink checking tools to display a list of sites that have linked to that tab. This way, you will find people, places, and blogs relevant to you and your readers. Of course, it would help if you convinced them to link to your site content.
You can use the Google Disavow Tool to remove inappropriate links in case of wrong link building and spam links entering your site, such as buy backlinks.
3- Take advantage of getting backlinks in the article resources section
Finding reliable sources and references for more authoritative information has long been an essential application of Wikipedia. In other words, people rely on Wikipedia to find credible sources when doing research (for whatever reason) (note the connection between this and case one).
In such cases, if this research was done to produce site or blog content, it will most likely be linked to the source sheet (yet another reason to use case number 1). You must select a relevant tab from Wikipedia, go to the “Resources” section at the bottom, and put the links in a backlink checker.
You will now have a more comprehensive list of websites, people, and blogs that may be interested in linking to your content.
4. Create your own Wikipedia page
Creating your custom worksheet is another way to promote your business, increase brand awareness, and get links from Wikipedia. Still, you should remember that you should only resort to this tactic if your company has reached the fame, power, and popularity deserves on Wikipedia.
Note that adhering to the correct and standard Wikipedia structure is especially important here; Because, in addition to affecting the approval or rejection of the tab as well as your professional appearance, it will make your account an authoritative source of information that Google can use in search results related to your brand. So, check the Wikipedia guidelines and get help from experienced editors and writers to create your brand tab.
conclusion
In this article on smart strategy, we talked about explaining external SEO with Wikipedia and Wikipedia’s capabilities in building external links and increasing SEO rankings, as well as how to use it. If there is any question about this content, please get in touch with us or request a free proposal from our smart strategy SEO services.
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