How to Create a Wikipedia Page for your Company
Marketing is not just a means to promote your brand it’s an initiative to build brand equity, and clientele to streamline business operations. It’s based on a set of strategies to drive conversions and above all to build an identity.
The year 2020, has been a tyranniser which has shaken the world in many dramatic ways. Where some industries sprawled to the top other breathed the last. Nevertheless, during this fascinating year, one thing that steered its way to gain a global attention was reliability and a devotion to build trust among the customers.
Those who managed to engage their customers, highlighting their sincerity with the business, positioned to the top, claiming their spot in the industry powerfully. Whether you call it a trend or a dire need of the time, building your brand reputation is now the most essential strategy to follow.
And what else can help you gain a strong online identity than Wikipedia. This ever-expanding, hub of knowledge has given the limelight to many businesses around the globe. Being one of the leading openly editable sites, Wikipedia is the premier platform to encourage the spread of knowledge by instructing writers with strict quality assurance polices; thereby snatching top ranks in the search engine simultaneously.
Wikipedia has been sharing most trusted information for over 2 decades and has never compromised on quality. If you are planning to write a Wikipedia page for a company, it’s the right time to do so. Customers and consumers around the world are on a hunt to get in touch with reliable entities, by getting listed on Wikipedia you can gain an enhanced recognition in a blink.
Creating content in over 300 different languages, Wikipedia account for nearly 32.2 million active readers every month; thus, becoming one of the eight largest most visited platform on the internet. So, if you are reluctant as to how to create a Wikipedia page for your business, here is a detailed step by step process to page creation. Read on to follow through.
A Step-by-Step Process to Make a Wikipedia Page for Your Business
A Wikipedia page for an organization is the most effective plan to enhance online recognition at double the pace. As you know Wikipedia has a massive outreach, by getting on it you can share its limelight giving your business ample exposure to expand the clientele. So, let’s begin the process:
Step #1: Create a Wikipedia Profile
To build a page of a business you first have to create a Wikipedia profile. And for that go to Wikipedia.org and on the top right corner click to the button “create a page”. You will get a form as shown below:
You will have to add your basic information with an appropriate username to register your company on Wikipedia. Set a password and accept the terms and conditions. Your account is ready to use. Now that you have created an account, you must create a user page as well.
User Page
A User page provides access to edit other articles and pages. It helps in making your account more credible and notable. You must contribute to Wikipedia before beginning to work on your page. It will add more value to your company page.
Wiki Edits: As you know that through the User Page you can indulge in Wiki editing you must learn about the necessary policies regarding it. When editing a Wikipedia page, you must avoid vandalism. It’s an act where the editor deliberately misleads the readers by adding text that can defame or ruin the authenticity of the subject. If you try to do, Wikipedia has the right to block you permanently from the platform.
Wikipedia had blocked many accounts by labelling the act as Black Hat SEO. So, refrain from Vandalism and contribute your utmost efforts to keep the pages updated.
If you want to learn in detail about the things to add in your User Page and the policies regarding company’s User Page creation here is the template you can check.
Step #2: A Detailed Overview to Wikipedia Policies
Wikipedia instructs writers to follow the instructions and policies extensively to maintain the highest quality content. If you are thinking about how to create a Wikipedia page for my company, you must pay attention to four basic aspects:
- Writing Style
Your content must not have verbosity. It should not be intended to self-promote a product or take high about the subject. You have to incorporate information in a neutral tone and voice. It should not have any overestimated or underestimated aspect of information. You have to offer valuable and authentic information to your readers.
- Reliable Sources
The next aspect is to hunt for information from trusted sources. You must not add filling content just to increase the word limit. Secondly, when you extract information make sure it comes out from a reliable site. No need to add half-truths. Simply stats legit facts and figures.
- Respect the Privacy & Integrity
If you think by instigating conspiracies, you can give a boost to the online reach of your Wikipedia page then you are sorely mistaken. The platform highly disregards argumentative and controversial content, your page will not reach the approval stage, expecting it to amuse readers would be an impossible thing to expect.
- Check the Notability
The standard notability guidelines of Wikipedia are shown below:
To check if your company is eligible to have a Wikipedia page you need to check the Principle of Notability. It’s compulsory as it ensure to generate more traffic on your page. By addressing companies that are not much known or credible on the internet, Wikipedia might create a bow to its standards. Therefore, Wikipedia writers are instructed not to write on entities that have no online recognition.
What you can do is open any SEO tool and enter your brand’s URL. For instance, if you use Google Analytics, the tool will provide you with every single detail regarding your platform, from where the site has created backlinks to the showing how far your platform reaches on the internet.
Secondly, if your organization has an article or blog about it on platforms like Forbes or The New York Times, you do not have to hesitate to pass the notability criteria. Simply begin writing your page.
The third method is to check the Red Link Technique. On Wikipedia there is a separate search tool where you have to enter the company name to see if Wikipedia has published anything about your entity.
What you have to do is combine your search engine tool with Wikipedia.org along with putting your brand name in inverted commas to specify the search. The tool will show you the list of those Wikipedia articles where your brand has been addressed. You can try the same method on Google as well.
Step #3: Build Your Reputation
If you find out that your company is not notable, you must first build your online reputation. What you can do is to get in touch with high domain platforms get your articles published covering details about your company. You have to get a hold of your presence online to become credible enough to have a page. You can even hire a Wikipedia writer who would use witty search engine techniques to give you an identity. In addition, be an active editor on Wikipedia. To show your true dedication, it’s better to edit pages that are not relevant to your niche.
Step #4: Carry Out Comprehensive Research
Before you begin to research about your company, make sure that the aspect you are trying to attempt is not already published on Wikipedia. The platform rejects the topics that are already listed on it.
So, coming back to researching part, you have to dig deeper into the web to gather information about the company. If you are planning to use data that you have, try not to, as in the eyes of Wikipedia, you must incorporate verifiable information, one which the platform can verify.
Your information must be unique and valuable. It should be intended to either guide, inform or help the readers. It’s advisable to refer only the most reliable platforms. You must provide information that is relevant and authentic. Never try to add false details as it can make your page rejected.
Step #5: Write the Wikipedia Page
To create a Wikipedia page for an organization you have to ensure to incorporate certain aspects in your page.
Clarity- Your content should have an active tone with properly structured sentences. The message must be clear and easy to understand. You have to avoid adding a biased tone.
Precise Structures- The positioning of your sentences highlight the level of professional writing. You must not add wordiness as it weakens the sentence. Your writing should be precise and to the point with comprehensive information.
Originality- The content you write should have originality. Usually when writers compose content about their own firm they fail to stick to a neutral perspective and begin to talk high about the subject. Such content has no place on Wikipedia. Therefore, when you compose your content you need to add information that can engage your audience. It should be detailed but written with the utmost professionalism.
Seek Help from A Professional Writer
There is one way to upload your content and that is through Article Wizard, the tool that Wikipedia provides its writers. If you think you have such polished skills and want to try your luck publishing your content, you can try it. The official editors will review your page and give you the feedback. It’s convenient as you do not risk a penny.
Source: Wikipedia.org
However, to those who have doubts about their writing skills and want to seek a professional assistance, you can hire an expert Wikipedia writer. You know how tough the submission criteria is and its advisable to be sure before attempting.
Step #6: Optimize Your Content
Do you know you can generate conversions through a Wikipedia page for your company? Do you want to accelerate the traffic to your site? But how? You must be wondering. Well, even though it’s clearly written that Wikipedia does not allow promotional content, but there is an indirect method to dig out search engine benefits for your organization.
You can optimize your content. Write your page on the basis of SEO techniques as the Wikipedia policies and Google’s evaluation algorithms show major similarities. Look for the most searched keywords and index them in your content. You have to add long and short tail keywords as that will enhance the overall accessibility to your page. Try using Google Keyword Planner to look for most searched key phrases.
Moreover, you can also try using the External Link Tab. Below the Wikipedia page there is a section name “External Links” where you can add links to those sites where your company has a presence. As you know Wikipedia do not allow “no-follow” links, it can be used to drive out exceptional outcomes for your page.
The no-follow links get more weightage in search engines. That means you cannot add anything directly or address any promotional aspect of your company, so by using external links section carefully you can generate more exposure for your entity.
The next aspect is to format your content effectively. Your Wikipedia page should be divided into different sections each having a certain valuable information contained to engage the readers. You must ponder on increasing the readability so avoid stuffing jargons in your descriptions as that increases the bounce rate.
Step #7: Add Citation & References
One of the most essential to follow steps in the Wikipedia guidelines is to add citation. If you notice almost every page has a citation section at the end of the page. It helps in reflecting authenticity and boost the credibility of your content. Through citation, you provide a window to your target readers to look for detailed information. You give them an option to discover more about your subject.
Furthermore, to attempt citation you first need to go through Wikipedia policies. There is a curated list of formats and styles which are allowed to follow. Mostly, Harvard style of referencing is followed. You can go for that or pick which any you like. However, note that the links are all trustable and reliable.
Step #8: Format Your Page According to The Standards
So, here is a look at the infobox of your Wikipedia page.
To get your page approved, you need to pay attention to every single aspect from writing style to formatting methods. You have to mention every aspect as shown in the picture. First comes the company name with a logo. Then you have to write a short description about it followed by the year of establishment to the names of the founding members. You also have to add the details about the prominent customers and the competitors. Logos or links to renowned achievements are also mentioned in the infobox. This box will give a complete overview as to what the company is about and what are its services.
Apart from the infobox, if you talk about the Wikipedia page, you will find different sections bearing different aspects of the company details. First, there will an introductory paragraph followed by the mission statements and goals. Then comes a list of work history with achievements and customers. You also have to mention information regarding the annual turnaround and names of the leading customers.
Step #9: Proofread Your Content
Now that everything is done, from research to composition to formatting, it’s time to do some minor tweaks. You can seek help of an advanced writing tool which can give you a complete overview to your flaws. Tools like Grammarly can be of a great help. It can help you edit your text efficiently. You have to look for typing errors, misleading information, irrelevancy and unclear sentence structures. Its better if you go through the Wiki policies one last time to be sure of following everything listed.
Keeping your content flawless is imperative as it increases the chances of having page approval. You need to double check the content as a page fiddled with errors loses the credibility. Such pages are either send back for review or are rejected.
Step #10: Page Submission & Approval Criteria
Once your page is ready to be uploaded, you have to go to your account and upload the file along with its citation. You can link to the reference platforms separately during the submission. The Wiki page takes about 6 months to get approved or properly evaluated. As the entries are in bulk amount, the editors take a lot of time to respond to the writer. If not rejected, your page might be sent back for revision. The pages having minor flaws are requested to be improvised for getting published by the editors.
Wikipedia Page Management and Monitoring
One of the important aspects of having a Wikipedia account and a published article is staying consistent. You cannot abandon your page thinking that it will stay at the top forever without the need of any improvisation. As you know, Wikipedia allows readers to edit, so when any editor comes across a flaw in your content he will leave a review request. If you do not respond back and keep on pilling up the page can get suspended or put on a temporarily hold. Therefore, it’s important to keep a watch and monitor your page efficiently. You have to respond back to the review request by thoroughly rechecking the piece of information. You can delete the request or update the page if you want. In this way, your Wikipedia page stays fresh and well updated all the time.
Criteria to Write a Wikipedia Biography About A Company
A Wikipedia page has two aspects when it about a company or a business. You can either write a detailed biography or provide information about any of its products. If you are planning to compose a biography you have to understand the tone and voice needed to follow. There is a certain layout of Wiki biographies which you have to stick to.
Wikipedia biographies are detailed and comprehensively written. They are thought-out and reflect the highest level of professionalism. If you are thinking to compose a biography of your business to be published on Wikipedia, you need to carry out a detailed research.
How to register my brand to Wikipedia?
To register your company or brand on Wikipedia you first have to create an account. Update your profile with authentic details and set a username. Create a user page and contribute to the platform. You can compose your page or hire a writer to do that for you by following Wikipedia policies.
Can I edit my published Wikipedia page?
Yes, you can edit your published Wikipedia page. If your page undergoes some serous editing, then the officials will put it on hold to review the changes made.
How soon can the Wikipedia page get approved?
A Wikipedia page takes about 6 months of time to get approved or rejected. In either case, the page owner gets the email. If your page is approved, you will get the link to the page.