How To Create Your Company’s Wikipedia Page!
Do you want a Wikipedia page for your business – here are some great tips to do just that.
1. Research Comes First
It’s important to understand from the start that Wikipedia is not a place where you can readily advertise your company. Before you take the necessary steps to write your page, do some research to comprehend the concept behind Wikipedia as well as get a clearer understanding of the writing style that’s expected. After familiarizing yourself with Wikipedia policies and pages, you can make your own account. Prior to publishing a page, try to use the sandbox function which allows you to feel more comfortable with the editing process.
2. Establish Credibility
Before you can start publishing pages on Wikipedia, become an autoconfirmed user. Take the time to build your credibility on the site by making a minimum of at least 10 confirmed minor edits. You can become an autoconfirmed user once your 10 edits have been approved. Bear in mind, the more that you do, the more credible your user profile becomes to Wikipedia editors.
Becoming an autoconfirmed user yields certain benefits such as:
*Comprehensive editing options
*The right to rename or move pages
*Alerts to changes made to favorite pages
3. Start Writing
Wikipedia is a great place to advertise your company under the radar, but you must be careful to avoid shameless self-promotion. Putting backlinks everywhere and mentioning your company every sentence is a big no-no! You need to become neutral and objective when writing about your company and its accomplishments. It may be best to hire a ghostwriter to do this for you as they don’t have an emotional attachment to your company. If Wikipedia editors recognize that you authored your own page, it could be flagged for deletion.
**Make your page more believable by uploading associated images. However, don’t use copyrighted images blatantly taken from the Internet without knowing who they belong to. Use either your own images, or ones that are considered to be copyright-free.
4. Cite Your Pages
In order to have enough solid content to author your Wikipedia page, make sure that your company has been in business long enough with some notability. For small businesses, having a few citations can help your first page reach solid footing.
Your page is twice as likely to be approved by Wikipedia editors if it has more than one citation on the page. Citations are a great way to talk about your business while also having the facts to back up your claims. It’s a good idea to aim for at least four verifiable citations on your page.
Depending on your business, citations will be different for everyone. If your company has ever been covered in the media, mentioned in a book, published in a newspaper or magazine, these can all boost credibility. Bear in mind that your citations should always be a reliable third-party source!