8 min read
The big fat guide to Wikipedia statistics
Wikipedia develops at a rate of 1.9 edits per second. English Wikipedia alone includes more than 6 million articles and averages nearly 600 new articles per day.
Posts about
Wikipedia
6 min read
Commonly used terms related to Wikipedia editing
Key insights
- Wikipedia has its own culture. Knowing the jargon will help you navigate the online encyclopedia.
- There are terms in different categories: about users, policies, creating content, and references.
It’s hard to overestimate the power of Wikipedia. While some other websites could have a bigger effect on your company’s reputation or SEO, few of those websites are edited by the general public.
To understand and leverage Wikipedia, you need to speak its language. Knowing these terms will not only give you a head start into working with Wikipedia the right way, but also provide insight into the politics behind it. Wikipedia’s jargon is in large part concerned with transparency: knowing who edits what and making sure each article is as unbiased as possible.
6 min read
Creating a Wikipedia article that (probably) won’t be deleted
Key takeaways
- Wikipedia will delete a page for a variety of reasons - mainly due to a lack of notability
- You partly control the odds of whether or not a Wikipedia article survives
- The right editors with the right approach in the right circumstances will increase your chances of keeping a page online
Why your company needs Wikipedia
Wikipedia is one of the Internet’s strongest and biggest websites. If you or your company has a Wikipedia page, chances are that page will rank high in the search results when someone performs a Google search. Whether you are developing a page for yourself or your company (frowned upon by Wikipedia), or creating one simply out of interest, these tips will help create a page that has a lower probability of being deleted.
11 min read
Every Type of Wikipedia Article Protection Explained
Wikipedia shows up as the No. 1 search result on more than 56% of all Google searches and appears on page one of 99% of all searches. Part of protecting your brand’s reputation should include making sure your Wikipedia page is protected.
Highlights:
- Some Wikipedia pages are prone to deliberate attacks of false information.
- To prevent fraudulent edits and vandalism, Wikipedia has various levels of page protection.
- There are 11 types of Wikipedia page protection, created to protect different types of pages in specific ways.
9 min read
How to edit Wikipedia anonymously
Highlights:
- Anyone can make changes to Wikipedia, but that doesn’t mean you should. Wikipedia uses artificial intelligence to spot conflicts of interest.
- While it is possible to make an anonymous edit on Wikipedia, you won’t be able to hide entirely thanks to device fingerprinting and IP address tracking.
- In many cases, editing under a username is actually more anonymous than avoiding logging in because it doesn’t display your IP address publicly (though Wikipedia admins can see it).
Anyone can edit Wikipedia. Yet just because you can edit the page doesn’t always mean you should – especially if it’s about you or your company.
9 min read
Whodunnit? Who edited our Wikipedia article?
Key takeaways
- What Wikipedia says about you matters a lot
- Despite the setup of Wikipedia as an open-source program, not just anyone can edit everything
- Seeing who edited a Wikipedia article helps with transparency and understanding the power dynamics on a page
Wikipedia is one of the world’s most powerful websites. What Wikipedia says about you or your company can have a big impact, which is why many companies and organizations have tried to spruce up their Wikipedia pages - sometimes with disastrous effects.
8 min read
Can you spot a fake Wikipedia edit?
People try to exploit Wikipedia’s open editing policy to add false information, but the online encyclopedia has tools and volunteer teams to suss them out.
Highlights
- Wikipedia uses powerful tools and a large network of volunteer editors to detect bogus edits.
- Wikipedia edits can be tracked by the editor’s username or IP address.
- False information is often quickly removed from Wikipedia.
- If you see false information on a page, flag the bogus content for a Wikipedia editor to review.
Wikipedia can be a part of your reputation management strategy and a great source of corporate visibility and marketing. But it also comes with some risks because it could include all kinds of information: good and bad. It is, after all, editable by the public.
31 min read
2021 online reputation management statistics
Online reputation statistics change regularly. This guide was last updated May, 2021.
If you’re like many brand management professionals you might lie awake at night wondering when the next emergency will upset your well-laid plans - take for instance COVID-19. We understand. The online reputation management world smolders with tales of tragedy, falls from grace, and salacious rumors that can destroy careers and entire businesses. As with any threat, a little online reputation marketing knowledge can go a long way. These facts and statistics should help.
9 min read
How influence and authority affect Wikipedia eligibility
- Notability is a trait Wikipedia uses to determine whether a topic or subject is worthy enough to have its own page in Wikipedia.
- Notability is the ability of the subject to attract attention based on its merit over a sustained, significant period.
- Almost any person or business can become notable by attracting attention over time.
- A subject should be the primary topic of several reliable information sources to be considered notable enough to have a Wikipedia page.
- Notability is not the same as popularity.
- A Wikipedia article about a bug is easier to get than one about a person or business.
13 min read
Real world Wikipedia editing
Highlights:
- Making your own Wikipedia page is tougher than it looks. The Internet is replete with articles that say creating a Wikipedia page for your company as simple and easy - which it most certainly is not.
- Wikipedia has rules restricting you from creating your own Wikipedia page or paying someone to create one for you.
- Creating your own Wikipedia page or paying someone to do it (though common) can get your content deleted and your account banned.
- If a Wikipedia editor has not already written a page for you, it's probable you are not notable enough to have one.
- A good rule of thumb is that you should have at least 10 articles specifically about your company to be considered notable.
10 min read
Edit your own Wikipedia page? No. Here's why.
Many, if not most, vandalized Wikipedia pages about a person make the subject of the page want to correct inaccuracies or outright lies. But editing one's own Wikipedia page has its pitfalls.
Wikipedia is a one-of-a-kind platform. The best way to describe it is a not-for-profit, collaborative encyclopedia. While there are many alternatives, Wikipedia is the most visible online encyclopedia. It gets a lot of attention so it's no surprise people with a Wikipedia page would want to edit the page themselves.
7 min read
Six Free Wikipedia Alternatives - Free online encyclopedias
There are many free online encyclopedias to fit different needs, you may have more choices than you expected.
- Wikipedia is a great source for information, though many researchers don’t feel comfortable citing it as a resource due to its open contribution model.
- There are several alternatives to Wikipedia that offer different advantages.
- Some online encyclopedias are more reliable than Wikipedia due to different formats and ideology-based approaches.
- Wikipedia is the largest online encyclopedia at 6.2 million articles and growing.
- Encyclopedia Britannica Online is the most reliable and respected online encyclopedia, but it requires a subscription.
You can’t always use Wikipedia. Although Wikipedia dominates search engines, it’s often not the most trustworthy source. The best online encyclopedias are the ones that fit your specific needs. Here is a list of free Wikipedia alternatives.
8 min read
What are the different types of Google Knowledge Panels
Key Takeaways:
8 min read
WikiData - How and Why to Set Up a WikiData Page for Your Brand
- You may want to know how to create a Wiki page for your company, but if you can't (most companies can't), consider a WikiData page instead.
- WikiData pages are automatically created when a Wikipedia page is published, but a WikiData page can also be setup manually.
- Studies have shown that Wikipedia content ranks for 99% of Google searches, but WikiData is used by search engines to better understand the subject, be it a person, company, brand or concept.
- Wikidata doesn't show up in search results directly. It doesn't provide any inbound links. So why do it? It's used by Google to better understand your business.
- Setting up a WikiData page may seem intimidating at first glance, but Wikimedia made it easier by creating an easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide to make one.
What is a WikiData page?
There’s a reason Wikipedia content dominates search engine results pages (SERPs): it’s credible, recognized, and very SEO-friendly. And when we say dominate, we’re not using that term lightly.
6 min read
How to fix an inaccurate or negative Wikipedia article
Can Wikipedia be edited by anyone? Yes, anyone can edit a Wikipedia page. But those edits can be positive, negative, or neutral. If your brand, or even you, have been lucky enough to be eligible for a Wikipedia page, good for you! Wikipedia is highly visible in search results, confirms your brand as significant, and even feeds information to Googles' Knowledge Panel. But with all of the good that comes with a Wikipedia page there also comes the bad - again, anyone can edit most Wikipedia pages. Even haters.
8 min read
What to know about Wikipedia eligibility
To create a Wikipedia page for a brand or for yourself, you must first have notability. That is, you need to "qualify" before any steps are taken to create a Wikipedia page.
Notability is especially important when a new Wikipedia page is created. Without notability a new Wikipedia page will most likely be deleted.
Many people and companies qualify, but do not yet have a page. But once an entity qualifies by having enough notability, the next step is to create the page. But how do you get a Wikipedia page? Well, don't get ahead of yourself, before you start, here are four things to consider.
We've also provided references to further reading at the bottom.
Every day, Wikipedia takes down about 1,000 pages. Who removes Wikipedia pages? People and bots. The bots have fun names like ClueBot NG and Huggle.
But why do Wikipedia pages get removed so often? Because editors make mistakes, mainly around notability requirements or spamming. This article, while not exhaustive, answers some of the biggest questions about qualification for a Wikipedia page that won't be deleted (probably).
18 min read
What Is Reputation Management?
Reputation management is the effort to influence what and how people think of a brand or person when viewed online. Put another way, character is who you are reputation is whom other people think you are, and today reputation is based mainly on what artificial intelligence systems like Google portray about you rather than the first-person experience.
Reputation management goes by a variety of names — online reputation management (ORM), internet reputation management, impression management, rep management, brand perception, or brand reputation management. Whatever you call it, the goal is to shape public perception about a person or business.
This blog post will answer some of the most common questions regarding reputation management.
7 min read
Brand Touch Points and Their Impact on Search Results
Brand touch points are like digital fingerprints; they tell a story. What are brand touch points and how do they affect business? Whether you realize it or not, your brand's customer touch points are working to help, or hurt, your organization's reputation with consumers. If a potential customer sees brand-related content and it piques their interest, what will they do next? They may perform a branded search (using your company name), in which case it's up to Google what your customer sees. How dost Google love thee?
4 min read
How to Get a Google Knowledge Panel
If you or your brand has a Knowledge Panel you're suddenly "somebody". It's a bit like a Wikipedia page for you or your company, but it doesn't need to be clicked on for searchers to see it. And if you have one with the wrong information being displayed, how do you correct it? Well, here's how you get a Google Knowledge Panel.