Wikipedia reputation management can drastically change your online reputation. The first impression you want people to have when they search your name on Google should be positive, and Wikipedia reputation management will ensure that it is. You never know what negative reviews and sources of information are available to the public, so you must check everything.
What Is Wikipedia?
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that holds a vast amount of information on almost any topic, including people.
Wikipedia is different from other online sources for information because it is a collaborative effort of numerous people rather than a select few writers and researchers.
You can use Wikipedia to look up a quick rundown of any subject, to learn the dates of certain events in history, the background and life’s works of celebrities, and almost anything else that you might need to learn about quickly. Wikipedia also has businesses and individuals listed with information.
If you find that your business has a page on Wikipedia, you may have an interest in changing it or removing certain information because of the effect it is having on your influx of customers. And if you do not have a Wikipedia page, you may consider creating one.
Individuals can also have pages on Wikipedia, and so you may want to change that page as well to make your services look more appealing and professional to potential clients. People do their research, and Google does a good job of pushing Wikipedia pages to the top of search results, so these pages can have an enormous impact on whether or not someone follows through with contacting you.
Why Is Wikipedia Important?
For your reputation, Wikipedia is vital. Wikipedia is not a small website, and hundreds of thousands of people access it daily.
There are Wikipedia sites in 300 different languages, with 46 million articles accessed by 1.4 billion unique devices every single month. An army of 200,000 editors and contributors patrol this repository of online knowledge every day. It is an almost endless supply of knowledge all in one place.
Because of its sheer size and high level of traffic within the site, Wikipedia makes up for a large percentage of a business or individual’s online reputation. When an internet user types your name into Google, if there is a Wikipedia page available, it will likely be the first item to pop up.
The downside to having a Wikipedia page is that more than one person can edit the information, including competitive businesses, if they meet the requirements of Wikipedia. It makes you wonder – can we trust Wikipedia?
Wikipedia is debatable in trustworthiness.
Most researchers avoid Wikipedia altogether, but the average person may not know better when they look up information.
Volunteers are constantly double-checking sources and bits of information on Wikipedia pages. With the old rules of Wikipedia, there was a short time that information stayed on directly after being added by a person, which created a lot of problems; but now, when someone creates an article, there is an entire review process. Articles no longer publish automatically, and autoconfirmed users have more restrictions.
How to Create and Edit a Wikipedia Page
To edit a Wikipedia page, you do not have to have an account – even if it is free. But, you will need one to create a new page.
Wikipedia Guidelines
Before you get started with creating and editing Wikipedia pages, make sure you have an understanding of Wikipedia’s standards. Wikipedia clarifies that Wikipedia editors should “treat each other respectfully, work together collegially, and avoid behavior that would be widely seen as unacceptable, disruptive, tendentious, or dishonest.”
There are policies, guidelines, and formatting norms that you will need to look over and follow as best as you can to avoid the removal of your content. The community of Wikipedia volunteers develops these; there is no one person making decisions on the rules of content, and they are not strict.
The most concerning rule is the three-revert rule, which results in being blocked from editing on Wikipedia for 24 hours.
You should also never use copyrighted material for your Wikipedia page without permission from the owner of the copyright or eligibility under Fair Use.
How to Create a Wikipedia Page
To create a Wikipedia page, you will first need an account. Click here to create a Wikipedia account.
Use the Article Wizard to create articles to become Wikipedia pages. Once you create an informational article, it will have to go through a review process before publishing. Articles do not post right away.
How to Edit a Wikipedia Page
There are two ways to edit a Wikipedia Page. You can use wiki markup (wikitext) or VisualEditor (VE).
To use wiki markup, click the Edit tab at the top of a Wikipedia page to access the text content of the page. You can make changes here by adding text, images, or tables. And then, when you finish editing, click Show Preview to check it. Make sure to type an edit summary in the field provided before clicking Publish Changes.
VisualEditor is the newer way to edit a Wikipedia page. You must have a Wikipedia account to use VisualEditor, but you do not need to learn wikitext markup. Use the Wikipedia VisualEditor User Guide to learn more about how to use it.
You will not be able to edit just any Wikipedia page; some have protections. If that is the case for the page you wish to edit, you can submit an edit request to the user who holds the edit protections. Submit the request by clicking the View Source tab and using the “Submit an edit request” link.
Wikipedia Reputation Management
Part of building your online reputation is making sure that all sources of information online that contain information about you are the majority positive. Wikipedia is one of the main websites that you will have to check and consider changing.
Wikipedia pages play a huge role in whether or not someone has a good first impression of you and your business when they do a quick search online. Reputation management companies can help you update and improve Wikipedia pages in order to protect your online reputation.
Author Bio
William Jones is an Online marketing specialist and consultant with more than 15 years of experience in marketing. His expertise in marketing includes website design, email marketing, SEO, blogging, PPC, social media marketing, and reputation management for businesses.
