4 Reasons Not To Put Your Company in the Wikipedia

A client of mine recently asked me if I thought they should write a Wikipedia article about their company.

It may seem like a good idea to have an article about your company in the largest and most popular online encyclopedia. However, like I told my client, there are a few good reasons why many companies should stay out.

Reasons to stay out of the Wikipedia

• Having an article in the Wikipedia with a link to your web site will not improve your search engine rankings because the Wikipedia uses rel=nofollow on all outbound links.
• It is possible that the Wikipedia article on your company could rank higher than your companies web site in the search engines. This is more true for web sites with a low Page Rank and few inbound links.
• Since anybody can edit articles in the Wikipedia, it is possible for people to put false information on the article about your company. This false information will stay on the page until a Wikipedia editor or you discover it and delete it. If there isn’t an article in the Wikipedia about your company, someone could still create a new article and write bad stuff. This is less likely because it would take more effort on their part.
• Negative things that happen to your company can find their way onto the Wikipedia article about your company. If these things are factual, there will be little that you can do to permanently removed them. Good examples of this would be a restaurant that has a food poisoning incident or a scandal involving the CEO of a company. It could be bad for business if facts like these make their way onto the Wikipedia article about your company.

The best Wikipedia links are reference links

The best links to your web site from the Wikipedia are reference links in articles. They can show that you are an authority on the articles topic.

Reference links can also drive a lot of traffic to your web site. The Wikipedia article on Avatars which references our Marketing through Avatars post brings in more traffic than Avatar related searches do.

A great link for this Internet Marketing Blog would be a reference link on the Wikipedia article about Internet Marketing. Since that article ranks number one in Google for ‘Internet Marketing’, having a reference link on that page could drive a lot of traffic to our site.

Instead of creating an article in the Wikipedia about your company, create content that is worth referencing from Wikipedia articles that are important to your niche.

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I’m going to argue that a company should have a wikipedia entry. The chances of the wikipedia outranking that actual company is slim to none. Also, it’s super great branding to have “possibly” hundreds of people per day looking at your logo. Also, as long as you stay “on top of” the edits, you shouldn’t have any troubles. Better you writing the page than a disgruntled customer, employee, or competitor.

Hi Dave,
Thanks for the comments. I’m not saying that ALL companies should stay out of the Wikipedia, but some definately should.

An example of a company that may have been better served not having a Wikipedia article is Florida Metropolitan University. Their Wikipedia article has a section titled ‘Controversy’ with a paragraph about an ongoing recruiting policy investigation. This can be bad for business.

This Wikipedia article helped make up one of my education clients minds about not being in the Wikipedia. They didn’t want to take the bad that the Wikipedia can bring to a company with the good.

Also, I see my second point about Wikipedia articles ranking higher than some small business web sites being a bigger problem a few years down the road when the Wikipedia has even more authority than it has now. Small businesses with Wikipedia articles will need to make sure their web site has a decent level of authority to outrank the Wikipedia article.

There is an article at SEO Speedwagon title “Over Half of 2008 GOP Presediential Candidates Outranked by Wikipedia in Google for Own Name” that points out that the Rudy Gulliani Wikipedia article full of detailed analysis of controversy ranks higher than his own web site. Interesting.

http://seoblog.intrapromote.co.....e-studies/

@Luke: Yes, controversy can rise in Wikipedia, but you can always log in and revert, make changes, etc. It should be a habit to check your wikipedia page, news, and blog search for your company DAILY. If the section can be cited, then there isn’t much you can do. If a company isn’t secure with itself (worried about controversies, past history, etc) then they probably shouldn’t make a wikipedia, but I don’t think most companies should have that worry.

@Ted: Article is a little outdated, but good none the less. Rudy’s wikipedia page no longer outranks his political Web site.

You know, Wikipedia is something I dont think I will try. I have heard to many stories about the truthfulness of the information. For now I will stay away.

but what use? i get removed every time and links nofollowed. so.:P

So basically large companies should try to stay out of the Wikipedia because of the negative stuff and small companies should stay out because they might someday be out ranked by the Wikipedia?

I have to disagree on all accounts (but I know that is what you want anyhow, right? Some good controversial topics)

1. The fact that Wiki uses a no-follow is pretty much only of concern to those in the SEO community. It is still a great resource that sends traffic to sites.

2. If your Wiki page outranks your site, then you are really concerned about SEO, or it wouldn’t happen (you would take care of the linking problem you mention)

3/4 - This can happen anyway since anyone can build a page, if they are really malicious they can just build the page for you and post whatever they want. This has more to do with reputation management, which is something all companies should have some sort of plan for.

My 2.0 cents…

The other three things are manageable, i.e. if you’re marketing rightly the link with nofollow relation, more exposure of the article at wikipedia than on your site etc, but yes as wikipedia allows editing option, that’s something to care more about. And in other case if you can keep a careful watch at it that can also work! Besides that of course avatar and internet marketing blogs rock.

The fact of the matter is an entry on wikipedia needs to actually serves a real purpose and that can be:
P.R - Propaganda - Brand Awareness - Search Engine Ranking… nevertheless a wiki entry will surely be subject to amendments and therefore a close look at your company’s entry is compulsory and shall never end.
Some company can cope doing it…some can’t… rule is; if you cannot regulate the amendments then don’t even think having w wikipedia article…unless you r not bothered about your company’s reputation.

In my opinion coapny should be included on the wikpedia. but there should be a person to monitor the post. We should always be responsible in everything we post.

Very nice article…

I never have wikepedia article but I have
reference links and they really drive traffic.

Wikipedia is fun for locations / products / history a.s.o. But It’s not ment for companies. Good points!!!