Having your own Wikipedia entry can have a beneficial effect on a company’s reach. But how to create a Wikipedia page?
Wikipedia entries regularly lead to better search ranking and thus offer companies a chance to make their profile more authoritative. Moreover, creating your own entry is easier than many thinks: in just a few steps, companies and public figures can create a Wikipedia entry.
Create a Wikipedia entry for companies: Observe relevance criteria
Wikipedia is also susceptible to manipulation and the spread of fake news due to its open publishing structure. The creators have also recognized this and have therefore defined criteria according to which articles are published. The relevance is important, which is documented in a catalog of relevance criteria.
A suggestion can also be submitted via the Wikipedia relevance check in order to have it checked by one of the volunteer Wikipedia employees.
6 steps to publish your own Wikipedia page or article
Companies that meet at least one of Wikipedia’s criteria can have their own page or article published on the famous encyclopedia. To do this, you must go through the following steps:
1. Create a user account
If not already done, the contribution’s author must create a user account on Wikipedia. An account is quickly created with a username, password, and e-mail address. In order to create more trust, companies should be transparent about the fact that they are working on their own entry. Therefore, it makes sense to register the user account under the company name and via a company e-mail in order to have it verified later.
2. Preparation of the Wikipedia page or article
The article about the company can easily be prescribed in a Word document. The writing style should be neutral and in no way promotional. General information about the company, such as facts and figures, but also the history should be in the text. When structuring the article, the specifications of Wikipedia should be observed – an introduction and subheadings with an index should be created. External texts cannot be used, as you should not violate any copyrights. Only quotations of individual text passages are permitted here, for example, from press releases about the company. Once the structure has been created, and the article has been filled with content, it makes sense to have a second person proofread it.
3. Cite sources
It is important that sources and evidence are also collected, as Wikipedia entries should be well-founded and not a collection of claims or even personal experiences. In the case of companies, sources can be used as evidence, for example, annual reports for figures or newspaper articles for background information.
4. Save it
Once the article has been written and sufficiently documented with sources, it can be saved. As a result, the entry is not yet publicly visible but is initially being revised by one of Wikipedia’s staff.
5. Classify articles
Finally, the written contribution has to be sorted into appropriate categories. A main category is usually sufficient, but finer classifications can also be useful. For example, a UK shipyard founded in 1971 may be classified in the “Shipyards (UK)” category but also fits in the “Established 1971” category.
6. Implement corrections
After the Wikipedia staff has checked it, there are usually still corrections to be made. Within a few days, the author of the article will receive a message stating which corrections are necessary. These should be implemented quickly so that the entry is not deleted at some point. After the desired changes have been implemented, the contribution will be published on Wikipedia.
Keep an eye on articles and be sensitive to negative information
Companies that have successfully published a page or article on Wikipedia should keep checking back even after publication. Because nothing is more annoying than false information on the Internet that is damaging to your reputation. On the one hand, regular checks mean that obsolete data can be changed quickly. On the other hand, information added by external users can be checked and corrected if necessary.
Correcting does not mean that negative information can simply be deleted. If it did happen, a scandal is also part of the company’s history. However, companies can influence how such information is presented. For example, if the article only focuses on the negative consequences, you can add how the company dealt with them. It is important that the article remains neutral and does not give the impression that something is being covered up or glossed over.