5 reasons why your business should be on Wikipedia
8 January 2009
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Wikipedia competes with the venerable paper encyclopedia as a major source of knowledge in today's world. The website, available in dozens of languages, has captured a worldwide audience who consult it in their quest for an accessible repository of information. It is a great way to get free exposure for your business and can even boost your search engine rankings. So, if you don't have a presence on there, why not?
The strength of Wikipedia is that anyone and everyone can contribute to subjects they know about. This means that, as an entrepreneur or owner of a business, you can publicise your skills, expertise, biography, company history, products and accomplishments to an audience of millions. You can also include information about your company and products on Wikipedia pages relevant to your vertical market.
    • Many Wikipedia pages command the trust of large parts of the online community by covering a very wide range of subjects objectively and weeding out overt marketing lingo.

    • It costs nothing to write and maintain a Wikipedia page and it is incredibly simple to do. All you need is web access, an internet browser and structured content to publish. You can also insert images, sound clips and even video.

    • Search engines love Wikipedia because so many people use it as a resource and link to Wikipedia pages from their own websites and blogs. This means search engines like Google and MSN afford the Wikipedia page a higher relevance ranking in search results. Your competitors are doing this now to direct traffic to their sites. Use a Wikipedia page to bolster your web presence.

    • Establishing your company on Wikipedia and talking about the services and products that you provide increases your credibility. Wikipedia, unlike lesser known online resources, is less likely to contain inaccurate content because of the editors and volunteers who weed out bad content. 

    • The company behind Wikipedia has launched Wikia, which allows you to create your own targeted micro version of Wikipedia, in the same ways as giants like IBM, who provide their own Wikis for clients and employees.
One drawback of Wikipedia is that other people can edit or remove what you write at any time. It is essential to monitor the pages where your business is mentioned to ensure everything written about it is accurate and not undermined by mischievous editing.
 
Another possible drawback is that Wikipedia entries are often subjective and are more opinion than fact. Wikipedia has actually given rise to a new breed of freelance writers who specialise in writing for it.
 
 
About the author

This article was taken from the Business IT Guide, a resource developed in collaboration with industry experts to help small businesses find the right IT solutions.