Wikipedia is probably one of the most popular sites on the Internet today. It is considered an authority site on almost any subject that people search for. That is the reason why Wikipedia appears on the first pages of search engines for most search terms.
Business owners can gain many benefits by listing their company or their products and services on Wikipedia pages. This online encyclopedia is visited by millions of people from all over the world. Therefore, it can serve as one of the best sources of traffic when a backlink to one’s website is embedded in any of its pages.
Here are three big benefits of business owners linking their sites to Wikipedia:
Benefit #1 – Traffic
Even if a small fraction of the visitors that flock to this mega portal land on your business site, it can drive a huge number of hits. So, including a link on Wikipedia is a great business strategy to get more exposure, more traffic, and hopefully more business.
Benefit #2 – Weighting
Wikipedia backlinks are “no-follow” links, which means that search engines don’t add them to a site’s total backlinks. However, even though it is a “do not follow” link, it still carries weight since the link originates from an authority site.
Benefit #3 – Cost
Another great advantage of using Wikipedia for business promotion is that the process is completely free. While it can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars to place a small ad on the search results pages of most search engines, linking to your website from Wikipedia costs next to nothing.
However, adding a backlink to one’s Wikipedia site is not as straightforward and straightforward as it seems. Since the site strives to maintain its authoritative status, it is very strict about the type of information it allows on its pages. Very often it removes from its pages links to websites that are not of good quality or are irrelevant to the pages where the links are found.
Also, since Wikipedia can be edited by virtually anyone with Internet access, they may also remove embedded links. Sometimes a company’s competitors may also engage in such unethical activities. Business owners would have to constantly monitor the presence of their links and re-add them if someone removes them. Despite these few shortcomings, the value of getting backlinks from Wikipedia is truly enormous.