How Do I Get Wikipedia Links?

We all know that links are an extremely important part of SEO. Inbound links pointing to your site are what help to convey trust to the search engines. Links coming from high authority sites are very beneficial. Perhaps one of the most high authority sites on the web is Wikipedia. If you conduct a search for just about anything, it’s likely that the corresponding Wikipedia page shows up within the first few results. Obtaining a link from a site like Wikipedia is a huge link building win, so how do you do it?
While it seems like it might be an easy feat since Wikipedia content is added by users, unfortunately the opposite is true. Sure, it’s somewhat simple to set up a page for your business and add in some links back to your website but there is no guarantee that the page will remain active. Each page is carefully reviewed by an editorial team. Wikipedia prides itself on being a non biased source of information where people can share helpful information with one another. It’s not meant to be another avenue to market your business with. So, if a page appears to be created by a business and is dedicated to promoting that business and its products or services, it will be taken down. Wikipedia can trace the origin of the page via IP address and if it was set up by a business or its marketing company and is overly promotional it will be removed.
Plenty of businesses have Wikipedia pages though, so what’s the problem? Well, what these businesses have in common are that they are typically large corporations that have a large user base that is willing to create content on their behalf. If an outsider (like a client or customer) is creating the page or adding content to the page, that is acceptable. While a huge, trusted corporation like Apple can easily get unbiased content written on its behalf, it’s doubtful that a small business owner can, which is why those pages often get removed.
While it may be nearly impossible to get a Wikipedia page active on behalf of your small business, that doesn’t mean that you can’t obtain any inbound links to your site from Wikipedia. It just takes a little more effort. The most natural and appropriate way to generate links from Wikipedia is to establish your business as a thought leader and a resource. If you are creating and publishing great content on the web that is non promotional, it will be linked to and shared across the web, on sites that may include Wikipedia.
Despite the fact that it is difficult to get a small business page to stay active on Wikipedia, you can try. Your best bet is to reach out to your community and ask for contributions from them, so that all of the information isn’t coming straight from you. That way, it’s more natural.