How to get your company's Wikipedia page approved

How to Get a Company Wikipedia Page Approved

Getting a Wikipedia Page Approved – Guide (December 2020)

In order to get a page approved for Wikipedia, you need to understand their community of volunteer editors. They pride themselves in keeping their online encyclopedia neutral which means they do not intend for the website to be exploited for marketing purposes. Keep the following in mind:

  1. Wikipedia does not want you taking advantage of their platform (in terms of marketing).
  2. Wikipedia strives for a Neutral Point of View (NPOV) – read the NPOV tutorial
  3. Wikipedia success will involve building rapport & contributing as part of their community.

This May Take Time

Wikipedia is run by volunteers & bots, but this does not mean they are lax. Researching the Wikipedia community is a necessary step in playing by their rules. In our experience, you cannot slip anything by the community. Any suspect edits made will eventually get noticed & addressed. Do not test their limits too much. Doing this risks you getting penalized & potentially banned as an editor – meaning you will have to start from scratch. 

New editors should spend time at the Wikipedia:Teahouse utilizing question forums, tutorials, & more. New users are required to edit a few existing Wikipedia articles before they can attempt to submit a new article as well. The community values & tracks your involvement. For all the reasons we’ve listed it can be hard to predict the scope of this effort – set realistic expectations.

You Must be Notable

“A company, corporation, organization, group, product, or service is notable if it has been the subject of significant coverage in multiple reliable secondary sources that are independent of the subject.” – see: Notability: organizations & companies

quality of sources > quantity of sources

Steps to Drafting & Submitting your Wikipedia Article:

  • Have a Wikipedia approved Wikipedia editor.
    1. A designated person (user) needs to sign up for Wikipedia.
      1. User should not have a company email address or any email that includes suspicious terms like “marketing” or affiliation with an organization. In fact, Wikipedia requires paid editors to disclose this fact.
  • User must research Wikipedia community to understand all guidelines.
    1. Take time for this step to ensure the next steps are efficient. Read the following.
      1. Understand secondary sources
      2. Understand notability & “Notability for organizations & companies”
      3. Understand uploading images
      4. Understand Wikitext formatting (cheat sheet)
  • User must research & gather secondary sources for information.
    1. Gather many sources & vet them using Wikipedia’s guidelines.
    2. Compile a list of vetted sources to support your Wiki page.
  • Draft article (continue with current draft).
  • Submit for approval (the draft form has a button for this)
  • Assess Wiki’s report & repeat the process if necessary
  1. If unsuccessful – carefully read the editor’s notes & modify the article to meet these requirements.
  2. If successful – wow! Congratulations! Monitor page to ensure it stays accurate & reflects company values. (see Paid-Contribution below for more details on this)

Uploading Images:

How to upload an image by their rules. You may successfully upload a logo or image but it will not last unless it is part of the Commons. “Commons accepts only freely licensed images”

Paid-Contribution

Creating your Wikipedia page or editing your organization’s Wikipedia page is not sanctioned.

How to Officially Monitor Your Company’s Wikipedia Page

  • Create an account & disclose the account as a Paid Contributor following the guidelines set by Wikipedia
  • Don’t try to create edits
  • DO make suggestions on talk pages and at noticeboards for uninvolved editors to review.

Wiki’s Statements on Paid Contributors 

“Editors who are or expect to be compensated for their contributions must disclose their employer, client, and affiliation with respect to any paid contributions. They must do this on their main user page, or on the talk page accompanying any paid contributions, or in edit summaries.” –  Wikipedia (full article: Paid-contribution)

Official statement from Wikipedia on the change to Terms of Use for paid contributors. (2014)

“Paid contract editors and paid-advocacy editing: The COI guideline advises: “If you have a financial connection to a topic (as an employee, owner or other stakeholder), you are advised to refrain from editing articles directly, and to provide full disclosure of the connection.” …Instead, propose suggestions on talk pages and at noticeboards for uninvolved editors to review. Avoid suggesting entire drafts in case these are carried into article space without adequate review; in the case of a commercial operation, a company draft risks the appearance of covert advertising.” – (full article: Conflict of Interest Guide)