Have you ever wondered why for most searches at Google, we end up spotting a Wikipedia page among the top 3 results? The reason for this is simple - Wikipedia ranks among the best search engine optimized sites in the world!
While Google continues to send millions and billions of visitors the Wikipedia way, it teaches us (the SEO enthusiastic crowd) a very important lesson: To be Google’s blue eyed boy, you need to do your SEO right. And, what better way to gain inspiration for our sites’ SEO than to delve deep into the Wikipedia website itself for ideas.
Here are some of the best SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) tips that the Wikipedia website teaches us :
Create Resources, Not Articles
The Macmillan Dictionary defines Resource as “something that you can use to help you to achieve something, especially in your work or study.” This means any information you provide that helps a reader achieve success (over and above others) in their field of work or study will qualify as a resource. Another important aspect that we can decipher from the definition is the fact that an article to qualify as a resource must contain information that is not readily available elsewhere.
Practically speaking, creating resources is getting increasingly difficult over time as more and more websites vie to satisfy the same information needs of an individual. To stand out, your content must provide your readers with something unique that they will not find elsewhere.
Wikipedia, as a website scores very high in this regard. The number of times we refer to the website to find an information or verify a fact, speaks volumes about the authority it commands in the online world. Most of its articles are complete resources on a given subject and its this fact that has propelled it towards unprecedented success in the SEO world.
An important thing to remember, however, is the fact that unlike the Wikipedia website, your blog/website cannot be a resource-base on anything and everything. For you to score high, you must choose a field that you like and remain devoted to the field. Remember in the online world, it is better to be known as a person who knows “everything about something” than “something about everything.”
Apart for the above, Wikipedia also teaches us the following
1. The need to keep our content updated –
It is no secret that Google loves updated content and Wikipedia ensures that that their love-affair with Google continues by keeping their content updated and fresh. The same applies to your site.
2. Internal links are in –
One very important aspect you must have noticed about the Wikipedia website is the fact that it is buzzing with internal links. Internal links are links that point towards other pages of the same website and are important for SEO traction. Internal links not only direct people towards other pages on your website thus increasing your page views and reducing your bounce rate but also improves site visibility as far as search engine spiders are concerned. This ultimately results in a better search engine ranking for your website.
3. External links are effective but only when they point towards quality websites –
Even though Wikipedia is user edited, try adding a spam link to any of the pages (not recommended as you might risk a ban from any further edit) and the same will be immediately removed. The reason for this is the fact that external links on Wikipedia are actively monitored to ensure that only the best of sites (that offer quality content) are linked to. With your blog/website, this is a philosophy that you must actively follow to ensure that you link only to other quality blog/websites. Remember a quality external link adds to and a bad external link takes away (a lot more) from your site.
I hope that the above mentioned tips will give you a fair idea of what you need to do to make sure that your blog/website makes it big in the online world. Thanks for reading.