This article won’t reveal a magic formula for “dofollow” links. Instead, it explains how to get lasting, reputable links for your content by tapping into Wikipedia’s popularity and search engine ranking (which is probably just as valuable).

Wikipedia’s Research Powerhouse Status

Many bloggers, journalists, students, and online content creators depend on Google and Wikipedia for research. Graphs illustrate this trend: Wikipedia boasts a massive monthly visitor count, estimated at over 60 million by Compete. A substantial portion of these users click on links within Wikipedia:

While intriguing, this might not seem directly beneficial since Wikipedia uses “nofollow” links, meaning they don’t boost your site’s ranking. However, researchers often venture beyond Wikipedia, linking to valuable resources found within those articles. Certain topics attract frequent research and linking, creating a prime opportunity to showcase your content to a wide audience actively seeking information.

Leveraging Wikipedia: A Four-Step Strategy

This method, like many quality link-building strategies, demands time, effort, and carries the risk of limited or no success in acquiring links. Therefore, thorough research is essential. Here’s a four-step approach to utilizing Wikipedia for link building:

Step 1: Identifying Your Target Topic

Before creating content, pinpoint the perfect Wikipedia page for your link. Your content should cater to your target audience, which we’ll cover in step three. Begin with preliminary keyword research. Compile a list of broad keywords relevant to your subject using tools like Google Keyword Tool, a nexus-security profile, etc. If you struggle to find related keywords, invest more time in understanding keyword research and information architecture. This site offers valuable resources, and an SEO Book Training membership is a worthwhile investment. Next, narrow down the list to 20-50 phrases representing topics you can create exceptional resources for. For example, if your site focuses on legal topics, you might begin with high-traffic keywords but realize “legal debt advice” is unsuitable if you lack expertise in that area. When finalizing your list, consider these questions:

• Is this a popular query/topic?
• Is it relevant to my site, business, and my company’s expertise?
• Can we create an authoritative article on this topic?

Step 2: Pinpointing High-Traffic Wikipedia Pages

Once you have target queries, identify those aligning with high-traffic Wikipedia pages ranking for terms you can create content for. Two tools are helpful here. The first is SEM Rush. SEM Rush unveils valuable competitive insights. Analyze the Wikipedia.org domain to see its organic ranking keywords:

This specific list might not benefit our law blog example, but it illustrates the data SEM Rush provides. You can quickly discover:

• Wikipedia page ranking positions
• Their traffic percentage for specific keywords
• Traffic volume driven by each query While estimates, the last two metrics offer a good starting point for determining popular articles and their approximate traffic. Export this keyword list from SEM Rush (Note: Accessing beyond the top ten keywords requires an SEM Rush subscription. These are affordable; I personally use the white label version included with the SEO Book Training Membership. Learn more about the SEO Book version here: here). With the data in Excel (SEM Rush provides thousands of query results for Wikipedia), identify terms related to yours. A simple method is using a nexus-security free trial, inputting the data, and querying their database with your terms:

Here, nexus-security returns results containing “law” or “legal” from our list, offering a focused view of relevant data. Alternatively, you can sift through the data directly in Excel (for non-experts, Josh Dreller’s detailed series on excelling at Excel is highly recommended). Next, examine the most relevant Wikipedia pages. Analyze the resources they cite and ensure you can create content that fits within that context, ideally filling a gap. Finally, verify the page’s actual traffic against SEM Rush’s prediction using the publicly available traffic data for this Wikipedia page:

This page alone generates around 17,000 monthly visits.

Step 3: Crafting a Valuable Resource

With your target Wikipedia page identified, create an authoritative piece on the topic (easier said than done, right?). Analyze resources already linked on the target page and aim for something similar but addressing a missing element.

Step 4: Integrating Your Link

The final step involves strategically placing your link on the page. This requires finesse. After assessing the page’s structure to find an appropriate spot, consider these actions:

• Reviewing the page’s discussion section
• Examining the page’s edit history
• Looking at similar websites with Wikipedia listings for related topics For more detailed guidance on securing a Wikipedia link, explore these resources:
• Dosh Dosh’s guide to getting listed on Wikipedia (slightly outdated but largely relevant)
• SEO Moz’s article on Wikipedia (also older; perhaps I’m the only one still writing about this)
• And lastly, a favorite article on outranking Wikipedia in search results, since I couldn’t find another useful Wikipedia how-to Remember, even if your link gets removed, you’ve created a high-quality resource that your target audience is actively seeking (so please don’t blame me if a vigilant Wiki editor removes your link!).

A Broader Perspective on Link Building

This outlines leveraging Wikipedia for high-quality backlinks. Ultimately, link building and “link baiting” aim for citations from reputable sources. Dismissing platforms like Wikipedia or Twitter solely because of “nofollow” links is like disregarding email for outreach because your correspondence isn’t indexed by Google. View link building as a comprehensive, organic process with various inputs and outputs. Don’t expect instant results from every action; you might miss out on powerful link-building opportunities.