How To Get A Company Onto Wikipedia

Have you ever wondered why some companies have a Wikipedia page and other companies of the same size or stature don’t? It can be difficult to get companies into Wikipedia as it is not a simple matter of just writing some copy about the company in general and submitting it; there are specific rules and guidelines which must be followed.

Should Your Company Have A Wikipedia Page?

For a company to qualify for a Wikipedia page it must have achieved something of note, for example by being recognised for its innovation, for being a household name or well known brand or for being an important player in its field. The Wikipedia ‘Notability’ page explains this in further detail by outlining the guidelines the editors use to determine whether a company is ‘worthy of notice’. A topic is only deemed notable if there is sufficient objective evidence to suggest that there has been significant coverage or recognition of the topic. Without this, a topic will be rejected.

How Should Your Content Be Written?

It must be stressed that promotional material of any kind will not be accepted and advertising will probably get you penalised through blocking or banning. To avoid this, content must be objectively written and completely unbiased so that you cannot be accused of misrepresentation.  Wikipedia describes this policy as the ‘neutral point of view (NPOV)’ policy and as a core Wikipedia principle, it must be adhered to by writers and editors.  Wikipedia also provides guidelines to help with editing or writing articles when you have a conflict of interest.

A good strategy to take when trying to write content for a company for Wikipedia is to stress the longevity of the company. Demonstrating an interesting development and progression of the company is also useful and it is important to keep the material factual for example stating when the company was founded and who founded it.  If you start with these initial details, it will provide you with a good basis to add to.

References

The notability of your topic must be verifiable through citations included in the text and reliable sources. As a general rule, Wikipedia deems sources with no editorial control as unreliable so self-published articles, blogs and web forums are unlikely to help your topic achieve notable status. Books, magazines, scholarly journals and newspapers are all good sources to reference and are much more likely to be looked upon favourably. If you cannot find reliable sources which include detailed information about your topic then it is extremely unlikely that your topic will be accepted as suitable for a Wikipedia page.