How to create a Wikipedia Page

By users for users – this is the principle of the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia. Wikipedia publishes free articles online, and has entries on most things out there. The articles are co-written and developed, and constantly expanded by readers' knowledge. Seeing as Wikipedia articles often appear high up in Google search results, it is understandable that many companies want to appear on the platform, and create their own Wikipedia page. How do you create your own Wikipedia articles, and what do you need to consider?

The fact that every internet user can make their own Wikipedia page doesn’t mean you can write anything. Wikipedia extensively reviews the content written, and the relevance of the topic also plays an important role. To avoid your article being deleted, it is advisable to consider some basic criteria when preparing your article. This guide will show you how to create a Wikipedia page.

To create contributions, you need a user account, which can be created quickly and simply. Open the homepage and click on “create user account” in the upper right corner. Wikipedia only requires a user name and a password of your choice to register. Then enter the text presented to you by the CAPTCHA security check, and select “create user account” to complete the registration.

Before you start writing your Wikipedia article, you should make sure that your planned content is not a published entry yet. Enter the topic of your planned article in the Wikipedia search bar. If there is no page about your chosen topic, you can go ahead and create a new page.

Just as important as reviewing what is in your article is making sure it is relevant, a criteria Wikipedia calls “notability.” Wikipedia has established detailed and precise criteria on determining when a topic is notable, and when it is not. In general, a topic, event, or person is considered to be notable enough for a Wikipedia page when it is significant to the public for a longer time. Individual criteria must be taken into account for the various categories of topics, e.g. social events or business enterprises. Wikipedia has detailed these relevance criteria in a separate article, where you’ll also find the defined notability guidelines for companies. For example, Wikipedia classifies companies that have at least 1,000 full-time employees, or which have at least 20 production sites, as relevant.

If your topic fulfils the notability criteria, you can start or continue your research. It is important that the entire content of your article is verified, i.e. sufficiently referenced. It is therefore a good idea to submit the relevant sources to your research. If you write your Wikipedia entry later, you will have to assign all used sources to the corresponding content. If you are writing your first article on Wikipedia, comparing its format with other articles on Wikipedia can be helpful.

In principle, every registered user is authorized to create or change Wikipedia entries. Seeing as Wikipedia has a uniform format, writers have to consider one or two things. How to write a good Wikipedia article is addressed by Wikipedia itself in the article how to write better articles">“How to write good articles”. This article is aimed primarily at users who have no previous writing experience.

Factual correctness and general comprehensibility are important for creating a good Wikipedia article. Also note the structural specifications under “structure of the article.” The suggestions give a good overview of which tone is appropriate on Wikipedia. In addition, there may be other guidelines depending on the subject area.

Once you have created your Wikipedia page, publish it by clicking on “save article.” Click on “preview” to see what the article will look like. Users who have already written articles will be automatically informed about the publication of their article. Prior to this, Wikipedia carries out an aptitude check in which your contribution is checked for possible errors. If you are notified of any suggestions for improvement, make the changes quickly to prevent your post from being deleted.

To successfully make a Wikipedia page, it is best to follow these principles:

• Observe notability criteria
• Write on new topics
• Be neutral
• Write fact-based content
• Do not advertise or self-promote