Wikipedia.org is the free wiki encyclopedia edited by volunteers edit this microsummary

Wiki edit

edit Wikipedia


Wikipedia.org is a wiki encyclopedia, meaning that it is an encyclopedia with content created and maintained by its users. Wikipedia currently has over 7 million articles in over 200 different languages.

edit History


Wikipedia was launched on January 15, 2001 as spin off “feeder project” by Nupedia, a free internet encyclopedia. Nupedia became defunct and left the internet in 2003, but Wikipedia continued. The Wikimedia Foundation, a non profit organization, was founded on June 20, 2003 from Nupedia and the Wikipedia project, to oversee the Wikipedia Project.

The term Wikipedia was granted a U.S. Trademark on January 10, 2006. The European Union and Japan have also approved a trademark for the term.

edit How It Works


Wikipedia operates as a wiki, which is a site created and maintained by the site users. Anyone may edit articles on Wikipedia. Only registered users may create, delete, or merge articles. Registered users have certain of these permissions, as well as admin permissions, based on their level. The higher level users are elected, then they may appoint lower level users.

All edits are retained in the database, and users may view and compare older versions to the current article version to help them continually work together to improve the article. Edits are made live immediately, without a review process. The system relies on ongoing collaboration and editing to keep the articles accurate and up to date. In the case of a user who is abusing the system, the user can be banned.

Wikipedia uses the MediaWiki software, a custom made application using PHP & MySQL.

edit Issues


One of the primary advantages Wikipedia holds over other encyclopedias is its up to date nature. Many articles on Wikipedia are updated within hours of a news break affecting the article. On the contrary, most normal encyclopedias take decades or at least years to get an update.

Wikipedia is also the world's largest encyclopedia ever compiled. It includes articles on many technical, specialized, or fluid topics other encyclopedias do not cover.

Debates and discussions are common on the accuracy and reliability of Wikipedia. The primary argument against the reliability of Wikipedia centers around the fact that Wikipedia articles are largely based on consensus rather than credentials. Several studies show Wikipedia is roughly as accurate as other encyclopedias. Wikipedia does require facts and statements be referenced for an article to meet its editorial standards. Adding the references is an ongoing work for the editors of Wikipedia.

Wikipedia has those who do not like it as well. Several sites discuss problems with the site including The Wikipedia Review and Wikipedia Problems. Complaints abound with anonymous editing, attacks by administrators, paid editing, and a lack of authority and fairness in actions by administrators, editors, and those in other positions working on the "encyclopedia."

edit Funding


Wikimedia Foundation, the organization that runs Wikipedia, covers the costs of operating Wikipedia primarily through private donations and fundraisers. Their January 2007 fundraiser netted over $1 million.

edit Contact


Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
Located in San Francisco. See the contact page for more information

edit Additional Information

edit Languages

Multilingual

edit Related Domains


edit External Links


How visible is your website?

Home Page Analysis

A better home page will help you show up in search results.

Titles & Headings Icon-result-problem
Links & Images Icon-result-warning
Search Engine Friendliness Icon-result-problem

Get Your
Competitive Edge

See how your digital marketing stacks up,
and get ahead.

Get your Competitive Edge and we'll show you.

Web Presence Analysis

How easily can your site be found around the Web?

value for Google crawl date
value for Bing indexed pages

Home Page Analysis

The Home Page Analysis helps you understand how a site's home page appears to both search engines and site visitors.


updated 9 months ago

Wikipedia.org Home Page Analysis Summary

Titles & Headings The title and headings on the home page tell people and search engines what a website is about.
Analyze the title & headings of the home page for free or the entire site.
Problem
Links & Images Relevant links to other sites are good for people and search engines. Images on a web page should be described for visually impaired visitors and search engines.
Analyze the links & images of the home page for free or the entire site.
Warning
Search Engine Friendliness A few simple technical fixes can make any site show up better in search results.
Problem
Want more? Our Competitive Edge service gives you actionable insight into the social and content marketing of you and your top 3 competitors, and how effective it is.

Want free online marketing advice in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly email.


updated 9 months ago

Title

The title of a web page appears in search results as the link to that page. Learn more ...

Purpose

The title of a web page appears as a clickable link in search results and bookmarks. A descriptive, compelling home page title with relevant keywords can increase the number of people visiting the site.

Search Engines

Search engines view the text of the title tag as a strong indication of what the page is about. Accurate keywords in the title tag can help the page rank better in search results.

Length

A title tag should have fewer than 70 characters, including spaces. Major search engines won't display more than that.

Content

The title tag of your home page (and any other page on your site) should not contain the site’s domain name or URL. These will appear near the title in search results, so use your 70 characters to tell people what the page is about. The title tag should not contain any HTML, because it will be displayed incorrectly or not at all.

  • Good: This web page has a title tag.
  • Problem: The title has fewer than three words. You may not be telling people and search engines enough about this page.
The title of this site's home page:
Wikipedia

Meta Description

Search engines often use the meta description of a web page to describe it in search results. Learn more ...

Purpose

The meta description tells searchers what a web page is about. It is often displayed below the title in search results, and helps people decide if they want to visit that website.

Length

Search engines will read 200 to 250 characters, but usually display only 150, including spaces. The first 150 characters of the meta description should contain the most important keywords for that web page. Using fewer than 50 characters could mean you’re not saying enough about the page.

Content

The meta description should be engaging, and should include keywords that accurately reflect what visitors will find on the web page. The keywords should be the same ones that a site's potential customers are using to search. Include a site’s location if it is important.

  • Good: The meta description is the right length, between 50 and 150 characters.
The meta description for this site's home page:
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

H1 Headings

The H1 heading is an important sentence or phrase on a web page that quickly and clearly tells people and search engines what they can expect to find there. Learn more ...

Just one H1

In most cases, a web page should have just one H1 heading. Using multiple H1 headings is okay if that is a logical way to organize the page, but they should be used sparingly. That’s because search engines can view multiple H1 headings as an attempt to signal that all the content on a page is equally important, a tactic that’s seen as an attempt to game the search engine algorithms.

Purpose

Search engines look for an H1 heading to determine what a page is about. Human visitors do, too.

Content and placement

The H1 heading appears on the web page itself, unlike the page title, which people will see mostly in search results.

The H1 tag (which contains the H1 heading) is usually listed first among the other heading tags for a page. None of the major search engines, however, will penalize a site for listing H2 through H6 tags ahead of the H1 tag.

The H1 heading for a page should be different from its title. Each can target different important keywords for better SEO.

  • Problem: This web page does not have an H1 heading. It should have one.

Wikipedia.org in search results

You can see below how most search engines will display this site's home page in search results. The title is used as the link to the page, and the meta description appears below the title.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

wikipedia.org/

Want more? Our Competitive Edge service gives you actionable insight into the social and content marketing of you and your top 3 competitors, and how effective it is.

Want free online marketing advice in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly email.


updated 9 months ago

Robots

Your website's robots.txt file can tell search engines to ignore parts of your site. Learn more ...

Purpose

Website owners usually use robots.txt to let search engines know which pages or sections of their site shouldn't be indexed — for example, web contact forms, print versions of web pages and other content that's duplicated elsewhere on the site. Robots.txt can also be used to request that specific robots not index a site. For more information, read How To Use Robots.txt.

Be careful!

If you're going to use robots.txt, be careful not to accidentally exclude search engines from pages you want people to find. To learn more, read Don't Block Search Engine Crawlers.

Search engine robots

You'll need to know the names of specific search engine robots - or "bots" – if you’re going to exclude any or all of them from any part of your site.

  • Google’s bot is called Googlebot. Google is the world’s largest search engine, and is where many people discover new websites.
  • Bing’s bot is called msnbot. Bing also provides search results to people using Yahoo to search the Web. Together, Bing and Yahoo are the second largest search resource, after Google.
  • Baidu’s bot is called Baiduspider. Baidu is a major search engine in China, and the number of people using it is increasing rapidly.
  • AboutUs.org’s bot is called AboutUsBot. To create a Site Report, AboutUs uses crawling technology that’s similar to what search engines use.
  • Problem: You are blocking Google’s robot from indexing your site. It will not appear in Google’s search results. Google is the world’s largest search engine, and is where many people discover new websites. Google’s bot is called Googlebot.

Canonical Url

This website can live at www.Wikipedia.org or Wikipedia.org. It's best for your site's visibility to live at just one URL, or web address. You'll want to create a 301 redirect to the URL you choose from the other URL. Learn more ...

Choose one or the other

Whichever of these URLs you choose, make sure your website lives ONLY at that location, which is called the canonical URL for your site.

Be careful!

If you choose www.MyWebsite.com for your site, make sure people who don't type www can get to your site, too. Create a permanent 301 redirect from MyWebsite.com to www.MyWebsite.com.

If the same web page exists at two different URLs, people can choose to link to one or the other. Links from other sites to your website are valuable — they tell search engines that your site is important to people. By splitting valuable links between two identical pages, you're diluting the power of those links to help a page rank higher in search results.

Learn more about why you should have just one home page: Read Twin Home Pages: Classic SEO Mistake

  • Good: Your website resides at www.Wikipedia.org, and Wikipedia.org is permanently redirected to it.
Want more? Our Competitive Edge service gives you actionable insight into the social and content marketing of you and your top 3 competitors, and how effective it is.

Want free online marketing advice in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly email.

Web Presence

Search Engine Visibility

Check this site's prominence around the web and in major search engines.

Backlinks

value for Google
value for Alexa

Indexed Pages

value for Google 47,400,000
value for Bing 0

Rank

value for Quantcast 10
value for Compete Not Available
value for Alexa 8

Date Last Crawled

value for Google Not Available
value for Bing Not Available

Check this site's presence on news sharing and community sites.

Social Media Visibility

value for Digg 0
value for Dmoz 30,648
value for Google Groups 6,440,000
value for Yahoo Answers 764,105
Want more? Our Competitive Edge service gives you actionable insight into the social and content marketing of you and your top 3 competitors, and how effective it is.

Want free online marketing advice in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly email.

Redirectory

Below we show domains that redirect to Wikipedia.org.

We survey every domain on the Internet ending in .com, .net, or .edu to see if any redirect to this website. Large or famous websites like Amazon.com often have many sites redirecting to them.

Domains that redirect to the home page of Wikipedia.org

A website owner can point one domain to the home page of another. Learn more ...

Capture visitors who type the wrong name

It can make a lot of sense to redirect a domain to an existing web page. For example, many people are likely to type wikipedia.com when they are really looking for wikipedia.org. Creating a redirect from wikipedia.com to wikipedia.org helps these people get to the site they want.

29 domains redirect to the home page of Wikipedia.org.

Load the remaining 9 direct redirects

Domains that redirect to a page within Wikipedia.org

A domain can point to any page within another website. Learn more ...

Get people to a specific web page

Creating a redirect from a simple domain name helps people find an existing web page that has a long, hard-to-remember URL. For example firefox.com redirects to http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/.

We have not found any domains that redirect to pages within Wikipedia.org.

Want more? Our Competitive Edge service gives you actionable insight into the social and content marketing of you and your top 3 competitors, and how effective it is.

Want free online marketing advice in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly email.