Wiki Hatin’
SEMs have been bashing wikipedia for years, but the trend has picked up steam in the last 6 months or so. Eric’ Lander’s article at SEJ is the latest.
I click on Wikipedia SERPs at least a few times weekly. 95% of the time, I’m very satisfied with the article. I’m in the minority of SEOs who think that Wikipedia deserves their ranking 95% of the time.
I’ve intentionally explored other results, looking for something better than Wikipedia. I very rarely find something that deserves to be placed higher.
If I see anything that doesn’t look right, I can check Wiki’s sources. They provide good references, which is really hard to find these days.
Lander makes the point that there are 40,000 pages marked for cleanup at Wikipedia. But against the total 8,000,000+ they have, that ain’t bad. Actually, it shows the dedication of their editors. Lots of time those flags come out during disputes, which can promote healthy debate.
There are definitely issues with Wikipedia, but it’s hard to imagine a better solution. I’ve heard Wiki described this way “10 times more information than a normal encyclopedia, with 90% of the accuracy”. Seems like a decent tradeoff. And at least you can check the accuracy and sources yourself.