How does Wikipedia's SEO work?

Question

I'm currently developing an app for Android and iOS and of course I'm thinking about the best ways to market it.

Last night I Googled somebody else's app and the third link in was a Wikipedia page on it. I never even thought of apps having Wikipedia pages, but alas there it was. And of course it was very helpful in determining exactly what the app did and in what cases it was useful for (something that's absolutely crucial for potential customers to understand).

So then I got to thinking that I should create a Wiki for my app, but how does Wikipedia apply SEO? I know that the question could be overly complicated or specific, I'm just looking for general answers. For instance when somebody Googles my app, where does Wikipedia display on the results? When I create a Wiki for my app, how do I ensure that the Wikipedia page shows in the search results (is there any way to do that? )

I'm sure I'll find all of this out later when I create a Wiki for my app, I guess I'm just asking this out of curiosity. So how does Wikipedia's search engine optimization work? (on a page by page basis)

Answer 1

There are several problems with this idea that almost guarantee your article will get deleted, and quickly.

1. Wikipedia is not a software directory.
2. It's most definitely not meant to be part of your, or anyone else's, SEO strategy.
3. There's a baseline notability requirement for articles. Basically, "Does this thing matter? Is it important? etc." You don't say what other app you looked up, so that's impossible to evaluate, but your completely new and unproven app certainly doesn't qualify, pretty much by definition. (Don't bother telling us what the other app is; it doesn't change the end result here.)
4. Your article would be original research, which is frowned upon.
5. It would also represent a conflict of interest, which is really frowned upon. Generally speaking, you are expected not to touch an article about yourself, much less create it in the first place.
6. And anyway, external links are nofollow'd.

The list goes on, but the short version is: don't do this.

Answer 2

When you say "create a Wiki" it's not clear whether you mean create your own site using some wiki software, or creating a page on Wikipedia for your app.

You will not be able to do the latter as Wikipedia pages require some basic level of notability, which you wouldn't have as a new app.

Creating your own wiki for your app is a feasible idea as it could help grow your community. However, just using MediaWiki (the same software as Wikipedia) does not mean you will be even close to ranking like WP does. The on-page SEO (titles, headings, URLs etc) are all fine, but WP ranks so highly because they attract millions of in-links, not just to the home page but to deep pages too. And those links come because WP has great content.

In short:

• You can't create a page on Wikipedia for your app.
• You can create your own wiki but it won't automatically rank higher.

Answer 3

The whole world links to them.