Wiki Jacking
August 18th, 2007 by Michael Gray in Grayhat SEOIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Read my top posts or learn more about Michael Gray. Want more frequent updates follow me on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!
Rand’s got an interesting video up about wiki-jacking watch it and then read my commentary
The following idea is for entertainment purposes only, and only for creative hypothosizing, and is not something I endorse or encourage in any way …
How interesting would it be if everyone went and “helped” the wiki out by focusing more and more internal linkage. I mean everyone totally going to town and massively interlinking the wiki. What would happen, wikipedia would rank for everything. like 99% of the time the top spot would be taken by the wiki instead of just the 90% it is now. How long would it be before regular users started to notice and get annoyed or complain. Would they go someplace else, or would Google have to step up and finally do something to devalue the wiki algorithmically.
Sphere It
August 18th, 2007 at 6:38 am
I like your thinking but I think enough ‘SEO’s’ are pissed of with Wikipedia that they don’t want to help it for a case of ‘what if’
August 18th, 2007 at 9:27 am
i used to be pro wikipedia, but have since seen the light. i think a massive movement to stop linking to wikipedia would be better.
down with wikipedia!
August 18th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
The funny thing is that you can easily rank about Wikipedia’s results in Google. What even better - my site was removed by the “top” SPAM fighter of Wikipedia after me adding it (including lots of relevant content) because it is the only reference website for that topic/niche. I tried explaining that I am not a SPAMMER, but those Wiki-Admin (?) are just too “narrow” minded. Too bad Google gives them so much trust.
I am all up for your idea. Just need to get a new account since I am banned from Wikipedia, because they do not like that you raise your voice and to question their decisions.
Chris
August 18th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Google likes wikipedia because Joe Average likes it. The average user likes wiki because it’s great average information; not great information, but accessible and comprehensible. Wikipedia along with every other content publisher just serve to get eyes onto the serp. Google would rather that people click on an ad than anything else, because Google is an ad agency. Everything else is just link bait.
Seriously, from a business position why should G care which site ranks #1 as long as people keep coming back and clicking on those adds?
August 19th, 2007 at 10:19 am
What bothers me is that Wikipedia has becoming a linking black hole. Lots of regular links on the way in, only nofollows on the way out. I say we should start a campaign to nofollow every link on the way in to give them a taste of their own medicine! Webmasters of the world unite!!
August 20th, 2007 at 6:19 am
Wow, this guy figured out how to…add links to Wikipedia. This is breaking news. Linking to a page via Wikipedia to increase it’s PageRank? That’s a totally new concept and warrants a video being made.
That said, this is just reiterating the concept of link spam on Wikipedia, which usually gets quickly reverted, especially on big articles. How much would you bet that the people complaining the most about having their links removed are really just spammers who put up some insignificant information or information they got from somewhere else with some ads and expected it to be accepted as a non-spam link by Wikipedians?
August 20th, 2007 at 8:29 am
njyoder,
with all respect I think you missed the point. This is not about sneaking links to your own site onto a wikipedia page. We all know about that already, that’s old news. This was about simply strengthening a wikipedia page so that wikipedia will kick your enemy out of a top spot.
The point is, nobody at wikipedia can complain because all you’ve done is made a specific wikipedia page better.
August 20th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Rand Fishkin makes Wikipedia jump…
Entschuldigung, das SEO-Licht hier ist so schwach: tragen Sie einen schwarzen oder weißen Hut? Wie bitte - das kann man bei wikipedia Manipulation nie so genau wissen? Naja, Rand Fishkin muss es ja wissen.
……
August 20th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
“What bothers me is that Wikipedia has becoming a linking black hole. Lots of regular links on the way in, only nofollows on the way out.”
Great point on this could only hurt this problem. Imagine 5-6 wiki pages ranking for keywords instead of the 2-3 now. ARRRGGGHHH
August 21st, 2007 at 3:18 am
I viewed the video again and don’t really see how this would work. Yes, you can increase internal linking, but only if it is done in a way that actually makes sense (and isn’t already done). What are the chances that the page you want to modify is conveniently missing numerous links to it which wouldn’t get reverted? Even if that’s the case, at best you only nudge your enemy down a notch (or a tiny few more if you count the “sub-hits” google lists).