Wikipedia.org is a free encyclopedia to which anyone can login to edit or add articles and content. We have talked in our private client forums about the fact that Wikipedia is seen as a trusted source from Google. We have also found it to be a good place to mine for community websites from which you can request a link. Quality backlinks are extremely important to the success of your website on Google and other search engines. Other directories that are trusted with Google are Dmoz.org and Yahoo.com. Searching through your particular community within these directories is a great place to find websites to network and advertise with.

Align Yourself with Trusted Friends
 
In addition to searching Wikipedia, Dmoz, and Yahoo for quality links, you may also want to be in their websites as well.  Yahoo’s directory costs $299 a year to be reviewed and included.  This is a key directory link worth paying for.  Dmoz has an ‘Suggest a Site' button at the top of every category and is free. You will want to drill down to your local community and real estate category to submit your site. It is a volunteer community so getting your link approved is not guaranteed.

http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_America/United_States/
http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/U_S__States/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Getting your link on Wikipedia.org is another story.  Wikipedia is run by the community-at-large so it is very self-regulating. Any content submitted that someone deems inappropriate or promotional will be notated and removed. Having a link on Wikipedia can be valuable so it is worth it to explore the options on how you can include yourself in their website.

How Valuable Is a Trusted Link?

One of our Premium Marketing Package clients has been working with their Marketing Specialist to achieve better rankings. They have a relatively new domain name that was registered in August of 2005. They came to Advanced Access in March of 2006 and signed up for the Premium Marketing Service in July.  One of the backlinks they were recently able to acquire was a link from Wikipedia under their main city of business.  Their city is medium sized and on the outskirts of the state’s capital. The page on Wikipedia is showing a PageRank of 3 on Google’s toolbar.  Via Yahoo’s Keyword Selector Tools, the search term receives approx 10,000 searches a month. Due to the self-editing nature of Wikipedia, I am refraining from listing where this client resides in as it is possible that the link could disappear. :-)
 
The link was added to Wikipedia.org on October 16, 2006 along with local community content, subdivision, and neighborhood information.
 
The site was nowhere to be found in Google for the first two months (July & August) of their Marketing Package for their main ‘City Real Estate’ keyword.  In September, they popped up to #105.  They continued to fluctuate between #97, #103, & #105 positions during the early part of October.
 
On October 27, 2006, a week and a half after the Wikipedia link as added, the site jumped up 30+ spots to #67 for ‘City Real Estate’ which is the main keyword their website is focused on.  As a new site that does not have 'age' this is extremely promising. Today, the keyword is bouncing between #67 and #72.

Is this jump in rankings due to the link in Wikipedia? Or due to the rest of the link building and other SEO aspects our Marketing Specialists have been performing with the client?  It’s hard to tell.  RustyBrick from SERoundTable reported a discussion from Webmaster World that asked how long on average it would take for Google to find quality links and adjust your rankings accordingly. Some members reported that they would see changes in as little as a week.  For trusted sites, Google will generally spider them more often, finding new content added, and taking that into account.  As RustyBrick said, “You get links from trustworthy sites, you become more trustworthy yourself.”
 
Being seen as a trusted site to the search engines is something to strive for. Your first goal is to make your website a resource for consumers to learn from. Other trusted or authoritative links can be found on our Quality Inbound Links page.

Find out the best ways to submit your content to Wikipedia here.

Enjoy! - Kristina