Wikipedia Articles by SEO Speedwagon

June 20, 2008

DMOZ, Meet Wikipedia

I must say, I find DMOZ and Wikipedia incredibly interesting. Both can be incredibly helpful resources, as manifested by Google's love affair with each, a love affair that makes DMOZ and Wikipedia necessarily difficult to crack. Yet, as just a Friday afternoon observation, how they defend themselves from the onslaught of those attempting to crack them places them on opposite ends of the spectrum. Whereas Wikipedia will respond instantly and error on the side of speedy deletion, DMOZ seems to reserve any type of judgement until full consideration can be placed.

While both defense strategies have their philosophical and practical pros and cons, DMOZ often seems paralyzed by its due process. Perhaps that's why, every once in a while in a matter of concession, you find most of a DMOZ category consisting of Wiki links, or more precisely, 30 out of 53 total links pointing to Wiki pages.

DMOZ, Meet Wikipedia
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October 04, 2007

Someone's Been Playing with Wikipedia's Google Coop Feed

I won't even bother trying to figure out what "Hannah is a silly billy" means (other than the obvious), but it's worth noting that Wikipedia's Google Co-op feed has been compromised. Or, at a minimum, poorly maintained, as the following shot shows:

For no particular reason, I subscribe to Wikipedia's Google Co-op feed, which means that if Wikipedia has built a custom query result around a particular query -- and I search for that exact query -- then Wikipedia's result will show up first on my SERP -- above all organic results (but not above paid listings).

For the record, here's how it's supposed to work. Following is a "real" Wikipedia Co-op entry, this time for [hank aaron].

The text on the Co-op entry isn't pulled from the actual Wikipedia entry for Hank Aaron. Typically, they're custom written and uploaded through Google Co-op and delivered only to Google account holders who have subscribed to a specific organization's feed.

Someone's Been Playing with Wikipedia's Google Coop Feed
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July 13, 2007

Wagon Mourns Howard Cunningham, And Wiki is an Honorable Man

Friends, Romans, SEOs, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Howard, not to praise him;
The actors that play men live after them,
Their characters loop in syndication,
So let it be with Howard…. The noble Wiki
Hath told you Howard was fictitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Howard answered it….

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Cunningham

O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason…. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Howard,
And I must pause till it come back to me.

Wagon Mourns Howard Cunningham, And Wiki is an Honorable Man
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July 02, 2007

Wiki Offers SEO an Olive Branch?

Have you looked at Today's featured article at Wikipedia? Cue the apocalypse. . .

Wiki is featuring SEO in its Article of the Day. In other news, Donald Trump has appointed Rosie O'Donnell as his next apprentice.

Wiki Offers SEO an Olive Branch?
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June 19, 2007

10 Ways to Make Your Wiki Sticky

Let’s assume that you have an article that legitimately belongs in Wikipedia, for the remainder of this article is worthless if that is not the case. And as a cautionary note, your article still faces speedy deletion even if it legitimately belongs in Wikipedia and you follow every step of this article. That being said, the following is a set of guidelines that will give you and your articles the best chance of remaining in Wiki.

The Wikipedia culture, dare I say subculture, operates under the suspicion that you are a spammer and that your article is spam. You need to operate within their rules to prove that you and your article are worthwhile, for any action at all arouses suspicion, but any action outside of their rules yields a guilty verdict.

Identify Yourself
Get a Wiki ID. If you edit anonymously, you are a spammer.

Build Wiki Cred
Learn Wiki structure and coding by becoming familiar with the Edit page. Contribute to existing articles. The more good edits you have, the more likely you are to be trusted by Wiki.

Play in the Sandbox, and Preview Everything
As you get more daring, go to the Sandbox to perfect coding. And always preview before saving to make sure your edits looks exactly right. While edits involving code make you one of the gang, edits with invalid code make you the enemy.

Don’t Save a Lot, but Save Lots
When you are ready to upload an article, save the entire article. Your first save creates the article, and an editor will delete it within seconds if he or she does not see the entire article.

You Have to Have Me at Hello
While that editor expects to see an entire article, you have about 3 seconds to explain why your subject matter is so important that it warrants its own Wiki article. If the editor reads the opening description and does not see the importance or significance of its subject, your article will be deleted.

Love at first Cite
Include a reference in your statement of importance. The editor will not believe that your subject matter is important unless somebody important agrees with you.

Be Boring
Anything that sounds like a commercial will be deleted. Wikipedia fancies itself an encyclopedia and must remain as factual (sounding) as possible.

Link out/ Link in
Wiki loves itself. Link to as many other Wiki articles as you can, within reason. Also, search for other articles to find places where it makes sense to link to your article. Your article becomes stickier with each link to and from it.

Categorize your Article
You must place your article into categories, which are shown at the bottom of all articles. Consider these easy links.

Defend your Article
You can follow every word from above, and still have an editor that wants your article removed. Be prepared for debate on the article’s Discussion page or your user Talk page. Reload the History page periodically for a few hours in search of changes, then create a feed for the History page to track change in the future.

Just something to watch for in the future, although I don’t really consider it a guideline for this article: If you start feeling an urge to quell all points of view other than your own while doing God’s work on Wikipedia, take a break from editing.

10 Ways to Make Your Wiki Sticky
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May 31, 2007

Wikipedia Hits the Big Screen in 2008

The future looks bright for Wikipedia, which is coming off a slew of TV guest appearances including frequent stops at The Office and Comedy Central. What's next for Wiki? According to David Manning of The Ridgefield Press, the rising star has teamed up with the William Morris Agency and is currently shopping several different movie ideas. Below are vehicles in concept with Wiki attached and all the studios biting.

Working Title: Cupid's Sandbox
Wary 30-somethings, having been hurt too many times before, build trust in a new love while communicating within the Wiki Sandbox, after a chance encounter while carrying out experiments within the safe testing ground.

Working Title: Wikid Game
A troubled youth logs into a version of Wikpedia that edits his own life and must defend himself against those calling for his speedy deletion.

Working Title: Wiki Side Story
The ancient grudge breaks to new mutiny during a Google Dance, where star-crossed lovers share a transcending moment, only to discover that one is a Wiki editor and the other is an SEO.

Working Title: Wikipedia Phil
A Wikipedia editor awakes to discover he is stuck in a time loop which continually ends with all of his edits being reverted to the previous day's version.

Stay on the Wagon for movie updates and trailers.

Wikipedia Hits the Big Screen in 2008
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April 23, 2007

Wikipedia Traffic Since Adding Nofollow

Many have wondered what effect it might have on your site's search traffic to tag nearly every outbound link with the "nofollow" attribute. According to Alexa, Wikipedia hasn't suffered. Looking at the following graph, with the red vertical line showing the rough date on which Wikipedia added "nofollow" attributes to its outbound links, one could draw the superficial conclusion that a global "nofollow" addition has had neither particularly positive effects (i.e., the "PageRank hoarding" theory) nor negative effects (i.e., the "if Wikipedia doesn't trust its links then Google won't trust Wikipedia's pages" theory):

While this graph supposedly reflects all traffic, Hitwise suggests that Wikipedia gets over 50% of its traffic from Google. So theoretically, a large hit in Google traffic would appear on this chart.

It might be more accurate to look at Wikipedia traffic from the source itself. Pulled from this page (a very cool resource), we see a traffic graph (measured in bits/sec -- not visits or pageviews) that similarly confirms no traffic loss following the "nofollow" implementation:

An interesting footnote: This graph shows incoming traffic (e.g., new articles, picture uploads, comments, etc.) below the X-axis (the red horizontal line near the bottom), while outgoing traffic (typical file requests, etc.) are above the X-axis. It's very cool that they show this.

Wikipedia Traffic Since Adding Nofollow
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April 06, 2007

Wikipedia Guest Stars in Office Episode

In what is being called its breakout performance, Wikipedia guest starred in last night's super-sized episode of The Office. Michael turns to this Wiki article for negotiation tactics in preparation for battle against an employee asking for a raise. His description of Wiki perfectly captures the perceptional enigma.

Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject, so you know you are getting the best possible information.

Michael practiced and used tactics from the article, such as time manipulation, dominant physical position, and walking out. Perhaps Michael's best wiki tactic would have been declining to speak first, were it not for his breaking the long, awkward silence by whispering across the table that he is, in fact, declining to speak first.

How did Wiki respond to inclusion in TV known formerly as Must See?

Editing of this article by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled until April 7, 2007

Even under Martial Law, more than 60 edits slipped through the cracks, including a one-minute interval that saw the entire page replaced with the following statement.

HOLY FARK, THE OFFICE RULES!

Indeed. Holy Fark.

Wikipedia Guest Stars in Office Episode
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April 05, 2007

Rudy Giuliani Finally Winning the Race to be Himself

We said we'd keep an eye on Rudy's race against himself, and almost a Month to the day after we noted he was losing, he's now finally pulled into the lead, at last vanquishing Wikipedia as the most relevant Rudy Giuliani on the web.

It is appropriate now, literally, to say the candidate is coming into his own.

Rudy Giuliani Finally Winning the Race to be Himself
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March 29, 2007

Google Gives More Space to Wikipedia, Philosophically

Beseech Google as to the meaning of life, and thrice shall Wiki retort.

Google Gives More Space to Wikipedia, Philosophically
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March 22, 2007

Perfect for 2007 March Madness for Some of the Games!

I'll borrow from a good friend, Brian Fantana, to describe our Wiki NCAA Tournament experiment thus far.

They've done studies, you know. 44% of the time, it works every time.

Below are the results from our first round NCAA Tourney Predictions.

Prediction: Davidson wins big over Maryland! You heard it here first.
Outcome: Really Wrong

Prediction: All BC over Texas Tech!
Outcome Right

Prediction: Louisville dares to be slightly greater than Stanford in Google? These numbers might change.
Outcome: Right . . . but still . . . these numbers might change.

Prediction: Oral Roberts in an organic landslide over Washington State.
Outcome: Really Wrong

Prediction: Butler, in a close one over Old Dominion.
Outcome: Right

Prediction: Belmont has the tournament's best optimized title at the TLD. This is a sure thing over Georgetown.
Outcome: Wrong

Prediction: it's a blow out - Pennsylvania over Texas A&M.
Outcome: Wrong

Prediction: Close, but GW takes it over Vandy.
Outcome:Wrong

Prediction: Could it actually be a tie? Boy, I did not see that coming. Which article has more wiki links? Duke wins over VCU.
Outcome: Wrong! Round 1's best and/or only upset.

Prediction: The Ohio State University overcomes the tournament's worst looking serp to barely scrape by Central Connecticut.
Outcome:Right

Prediction: Marquette wins big over MSU.
Outcome: Wrong

Prediction: All UCLA over Weber State.
Outcome: Right

Prediction: Pitt over Wright State.
Outcome: Right

Prediction:BYU beats Xavier.
Outcome: Wrong

Prediction: North Carolina over Eastern Kentucky.
Outcome:Right

Prediction: Gonzaga beats IU.
Outcome: Wrong

Stay tuned for more NCAA Tourney Predictions from the Wagon, your home for the NCAA Tourney, if you really don't know where home is for the NCAA Tourney.

Perfect for 2007 March Madness for Some of the Games!
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March 15, 2007

2007 NCAA March Madness Decided by Wiki

As seen on ESPN 8, The "OCHO"

Last year, the Wagon based its NCAA basketball picks purely on Link Building. Could we get any more arbitrary? The answer is yes. As a warm up for the 2008 Election and its impending battle on the wiki field, we will base this year's NCAA picks on who has the biggest wiki.

The below predictions are based entirely on whose wiki article performs best at Google for its school's title.

(13)Davidson College Wiki Article is #6
(4)The University of Maryland Wiki Article is #39
Prediction: Davidson wins big! You heard it here first.

(10)Texas Tech University Wiki Article is #46
(7)Boston College Wiki Article is #5
Prediction: All BC!

(11)Stanford University Wiki Article is #9
(6)University of Louisville Wiki Article is #6
Prediction: Louisville dares to be slightly greater than Stanford in Google? These numbers might change.

(14)Oral Roberts University Wiki Article is #4
(3)Washington State University Wiki Article is #37
Prediction: Oral Roberts in an organic landslide.

(12)Old Dominion University Wiki Article is #16
(5)Butler University Wiki Article is #7
Prediction: Butler, in a close one.

(15)Belmont University Wiki Article is #6
(2)Georgetown University Wiki Article is #8
Prediction: Others will call it an upset, but Belmont has the tournament's best optimized title at the TLD. This is a sure thing.

(14)University of Pennsylvania Wiki Article is #7
(3)Texas A&M University Wiki Article is #71
Prediction: If we chose the winner by most subdomains, it would be Aggies. Instead, it's a blow out.

(11)The George Washington University Wiki Article is #6
(6)Vanderbilt University Wiki Article is #14
Prediction: Close, but GW takes it.

(11)Virginia Commonwealth University Wiki Article is #10
(6)Duke University Wiki Article is #10
Prediction: Could it actually be a tie? Boy, I did not see that coming. Which article has more wiki links? Duke wins.

(16)Central Connecticut State University Wiki Article is #31
(1)The Ohio State University Wiki Article is #30
Prediction: The Ohio State University overcomes the tournament's worst looking serp to barely scrape by the other Blue Devils. I would change that meta tag before the next round.

(9)Michigan State University Wiki Article is #71
(8)Marquette University Wiki Article is #6
Prediction: Marquette wins big.

(15)Weber State University Wiki Article is #46
(2)UCLA Wiki Article is #8
Prediction: All UCLA

(14)Wright State University Wiki Article is #20
(3)University of Pittsburgh Wiki Article is #14
Prediction: Pitt.

(9)Xavier University - Cincinnati, Ohio Wiki Article is #10
(8)Brigham Young University Wiki Article is #10
Prediction: Another tie? The BYU article has more wiki links. BYU wins.

(16)Eastern Kentucky University Wiki Article is #56
(1)The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Wiki Article is #53
Prediction: North Carolina in a really sloppy game.

(10)Gonzaga University Wiki Article is #7
(7)Indiana University Wiki Article is #21
Prediction: Gonzaga wins, even with the worst #2 result in the tournament. Come on Bulldogs, you have to 301 http://www.gonzaga.edu/default.htm .

2007 NCAA March Madness Decided by Wiki
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March 07, 2007

Over Half of 2008 GOP Presediential Candidates Outranked by Wikipedia in Google for Own Name

Here and there The Wagon has been known to get political in its analysis, often to illustrate pols know not what they do on the internet. Today we have a new honey of a rankings scandal courtesy of techPresident:

In a recent survey, I found that Wikipedia has an expansive influence in organic Google search results for 2008 presidential candidates. For each candidate, their Wikipedia entry is ranked no lower than 5th place by Google. In addition, the Wikipedia entry ranks higher than the election web presence of that particular candidate for 25% of Democrats and 60% of Republicans.

Now first, lest the uninitiated, casual SEO observer not fully grasp the above search incompetence, it is quite difficult for a major brand not to rank first for its own brand name. You almost have to be doing something wrong at the site level, and most competent SEOs will be able to discover the reason for the glitch and remedy the error fairly quickly. The higher the brand recognition the greater the ease, if for no other reason than Google understands that a pure brand search will almost always signal an intent to find the brand site itself. Google's product is relevancy, as we like to say here.

Is there a more recognized brand on the techPresident list than America's Mayor, [Rudy Giuliani]? Yet at second he languishes, behind the Wikipedia entry replete with detailed analysis of the controversies not broached on the site he would like for you to rather visit instead.

The difference between these first and second positions? We know from the massive AOL search data leak that on that engine, at least, about half of all searchers click on #1 and south of 15% on #2, at least for the 20 million searches performed by 658,000 subscribers in that data sample.

If you are losing half of all searches on your brand that should be visiting your site uncontested, you should try and do something about it. Let's keep an eye on Rudy and see if he does.

Over Half of 2008 GOP Presediential Candidates Outranked by Wikipedia in Google for Own Name
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January 26, 2007

Searching for My Box In A Box

After scoring far more than 12 million views in little more than a month, I’m curious to see how Google handles the Junk in a Box genre. The phenomenon accounts for somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 searches per day, including anything from [d--k in a box] (2181 searches) to [box in a box] (120 searches) to [beep in a box] (6 searches) .

Let's look at a condensed query that pulls Google results from both types of junk in a box searches.

1. YouTube - SNL Skit The Video Uploader. Uploaded 12/17/06 by NBC, one day after the skit aired on Saturday Night Live.
2. YouTube - My Box in a Box The Video Uploader, again. Uploaded by boxsinger 12/28/06.
3. Bloggers Blog - My Box in a Box Blog. Posted 1/17/07. Not very old, but does come from a compilation blog within a network.
4. Popular Stuff - SNL SKit Video Uploader. No longer links to either video from page, but the SNL skit was uploaded 12/28/06.
5. Sci Fi - Neither in a Box Video Uploader. No longer links to either video.
6. DevilDucky - My Box in a Box Video Uploader with 17,000 links.
7. Viral Video Chart - My Box in a Box Video Uploader with social bookmark links everywhere.
8. VH1 Best Week Ever - My Box in a Box Video Uploader. Uploaded 01/05/07 by popular show, also with social bookmark links galore.
9. Dorks.com - My Box in a Box Video Uploader. Uploaded 01/09/07.
10. TwistImage - My Box In A Box Blog. Posted 01/06/07.

Some things to consider while looking at these results.

• Google has noted that most [... in a box] searches end at a video and thus responds with 8 video uploaders on the first page.
• Google realizes we are most likely looking for one of two videos, and shows us the right version of both. Keep in mind there was no room for error here, as Google will only show 2 YouTube results on this page and must sift through many impostors.
• Further evidence that Google knows searchers are looking for video rather than content is the notable absence of Serp Princess Wiki from the first page. Articles created 12/24/06 and 01/17/07.
• How do you get her to open the box?
• With the other 2 results on the first page, Google wisely looks to the blogoshpere for further information regarding this incredibly recent search phenomenon.
• Perhaps My Box is in a Sandbox. The blog for My Box in a Box, which was created on a new subdomain 12/28/06 seems to only appear in obviously non-competitive searches.

  Searching for My Box In A Box
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  January 09, 2007

  Wiki Watch: The BCS National Championship

  Acting on a geeky hunch, I looked at Wikipedia about 5 minutes after the BCS National Championship. You know where this is headed.

  

  Of course, Wiki already knew that Florida upset Ohio State!

  Wiki Watch: The BCS National Championship
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