Should I Create a Wikipedia Page for My Medical Practice?

If you’re thinking that you should have a Wikipedia page for your medical practice or for Doctor / yourself, there are several things to consider. Wiki isn’t just another easy to add marketing channel like Facebook or LinkedIn. There’s an entire process you must follow to just be considered to be added.

With Google caring so much more these days about authority of brands / people online, creating a Wiki page may actually be a very good decision from an SEO standpoint too.

Did you know that Wikipedia is one of the top visited websites in the World?  Many of Google’s search results show a wiki page at the very top and in the Featured Snippets & Knowledge Panels. Go ahead and Google something right now on a medical topic. Odds are, you’ll see a wiki page come up towards the top!

6 Things to Consider

Is your “brand” worthy enough to make it there? Here are some of the general things to consider that I’ve learned over the years when attempting to get Doctors or Medical Practices pages.

1: The important thing to consider: Are YOU notable enough to have a page? Wikipedia is edited in a crowd-sourced fashion so you’ll be under tough scrutiny when first trying to add a page about yourself or your practice. Have you created a new technique or technology? Have you been featured on CNN or other notable places that doesn’t seem self promotional? If the answer is “No” then I would wait until you’ve figured out your angle.

2: Have you researched how Wikipedia works? If not, take a look at their Policies and Guidelines here

3: Register for an account here

4: Start by editing some of the topics that you understand. If you’re a Gastroenterologist, start by finding pages in that area and making small changes over time.

5: Gather your creds. Wiki isn’t another marketing channel. It’s basically an Encyclopedia and therefore they need everything cited. This part is very important if you ever want a page for yourself or for your medical practice. While you’re working on step 4, start collecting as much non promotion citations as possible in prep for your own page.

6: Write and Submit. I suggest writing in a Word Doc first and then bringing in to, what they call, the Sandbox. Once submitted for approval it can take up to 3 weeks for someone to approve it or deny.

This whole process can take months so we recommend working with professionals that have a  lot of experience in creating something like this specially for medical related companies.  If you’d like to find out if you’re company or tech is worth getting a page, feel free to reach out to us today!