The Wikipop Blog

If you go to Google, you’ll notice that alot of the top results are for Wikipedia.  Based on this, you could model your SEO effort to replicate what Wikipedia does.  For a given topic, here’s what are the key drivers….

1. Related External links - Google Page Rank was built on links that are on pages.  If you could visualize the Google Search Engine, it would look something like the NYC subway system, where the tracks are links between urls.  Now imagine your page is Disneyland, but there’s just a one way street coming in.  Next door is Universal Studios, where it’s not only a great place to visit, but has a lot of great alternate family destinations.  Who should rank higher? For Google, it’s Universal.

2. Non generic external links - It’s not enough to go to Google and copy the first ten links for your keyword.  Google wants you to do their work for them.  They want you to find the best, unique or most authoritative content.  This might be a journal in Nature or some PhD thesis that’s on the web.  When you create your page, imagine it as the gateway to all the best pages on the net.

 3. Content - this is where I think Mahalo gets it wrong.  While they have some content, many times they are just a page of links.  The page should be a sufficient destination and not just a waypoint.  It shouldn’t be Chicago-Ohare airport; it should be Chicago.

4. Updates - ever notice how over time, your static page steadily decreases in rank.  Google expects the page to be organic.  Having minor modifications over time.  This is the nature of a Wikipedia page.

 5. Narrow content - this is where blogs get it wrong.  Blogs tend to be all over the place.  A Wikipedia page always speaks to the topic at hand.

I could probably think of a few more, but it’s coming to slow to the brain. That’ll do for now.