Wikipedia Still Matters

Lately, several people have asked me if the decision to make Wikipedia links <no follow> links means that the the ultra Wiki doesn't matter any more.

My short answer is this: Wikipedia still really, really matters. Here are a few reasons:

1. Links are about so much more than SEO. The best links drive real people to a site. Two of the sites I work with today get a large quantity, and some of their best quality, visitors from Wikipedia.

2. Wikipedia is an SEO king in itself. Google on any company name, historical figure, proper noun, and Wikipedia is almost sure to be on page one. This means a lot of users are coming to Wikipedia from search and can click over to your site from Wikipedia. It's like a search cousin once removed.

3. I try to avoid speculation about SEO voodoo, but I have to believe that having your site's name and link, regardless of the <no follow> tag, surrounded by great keywords, is a very good thing.

4. More and more tools use Wikipedia as a foundation in their algorithms, including the ultra cool SEOmoz Page Strength tool and a proprietary tool I use that tracks consumer generated media.