Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    4. How to beat Wikipedia article from the top spot on SERPS?

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    How to beat Wikipedia article from the top spot on SERPS?

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    4
    7
    3261
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • myclicks-163603
      myclicks-163603 last edited by

      Hi Guys,

      One of our clients has a good web site with lots of content that is ranked already on #2 for the top keyword (singular and plural) on Google UK. The keyword itself is a competitive one. The top spot is occupied by a wikipedia article that doesn't have much content in general.  Can anyone come up with an advice what strategy we have to apply to outplace that article? Thanks!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • myclicks-163603
        myclicks-163603 last edited by

        Thank you guys!

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • EGOL
          EGOL last edited by

          Wikipedia can be really really really hard to beat.... did I say really really really really hard to beat?

          Just keep working on your site like wikipedia was any other competitor. Build great content that gets liked and tweeted.. .stuff that engages your visitors.

          There is no special bullet for killing wikipedia.  You simply must overpower them by brute force of a great website.

          Good luck.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • JamesNorquay
            JamesNorquay last edited by

            I have seen some results for Wikipedia where you pull your hair out hehe, but the thing is the site is soo high authority and the internal link value it holds.

            To be honest I have had experience taking down Wikipedia where you deal with big brand websites and you can highly target the site.

            Really do some analysis on the links the wikipedia page has, see what you may be missing if content is not the problem.

            Just keep pushing fresh content and social signals too if you can try and implement people to search for your website and drive higher CTR on the serp page.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • SimonCullum
              SimonCullum @myclicks-163603 last edited by

              I wouldn't suspect so. Wiki is seen as an incredibly Authoritive site and has many high quality links pointing to it, so it's high rankings are mainly down to the site being so authoritive and huge.

              Wiki fulfills many of the factors within the periodic table of SEO ranking factors at http://searchengineland.com/seotable  It's a difficult site to beat, though can and is certainly achieved.

              Glad you like the suggestions, they will help to get there.

              Regards

              Simon

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • myclicks-163603
                myclicks-163603 @SimonCullum last edited by

                Thanks Simon, will try those. Do you think that google applies different ranking factors when it comes to Wikipedia in general?

                SimonCullum 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • SimonCullum
                  SimonCullum last edited by

                  Hi Ivaylo

                  I shall share a few pointers with you here for consideration;

                  1. Perform an on-page analysis of the website to identify and help resolve any issues that might come up, such as too many on-page links or too many no-followed links pointing in, any issues with titles or descriptions... (The SEOmoz toolset is great at helping with this).

                  2. Research what valuable links are pointing to the Wiki page and try and get some of the same links pointing to your clients' site (new followed links from different reputable websites will help a lot). Also, identify existing links where the anchor text could be improved.

                  3. Keep the content fresh, relevant and interesting.

                  4. Depending on what your clients' site offers, consider if there are any tools/widgets that could be developed to help make the site more useful.

                  5. Consider building upon the Social aspect, such as engaging with people on Twitter, Forums and Guest Blogging to attract more visitors and more sharing of your content.

                  Hope that helps,

                  Regards

                  Simon

                  myclicks-163603 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                  • 1 / 1
                  • First post
                    Last post

                  Got a burning SEO question?

                  Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                  Start my free trial


                  Browse Questions

                  Explore more categories

                  • Moz Tools

                    Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                  • SEO Tactics

                    Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                  • Community

                    Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                  • Digital Marketing

                    Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                  • Research & Trends

                    Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                  • Support

                    Connect on product support and feature requests.

                  • See all categories

                  Related Questions

                  • TanyaKorteling

                    Meta-description issue in SERPs for different countries

                    I'm working with a US client on the SEO for their large ecommerce website, I'm working on it from the UK. We've now optimised several of the pages including updating the meta-descriptions etc. The problem is when I search on the keyword iin the UK I see the new updated version of the meta-description in SERPs results. BUT when my client searches on the same keyword in the US they're see the old version of the meta-description. Does any one have any idea why this is happening and how we can resolve it? Thanks Tanya

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TanyaKorteling
                    0
                  • davidkaralisjr

                    Author Byline in Page Title in SERP

                    I was exploring my company's visibility in Google News results, and I noticed the author byline in a recently published article was being pulled into the page title in the SERP. See the attached image for a screenshot. It makes it sound awkward: "How to Find the Best Cannabis Experience and High for You Patrick..." - as if we're explaining it to some guy named Patrick? We have the byline the same way in all other posts, but this is the first I've seen this happen. Has anyone seen/had this happen, and if so, have any ways to prevent it? Thanks in advance for any insights! Here's the post URL: https://www.leafly.com/news/cannabis-101/how-to-find-best-cannabis-experience-high csvmF

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | davidkaralisjr
                    0
                  • Ullamalm

                    Ranking 2 pages on the same domain in the same SERP

                    I thought it was generally said that Google will favour 1 page per domain for a particular SERP, but I have seen examples where that is not the case (i.e. Same domain is ranking 2 different pages on the 1st page of the SERPs...) Are there any "tricks" to taking up 2 first page SERP positions, or am I mistaken that this doesn't always happen?

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Ullamalm
                    0
                  • The_Kiwi_Man

                    Is it common for a site to disappear and reappear in the SERPS?

                    I have a site that's 2 years old and it completely disappeared from the search results. It wasn't a manual action because I never got a notice in webmaster tools. Could the site reappear? A lot of people on Odesk say the site will reappear after a few days.

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | The_Kiwi_Man
                    0
                  • Creode

                    Homepage shuffling in the SERP results continously - any thoughts?

                    We've had some shuffling for a keyword in the SERP results over last few days! Anyone else seeing their rankings bounce all over? It's only affecting one keyword that was previously a stable performer - this has occurred for the last few weeks (with no major changes to the page). Would be keen to hear your thoughts!

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Creode
                    1
                  • PottyScotty

                    Does an H1 have to be at the top of a page?

                    Because H1 "may" carry some  weight with Google does it have to be placed at the top of the page?  Can I place it towards the bottom of the page instead in normal body size?  My goal is to keep the main keywords in the H1 but create a much friendlier title for the customer to read at the top of the page.

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PottyScotty
                    0
                  • jarrett.mackay

                    Xml sitemap advice for website with over 100,000 articles

                    Hi, I have read numerous articles that support submitting multiple XML sitemaps for websites that have thousands of articles... in our case we have over 100,000.  So, I was thinking I should submit one sitemap for each news category. My question is how many page levels should each sitemap instruct the spiders to go?  Would it not be enough to just submit the top level URL for each category and then let the spiders follow the rest of the links organically? So, if I have 12 categories the total number of URL´s will be 12??? If this is true, how do you suggest handling or home page, where the latest articles are displayed regardless of their category... so I.E. the spiders will find l links to a given article both on the home page and in the category it belongs to.  We are using canonical tags. Thanks, Jarrett

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jarrett.mackay
                    0
                  • jamesjk24

                    Sitemap in SERPS

                    What's up guys, Having some troubles with SERP rankings. My sitemap (navigation) is appearing instead of my actual keywords. I have tried a few methods to fix this; setting a preferred domain, using a 301 redirects, deleting out of date pages via Google webmaster tools. Nothing seems to work. My next step was to refresh the cache for my entire site - does anyone know how to do this? Can't see any tools... Any help would be great. Cheers, Jon.

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jamesjk24
                    0

                  Get started with Moz Pro!

                  Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                  Start my free trial
                  Products
                  • Moz Pro
                  • Moz Local
                  • Moz API
                  • Moz Data
                  • STAT
                  • Product Updates
                  Moz Solutions
                  • SMB Solutions
                  • Agency Solutions
                  • Enterprise Solutions
                  Free SEO Tools
                  • Domain Authority Checker
                  • Link Explorer
                  • Keyword Explorer
                  • Competitive Research
                  • Brand Authority Checker
                  • Local Citation Checker
                  • MozBar Extension
                  • MozCast
                  Resources
                  • Blog
                  • SEO Learning Center
                  • Help Hub
                  • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                  • How-to Guides
                  • Moz Academy
                  • API Docs
                  About Moz
                  • About
                  • Team
                  • Careers
                  • Contact
                  Why Moz
                  • Case Studies
                  • Testimonials
                  Get Involved
                  • Become an Affiliate
                  • MozCon
                  • Webinars
                  • Practical Marketer Series
                  • MozPod
                  Connect with us

                  Contact the Help team

                  Join our newsletter
                  Moz logo
                  © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                  • Accessibility
                  • Terms of Use
                  • Privacy

                  Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.