Wikipedia page creation

What it actually takes to get a Wikipedia page

Wikipedia is written by volunteers who apply one published test. Most people who ask us have never seen it. Here is the test, how to find out where you stand against it today, and what happens next if you clear it.

Check where you stand, free See the test

The free audit reads what is already published about you and tells you which of it counts. No payment, and no obligation.

The three that decide it

Every Wikipedia article about a living person stands or falls on this.

1
IndependentWritten by somebody with no connection to you, who was not asked.
2
SignificantThe piece is about you. A quote inside somebody else's story does not count.
3
Spread, and one nationalAcross at least six months, with at least one national title among them.
Three sources clearing all of it. The audit tells you how many you have.

What counts, and what people think counts

This is the part that surprises everybody. A thick folder of coverage can contain nothing Wikipedia will accept, and two quiet articles can be enough. The difference is who wrote it and why.

Counts

  • A national newspaper or magazine feature about you
  • Trade press writing about you on their own initiative
  • A broadcast segment where you are the subject
  • A book or academic paper citing your work
  • Sustained reporting on something you did

× Does not count

  • Press releases, and every outlet that reprinted one
  • Paid placements, sponsored features, contributor columns
  • Your own website, and anything your company published
  • Directory listings, award pages, membership pages
  • Interviews where you are the only source

How it goes

Four steps, and we stop at the first one if the answer is no.

Step 1
We check you against the test Free. You get the list of what is published about you and which of it Wikipedia would accept.
Step 2
You clear it, or you do not If you are short, we say so and tell you what would close the gap. We do not take the work.
Step 3
We write it and declare who paid Every claim tied to a source that counts, and our paid role declared on the account and the talk page before a word goes in.
Step 4
Volunteers review it This is the part nobody controls, including us. Good sourcing is what makes it survive.
Opens on the test, not on payment
£1,500

Charged only once you clear the three sources. There is deliberately no buy button on this page: it is the one thing we sell that you cannot simply decide to buy, because paying does not make somebody notable and a page built short of the bar does not last.

Check where you stand, free

Questions, including the awkward ones

Can you guarantee me a Wikipedia page?

No, and neither can anybody else. Volunteers decide, they can decline, and they can delete an article later. Anyone promising you a page is either misunderstanding how Wikipedia works or hoping you do.

What we will do is tell you honestly whether you meet the test before you spend anything.

Can you do it quietly, without saying I paid?

No. The Wikimedia Terms of Use require anybody editing for payment to disclose it, and we do, on the account and on the article's talk page.

Anybody offering to do this discreetly is telling you they intend to break those rules with your name attached. Undisclosed paid editing gets accounts blocked and articles deleted, and the person left holding that is the subject, not the editor who has moved on.

What if I do not qualify yet?

Then we say so, and we do not take the money. It is the only thing we sell that is locked, and it opens on the published test rather than on a payment.

The useful answer is usually to start where the bar is lower and the work still counts later: your own page, your Wikidata entry, and coverage that would go toward the three sources. None of that is wasted if Wikipedia opens. The reverse is not true.

What happens if it gets created and then deleted?

The discussion stays public, with your name on it, and a second attempt starts from a worse position than the first. That is the whole reason we refuse work that is short of the bar rather than trying and hoping.

Do I need Wikipedia to get a knowledge panel on Google?

No, and this is the most expensive misunderstanding in the subject. The client we can name got a knowledge panel in eleven days with no Wikipedia article, no press placed and no links bought.

What actually produces a knowledge panel covers what does.

Will I be able to control what it says?

No. A Wikipedia article is not a profile you own. You cannot approve it, you cannot quietly correct it, and anybody may edit it the day after it appears. If what you want is a record that says what you agreed it says, that is your own page, not this.

There is already a page about me and it is wrong.

Different job, and often a faster one. Corrections go through the talk page with the same disclosure and a source for every change. Tell us on the audit and we will look at what is there.

Find out in a few days, for nothing

The free audit reads what is published about you, says which of it counts toward the three sources, and tells you how far off you are. It is the same instrument we use before quoting.

Check where you stand, free