There has been a recent study made by Intelligent Positioning that raised eyebrows among SEOs. It has shown that Wikipedia shows on the initial page of Google searches for 99% of the time, and for the first position more than half of the time. So what would this all mean?

If you are to go over this study, you should look into the methodology. Researchers had made the whole study in English, utilizing a random noun generator for the compilation of 1,000 words. After that they located those words of the Google UK site, although the Google Chrome Incognito browser for customization.

On the shallow side of things, the results appear to state things for themselves. For much of 99% of searches, an entry on Wikipedia had gone on the initial page. And for around 56 percent of searches, it had gone out as the initial result. To be certain, Wikipedia showed up on a second or later page not so often that the researchers could actually put together a short list of searches for which this occurred: this includes mail, news, trainers, national, sweets, phone, wardrobe and flight. Such words would obviously be very competitive or incorporate the word in major corporations plus services.

For many of the SEOs, what would be the surprise shown by the research would be the level of the dominance of Wikipedia. Who would not be aware of the presence of Wikipedia on Google? Even Sergey brin of Google has referred to Wikipedia as a milestone in the Internet and a great resource for anyone going online, and has made a great contribution to Wikipedia.

But reviewing the methodology of the study, you will stumble across something that would be significant. The searches made focused on one-word nouns. Mostly, that would not be the way individuals would search at the moment.

An advertising data analytics company referred to as Chikita had conducted a recent survey among five search engines that include Google is centered on search habits. While the study had covered around just a few days, it had a lot of queries. Among most insights, the study pointed out the average number of queries amounted to four.

The single word queries, which would include the ones from Insight Positioning is not often utilized. To be fair, back in November, Hitwise had stated that single-word queries compose just a bit more than 70% of searches, however that still left more than 70% of searches having two or more words long.

What is to be taken away from this is that the methodology of Intelligent Positioning would not give a valid simulation of the behavior of modern search.  It would not, however, imply we could not attain something that is of substance through browsing on Wikipedia and puzzling out how it attained a great position for a lot of nouns.

While we are aware that Google would impart a good amount of prominence for Wikipedia, what will be stated less often would be why. So what is Wikipedia doing, and how do SEOs find their own mix?

First, you have to keep in mind that Google desires rich and deep content. Wikipedia offers this a lot, and it is all user generated.

All Wikipedia pages are centered on one primary search term. This would make a guarantee that the page would have relevance for the term, and with a lot of words on the page, it will also get many long-tail searches.

Also, should you have looked at a page of Wikipedia, you are aware that each page would have many other links within the site. It makes it easier for Google to crawl this site, locating new pages.

Lastly, Wikipedia has been around for a considerably long time, building up content while doing so. Such facts allow the pages great authority. It always gets links and citations, not only from bloggers, but from sites with good quality.

So the test is how would you make this a duplication on your site? You have to ensure that your page would give deep and rich content. You should cross link pages that have almost the same topic. You could write a lot of text regarding a topic but you have to make it all relevant to hook the long tail searchers.

It is a tall order to match up with Wikipedia, but you can employ their tactics for improving the standing of your site on Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Peter Zmijewski is the founder and CEO at KeywordSpy. His expert knowledge on Internet Marketing practices and techniques has earned him the title “Internet Marketing Guru“. He is also an innovator, investor and entrepreneur widely recognized by the top players in the industry.