How-to steps · Chapter 4, How AI Builds an Answer About Your Brand
Create your Wikidata item
You are here for this line in chapter 4 and chapter 7 of the book:
☐ Create a free Wikidata account and item; support every statement with an independent published source.
Chapter 4, How AI Builds an Answer About Your Brand
☐ Pursue Wikidata first if serious independent published sources support your brand; create a free account and item.
Chapter 7, O for Offsite
Check you are eligible for Wikidata
Wikidata keeps an item that meets at least one of three tests: it has a Wikipedia (or other Wikimedia) page; it is a clearly identifiable entity that can be described using serious, publicly available references; or another item needs it. For most businesses that means the second test: independent coverage such as news, trade press, or a government or industry register. Your own website alone is not enough, Wikipedia is not accepted as a source, and items without references get deleted.
Create the item
- Create a free account at wikidata.org and search first: your business may already have an item.
- Choose Create a new Item in the left menu. Add the label (your business name), a description written as a short phrase, not a sentence (for example
Australian online furniture retailer; it cannot repeat the label), and any aliases (trading names). - Once the item exists, use + add statement for instance of (business or a more specific type), country, official website, inception (founding date) and headquarters location.
- Under each statement choose + add reference: reference URL for a web source or stated in for a publication, plus retrieved (the date you checked it). Then publish.
- Link the item from your Organization schema
sameAs(templates), and recheck it each quarter: anyone can edit it.
You're done when you have a Wikidata item with a reference behind every statement, linked from your Organization schema.