Traffic from Google to Wikipedia is dropping

[The Buzz]

The amount of traffic that Google sends to Wikipedia has declined by more than 250 million visits per month, according to SimilarWeb, the traffic measurement company.

The SimilarWeb head of SEO thinks this is because Google is favoring actual company brands and websites as opposed to Wiki pages.

Read more from Slate: http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_...om_google.html

[edgarf76]

I saw this when searching for regular "non online gambling" search terms. Wikipedia is not at the top of the serps anymore, but the latest panda algo is still rolling out.

[wonderpunter]

I have noticed more so with actors and movies.. before it would be wiki then imdb rottent tomatoes etc.. now it seems movie themed authority sites then wikipedia.. its only a drop of 1 or 2 positions but in the top 3 that equates to a large drop

[TheGooner]

Why would wikipedia be preferred above specific interest sites ?

Eg.
Movies - imdb and Rotten Tomatos SHOULD be above wiki
Brand names - the actual site SHOULD be above a wiki entry.

And the example of who won the world cup? It looks in the right order to me ...

The Google created content answer on top is informative and to the point without a click ...
FIFA (Who run the world cup) in second is a good search engine response.
Wiki in fourth - fine by me.

[wonderpunter]

Why would wikipedia be preferred above specific interest sites ?

Eg.
Movies - imdb and Rotten Tomatos SHOULD be above wiki
Brand names - the actual site SHOULD be above a wiki entry.

And the example of who won the world cup? It looks in the right order to me ...

The Google created content answer on top is informative and to the point without a click ...
FIFA (Who run the world cup) in second is a good search engine response.
Wiki in fourth - fine by me.

I agree with the exception wiki does seem to offer more info on the actors and seems to be a whole lot more updated.. though many other things themed sites should be above wiki.. I think previously the algo ranked them top due to their general authority across all subjects.. now it looks like things are changing.. which in theory should also be good for sites like ours... not sure about you, but come Finals for most sports I get knocked out of the rankings by a local newspaper writing about that sport even though they are not sports orientated.. but decide to write an article and their authority on the town the team is based and not relevancy on the subject of the sport used to dominate.. perhaps this year will be different?

[xecutable]

Personal information about people, especially those alive, looked up just by their name "Brad Pitt" usually brings wiki up. If I was a celebrity depending on my field, I'd want my personal website or brand to come up first, considering it's MY NAME.

Events with kw like "Woodstock" do the same thing. I believe Wiki should come up first only if combined with kw like "information" or like people put "wiki". Perhaps i wanna buy tickets for the event or look its official site but ofc wiki comes up 1st. Sure relative but #1 spot? I think not.

Now on the other hand isn't Google an affiliate? #1 spot to a non-profit non-commercial site may not be in their best financial interest perhaps?