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Course → Module 4: The Minimum Viable Entity Stack
Session 7 of 8

Wikidata

Session 4.7 · ~5 min read

The Open Knowledge Base

Wikidata is a free, open knowledge base that serves as the structured data backbone for Wikipedia and dozens of other projects. It stores facts about entities (people, organizations, places, concepts) in a machine-readable format: structured statements with properties and values.

Google, Bing, and AI tools (including ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity) use Wikidata as a primary source for populating Knowledge Panels and answering entity queries. Having a Wikidata entry for your company or key person is one of the most direct paths into the Knowledge Graph.

Wikidata is not Wikipedia. Wikipedia requires notability proven by independent sources. Wikidata has lower barriers, requiring only that the entity is clearly identifiable and can be described using publicly available references.

Wikidata vs. Wikipedia

The two are related but have different purposes, different notability standards, and different entity signal values:

Dimension Wikidata Wikipedia
Content Type Structured data (property-value pairs) Prose articles
Notability Requirement Item must be clearly identifiable and have at least one external reference Subject must have significant coverage in reliable, independent sources
Entity Signal Feeds Knowledge Graph directly Strongest notability signal available
Difficulty Medium. Follow formatting rules carefully. High. Strict notability, neutral point of view, reliable sources.
Self-creation risk Acceptable if done properly with references Strongly discouraged. Conflict of interest policies.

Wikidata's Notability Standard

According to Wikidata's notability policy, an item can be included if it meets at least one of these criteria:

  1. It refers to a clearly identifiable conceptual or material entity that can be described using serious and publicly available references.
  2. It fulfills a structural need, such as being needed to make statements made in other items more useful.
  3. It has a valid link to a page on a Wikimedia project (such as a Wikipedia article).

For businesses, criterion 1 is the most relevant. If your company has been mentioned in news articles, government registrations, industry publications, or other publicly verifiable sources, you likely qualify. Most deletions on Wikidata happen not because of notability issues, but because of poor formatting, missing references, or content that appears promotional.

What a Wikidata Entry Looks Like

A Wikidata entry (called an "item") consists of statements. Each statement has a property and a value. For a business, the core statements are:

graph TD Item["Wikidata Item:
Your Company (Q12345678)"] --> P1["instance of (P31):
business (Q4830453)"] Item --> P2["country (P17):
Indonesia (Q252)"] Item --> P3["official website (P856):
https://yoursite.com"] Item --> P4["inception (P571):
2015"] Item --> P5["founder (P112):
Person Name"] Item --> P6["headquarters location (P159):
Jakarta (Q3630)"] Item --> P7["industry (P452):
relevant industry"]
Property Wikidata ID Value for Your Business Entity Signal
instance of P31 business, company, corporation Defines entity type
country P17 Indonesia Geographic entity
official website P856 Your canonical URL Links Wikidata to your site
inception P571 Founding year Temporal disambiguation
founder P112 Founder's Wikidata item (or create one) Person-Organization link
headquarters location P159 City (existing Wikidata item) Geographic anchoring
industry P452 Relevant industry (existing Wikidata item) Topical classification
legal form P1454 Limited liability company, etc. Entity specificity

Creating a Wikidata Entry

If you determine that your business qualifies, the creation process is:

  1. Create a Wikidata account.
  2. Navigate to "Create a new item."
  3. Enter a label (your business name), description (one-line summary), and aliases (alternative names or abbreviations).
  4. Add statements using the properties listed above. For each statement, add a reference (a URL to a publicly verifiable source confirming the fact).
  5. Add identifiers: your website URL, social media profile IDs, any government registration numbers.

Critical rules: do not write promotional language in descriptions. Use factual, neutral terms. "Indonesian manufacturer of industrial pumps" is good. "Leading provider of world-class pump solutions" will get flagged. Every statement should have at least one reference pointing to a verifiable source.

Further Reading

Assignment

  1. Go to wikidata.org and search for your company name. Does an entry already exist?
  2. If it exists, review it for completeness. Are all core properties listed? Are references attached?
  3. If it does not exist, assess your eligibility: can you point to at least one publicly available, independent source (news article, government registration, industry publication) that mentions your company?
  4. If you qualify, create a basic Wikidata entry with at minimum: label, description, instance of, country, official website, and inception date. Add at least one reference per statement.
  5. If you do not currently qualify, document what you would need (press mention, industry publication feature, etc.) and add it to your entity infrastructure roadmap.