What does Wikipedia require before a business can have a page?
A business qualifies when multiple independent, reliable sources have covered it in depth. This is the standard in WP:NCORP, a stricter application of the general notability guideline WP:GNG.
Notability means the company has been written about substantially by outlets that have no stake in it. Sources that generally do not count: the company's own site, interviews where executives supply the quotes, sponsored content, press releases (even when a news site republishes them verbatim), directory listings and local business awards. Sources that generally count: feature or investigative journalism in outlets with editorial standards, analyst reports that discuss the company substantively, and books or academic papers about it. The full rules on what makes a source acceptable are at WP:RS; our reliable sources guide shows how they apply in practice.
Is my company notable enough? A quick self-check
Count the independent articles that are mainly about your company and not merely mentioning it. If you cannot name several, a draft will probably be declined or deleted.
Industry matters. In our own assessments of companies (2018-2026, WikiBusines Notability Index), the share rated low on notability potential was 98% in Crypto / Web3, 63% in IT / SaaS / Software / AI / Cyber, 51% in Healthcare / Pharma / Wellness and 19% in Finance / Fintech / Investment. These are our assessments, not Wikipedia statistics, but they show why many projects should wait. Use the free self-serve tools before spending anything: the media list template for sorting your coverage, the notability index for your industry, and the DR checker to compare Wikipedia language editions. For a written verdict on your specific sources, there is the paid notability audit from €490, credited toward the page if you proceed within one month. A longer walkthrough is in does your company qualify for Wikipedia.
How do you start a Wikipedia page for a company? The 6 steps
The process has six steps, and the order matters because each one protects the next.
- Audit notability. List every independent source, score each for depth and independence, and compare the total to WP:NCORP.
- Verify sources and find gaps. Confirm each source is stable and archived (dead links get pages flagged). For gaps, decide whether to wait for coverage or stop.
- Draft neutrally. Write in an encyclopedic, third-person style where every factual sentence is backed by an independent citation. Superlatives and unsourced claims such as "leading" or "award-winning" are removed by reviewers or cause a decline. See WP:NPOV.
- Disclose the conflict of interest. Declare the relationship on your user page and, where relevant, on the article's talk page (details below).
- Submit via AfC. A volunteer reviewer checks the draft against notability and sourcing rules and accepts it or declines it with comments.
- Monitor after publication. Someone has to watch the page for at least 90 days, answer edits and defend notability if the page is nominated for deletion.
Can I write my own company's Wikipedia page?
You may, but Wikipedia strongly discourages it. Editors with a close connection to a subject are asked to propose changes on the talk page or through AfC instead of editing the article directly (WP:COI).
Self-written pages are disproportionately declined for promotional tone, and the author's connection is usually obvious to reviewers. Our post on why you should not edit your own page covers the mechanics. If your team writes the draft, disclose the affiliation and submit through AfC rather than publishing directly.
What does it cost: DIY, freelancer or agency?
The cash cost of DIY is zero, but it consumes weeks of learning time and carries the highest decline risk; a managed English company page from us starts at €2,400. A cheaper provider is not automatically a bargain: a draft that skips the notability audit and the disclosure is the same money spent with the risk pushed to a deletion later.
| Route | Cash cost | What you carry |
|---|---|---|
| DIY (yourself) | None | Time to learn the policies, the conflict-of-interest burden, the highest decline and deletion risk |
| Freelancer | Varies widely | Often no real source audit, inconsistent disclosure, no defence after publication |
| Managed agency | From €2,400 for an English company page (see pricing) | Audit, drafting, disclosure and 90-day monitoring included; review time is still set by volunteers |
For a full breakdown by route and language, read what a Wikipedia page actually costs.
How long does Wikipedia review take?
Preparation takes weeks and AfC review adds more, and the review length is outside anyone's control. AfC is staffed by unpaid volunteers who pick drafts in no fixed order, so waits vary from a few weeks to several months; the current backlog is shown at the top of the AfC page.
Our English page creation takes 4-5 weeks to prepare and submit. Publishing directly, without AfC, skips the queue but exposes the page at once to New Page Patrol, where a weakly sourced article can be tagged for proposed deletion (PROD) or nominated at Articles for Deletion (AfD) within days. Scenario-by-scenario timelines are in how long a Wikipedia page takes.
What is conflict-of-interest disclosure, and is paid editing legal?
Paying someone to write a Wikipedia page is legal, but the paid relationship must be disclosed. The Wikimedia Terms of Use require paid contributors to disclose their employer, client and affiliation, and the community rule WP:PAID sets out how.
In practice: state the relationship on the user page, use disclosed edit requests rather than editing the article directly when closely connected, and be open in the AfC submission. Undisclosed paid editing is treated as a policy violation regardless of content quality, and discovery often triggers a wider review of the account's work. Every WikiBusines project is disclosed on Wikipedia in WikiBusines' name. More in paid editing and COI disclosure.
What happens after the page goes live?
The first 90 days are the riskiest, because New Page Patrol and other editors review new company pages most closely then. If the page is nominated at AfD, someone must argue notability with sources in the discussion; silence is usually read as abandonment and ends in deletion.
If a page is deleted, the ways back are a request for undeletion (REFUND) or deletion review (DRV), and neither is guaranteed; see Wikipedia page recovery. Only Wikipedia administrators can protect a page, so ongoing accuracy depends on monitoring and sourced edit requests, not on locking the article. Note that a published page also feeds AI answers, but what ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity say about a company is outside anyone's control; for how this works, see AI visibility.
How WikiBusines helps
We take a project from the source audit to the 90-day window after publication, with paid editing disclosed on Wikipedia in WikiBusines' name. We do not guarantee that an article will be published or what an AI will say.
- Notability audit, from €490. A written verdict on whether your sources meet WP:NCORP and what is missing. The fee is credited toward the page if you proceed within one month.
- Page creation, from €2,400 for English, 4-5 weeks. Drafting, disclosure, AfC submission, and 90 days of monitoring and guarantee after publication. If a published page cannot be defended after 3 attempts within that window, we refund 80% (guarantees).
- Annual support, from €720 per year, with a 12-month guarantee; recovery of deleted pages is quoted per case.
Not sure where you stand? Order the notability audit or contact us with your best five press links.
Frequently asked questions
Doing it yourself costs no cash but takes weeks and carries the highest decline risk. A managed English company page from WikiBusines starts at €2,400; a notability audit starts at €490 and is credited toward the page if you order it within one month. See pricing for current figures.
You can try, but Wikipedia asks editors with a conflict of interest to use AfC or edit requests rather than editing the article directly. Self-written drafts are often declined for promotional tone. Disclose your affiliation and cite only independent sources.
Yes, provided the paid relationship is disclosed as required by the Wikimedia Terms of Use and WP:PAID. Undisclosed paid editing breaks those rules and can lead to blocked accounts and a deleted page.
Preparation takes about 4-5 weeks with a managed project, and AfC review adds several weeks or more because volunteers process the queue in no fixed order. No one can speed it up for a fee.
Build independent coverage first rather than submit a draft that will be declined. A notability audit lists exactly which sources are missing, which is cheaper than a declined draft or a later deletion.
No. Press releases, sponsored content and interviews where your own people supply the quotes are not independent. Reviewers look for coverage written by journalists or analysts with no stake in the company.
Yes. Any editor can propose deletion, and the first 90 days are the highest-risk period. Defending the page with sources in the discussion is the main protection, and deleted pages can sometimes be restored through REFUND or deletion review.
It can, because Wikipedia is a commonly used reference for AI assistants, but no one can control what ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity say. A neutral, well-sourced page is the best base; see AI visibility.
Authors and editorial policy
Bohdan DubylovskyiCo-founder and CBO, WikiBusines→
Roman MelnykCo-founder & Chief Editor, WikiBusines→The article was prepared by the WikiBusines co-founders. We sell paid Wikipedia services, so we disclose this interest: paid editing is always declared on Wikipedia in WikiBusines' name, and claims about the rules are backed by links to primary sources.
Editorial policy: payment disclosure, conflicts of interest, sources