We all know about how Google is in bed with Wikipedia when it comes to search engine rankings of Wikipedia’s content. Sometimes the results are good, sometimes they just simply suck. Other SEO’s like Michael Gray have already pointed out often how Google gives benefit to Wikipedia when there is no content at all. This evening I ran into a similar issue, but in this case it is actually content removed from Wikipedia. I was searching for information about the screen capture software “Camtasia” and saw the Wikipedia listing.

When I clicked on the Google link shown above, the Wikipedia page no longer existed. Well, the page still existed, but the content was removed. See screenshot:

Upon further investigation the article was removed due to being flagged as commercial advertising.

Now, why does Google recommends or better – expects webmasters to use a 301 redirect or something similar depending on what happened with a page, but does not do the same with Wikipedia?! And if Wikipedia is so great (cough cough) why don’t they follow the same rules as honest webmasters and redirects the visitor to a page that actually provides value? The most frustrating situation for a visitor is when one thinks he found information and then gets the crappy result Wikipedia has provided here. When one searches for information about a specific item, he is less likely qualified to start a new page in Wikipedia and he is also not really motivated to do so when he is a) teased by Google with a content exempt and then b) has to realize that the content does not exist. If Wikipedia is really in business to … forget it – I might have to puke if I continue to write about Wikipedia and search engine rankings. Lol – So, hey Google – if you love Wikipedia more than the experience of your visitors, why don’t list WP #1 for any keyword and get over with it trying to pretend you know everything