Wikis, like blogs, are a good tool for generating fast-growing and changing content for your website. Search engines rate this dynamic very positively. This leads to a better placement of your website in the search engine listings.
At the latest since the great success of the largest internet encyclopaedia Wikipedia, “wikis” are equally well known and very popular on the internet. Why? Well, firstly, wikis can be used to provide information. And secondly, visitors to your site or selected members can be involved in maintaining and adding to the data. Wikis, like blogs, are also a good tool for accessing fast-growing and changing content. This aspect is very positively evaluated by search engines and leads to a better ranking of your site.
Just imagine you are working on a project and would like to have all the knowledge in one place, e.g. all technical terms that come up during the project with an explanation or procedures that are bound to be repeated.
Wikis are used as reference tools
You can, of course, handle an entire project completely with paper and EDP. But it is much more interesting to have this content always available online. In contrast to blogs, a wiki lives from the fact that it is used as a reference work. A blog is rather quick and suitable for current events.
Imagine allowing your customers to enter all the terms around your subject area. Either you fill them up bit by bit with your knowledge and thus build up a uniquely valuable reference database or even let customers and partners access your wiki and make additions.
Setting up a wiki costs you nothing
As an Indian Swabian, I am always asked the question about set-up costs during my consultations. Well, if you ask a usual web agency or advertising agency, you will hear amounts ranging from 1000 to 2000 €. This is because these agencies unfortunately do not tell you the full truth.
Today you have saved yourself this money by reading this article, because setting up a wiki costs you nothing! Here is a list of free wiki software:
- http://www.wikimatrix.org
- http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/
- http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/
- http://www.splitbrain.org
- http://www.twiki.org
- http://www.tiddlywiki.com
I prefer Splitbrain because, even with no knowledge, it can be completely installed within about 30 minutes!
Wikis conquer the world
A wiki is easy to use after a little trial and error. You can quickly find the tab for editing a page, preview what you have edited, save the result if it is OK and you are done!
Another advantage is the syntax for formatting, which is very similar in the various wiki scripts. You can usually get along intuitively with the most diverse wikis.
Everyone can do it right away! As already described, it is not necessary to learn a particular programming language; the few control characters required can be quickly looked up by comparing or reading the help text. Rights to read, edit and comment can be easily assigned by the administrator, so that a graduated administration of the Wiki is possible, which, however, contradicts the Wiki philosophy.
Those who start working with others in a wiki often have fears about misuse. This is countered by the function that a backup copy is made of each edited version. There is an index of these copies on which one can mark which of the versions are to be compared. Mischief thus quickly comes to light and is also quickly removed.
Good luck on your way! Write to me if you want to plan and set up your wiki – I will be happy to support you with further expert know-how!
Last updated on 7. February 2023
