Wikidata is the open, structured database that sits behind Wikipedia. Every item in it has a number (a person might be Q141170717), a set of typed statements (occupation, employer, place of birth), and, if it is any good, a reference on every statement pointing at a page that supports it. Google reads it directly. For a person trying to become an entity the machine is sure about, an entry there is the strongest single second source available, which is also why people rush it and get their entry deleted.
The bar
Wikidata's notability policy is more generous than Wikipedia's, but it is not nothing. An item about a person is acceptable when the person can be described with serious, publicly available references that are independent of them. In practice that means at least one piece in a named outlet that is about you or substantially quotes you: an interview in a trade publication, a profile, a news story about your company that names you as founder. Your own site does not count. A podcast appearance helps as a reference but does not clear the bar on its own. A press release you issued is yours, so it does not either.
If you do not have that yet, do not file. An entry with no independent references gets flagged and deleted, usually within weeks, and the deletion log is public. Build the corroboration first; appearances and press are the fastest way.
What goes in, and what stays out
Externally supported facts only. The test for every statement is: can I attach a reference to a page that is not mine, or to my own home page for a biographical fact it states plainly? First party claims that only you can vouch for, like revenue, client counts or audience size, stay on your site in prose and never go in.
The properties worth adding for a person, in order:
| Property | What it says | Reference it to |
|---|---|---|
| instance of: human | The item is a person | None needed |
| given name, family name | Your name, structured | None needed |
| occupation | Entrepreneur, author, physician, as items | Your home page or a profile piece |
| employer, position held | Current company and role | Company site or your home page |
| place of birth | As a Wikidata item for the place | Your home page, if it states it |
| educated at | Each institution, as items | Your home page or the institution |
| official website | Your home page address | None needed |
| Google Knowledge Graph ID | The /g/ code, once a panel exists | None needed |
| identifiers for X, YouTube, LinkedIn | Your handles | None needed |
Each company you founded can also carry a statement pointing back at you (founded by), which is a second edge in the graph for the price of one edit.
The reference, exactly
This is where most first entries go wrong, because the interface offers two similar links and only one of them does what you want.
- Add the statement first, then the reference. On the statement, click "add reference", not "add qualifier". A qualifier attaches to the claim itself and is not a source.
- Type "reference URL" and choose it. That is property P854. Paste the full address of the page that supports the statement.
- Click the small "add" link inside that same reference block. Not the separate "add reference" below it, which starts a second, disconnected reference. Choose "retrieved" (P813) and enter today's date.
- Save once. Then check: the reference should show both the URL and the date together. The common failure is a reference with only a date and an empty URL field.
- Repeat for every statement that needs one. One reference per statement is enough. Two independent ones are better for the facts a panel is likely to show.
Creating the item, in order
- Make a Wikidata account and edit something else first. Fix a typo, add a missing reference to an existing item. New accounts that create an item about a person as their first act attract scrutiny, and rightly so.
- Search before you create. Type your full name into the Wikidata search. If an item already exists, even a bare one someone made from a database import, edit that rather than creating a duplicate. Duplicates get merged and the merge can carry wrong facts into your item.
- Create the item with label and description. The label is your one exact name form. The description is a short disambiguating phrase in lower case, such as "American entrepreneur and podcast producer", never a sentence and never a claim.
- Add instance of: human first. Everything else assumes it.
- Add the statements from the table above, one at a time, each with its reference. Do the reference immediately after each statement, while the source page is open. Statements left unreferenced "to do later" are the ones that get flagged.
- Add aliases. Maiden name, the form with a middle name, the form on a book cover. Aliases are how someone searching a variant finds the one item.
- Add your official website and your identifiers. Website, then X and YouTube handles, then the Google Knowledge Graph ID if a panel exists. These need no reference.
- Leave it alone for a week, then check. Look at the item's history tab. If an experienced editor has adjusted something, learn from the change rather than reverting it.
Finding the right items to link
Wikidata statements point at other items, not at text. Your employer is an item, your university is an item, your birthplace is an item. The trap is linking to the wrong one: there are many places called Springfield and several companies called Northwind. Open the candidate item and check its description and its own statements before linking. For a company that has no item, you can create a minimal one (instance of: business, country, official website, founded by: you) and reference it to the company's site; a company item with a founder statement pointing back at you is an extra edge in the graph.
What happens after
Google reads Wikidata on its own schedule, usually within days to a couple of weeks. The first visible effect is often not the panel itself but the attributes in it: an education or birthplace line appearing where there was none, because Wikidata is a source Google trusts for exactly those facts. The second effect is that the AI assistants which search the web live will start citing the item alongside your site. Neither happens if the item has no references, because Google weights Wikidata statements by whether they are sourced.
Then connect the two directions. Add the item's address to your sameAs list and its Q number as an identifier in your Person schema. Add your home page as the official website on the item. The record and the entry now vouch for each other, and that mutual reference is what makes the machine treat them as one thing. Person schema: what to put on your own site shows where those lines go.
Keep it minimal
The temptation is to fill every field. Resist it. A short item where every statement is referenced survives. A long item with half the statements unsourced attracts an editor's attention and the whole thing gets pruned or deleted. Ten well referenced statements beat forty loose ones.
Disclosure and conduct
If someone is paid to edit on your behalf, Wikidata's terms require that to be disclosed on their user page. Do it. Never edit Wikipedia itself for a living person with thin coverage; that is a different site with a far higher bar, and attempts tend to end in a deletion discussion that is itself indexed. If you have a plausible Wikipedia angle, such as being a notable alumnus of an institution with a page, the route is through the institution, not through you.