What Is Wikidata? Items, Statements and References Explained
Wikidata is the free, structured knowledge base behind Wikipedia, and search engines and AI tools reuse its data. How it works, who qualifies for an item, and how to correct one responsibly.
By Editorial Team
8 min read
Wikidata is a free, collaboratively edited knowledge base run by the Wikimedia Foundation, the same nonprofit behind Wikipedia. Instead of articles, it stores facts as structured data: each person, company, place or idea gets an “item”, and facts about it are recorded as “statements” backed by references. Because the data is free to reuse, it feeds Wikipedia infoboxes and is widely used by other services, including search engines and AI tools, which is why an accurate item can matter for your reputation.
This guide explains how Wikidata is organized, who qualifies for an item, how to check and correct yours, and the rules that apply if you have a personal or business connection to the subject.
How Wikidata is organized
Wikidata looks unusual the first time you open it, but the structure is simple once you know the parts.
Items
An item represents one thing. Every item has an identifier that starts with Q followed by a number, which stays the same even if the name changes. Each item also has a label (its name), a short description that tells it apart from similar items, and aliases (other names it’s known by). Labels and descriptions can be added in many languages.
The description matters more than it looks. It’s what separates “American architect” from “American footballer” when two people share a name.
Properties and statements
Facts are recorded as statements. A statement pairs a property (identified by P and a number) with a value. Some common properties for people and organizations:
| Property | What it records |
|---|---|
| instance of (P31) | What kind of thing the item is, such as human, business or nonprofit organization |
| official website (P856) | The subject’s own website |
| inception (P571) | When an organization was founded |
| founded by (P112) | The founders, linked to their own items where they exist |
| headquarters location (P159) | Where an organization is based |
| country (P17) | The country an item is associated with |
| industry (P452) | The sector an organization works in |
Many properties link items to each other. “Founded by” points to a person’s item, and “headquarters location” points to a city’s item. That web of links is what makes Wikidata useful to machines: it knows that a company, its founder and its city are separate things with defined relationships.
Qualifiers, ranks and references
- Qualifiers add context to a statement, such as the start and end dates of a job title.
- Ranks mark a statement as preferred, normal or deprecated. A former CEO can stay on record while the current one is marked preferred, and a value known to be wrong can be deprecated rather than silently deleted.
- References show where a statement comes from, usually with properties such as “stated in” (P248), “reference URL” (P854) and “retrieved” (P813). A statement without a reference is much easier for other editors to challenge or remove.
Sitelinks and identifiers
An item can link to the matching Wikipedia article in each language, and to other Wikimedia projects. It can also hold external identifiers, such as library authority records or official social media usernames, which help other systems match the item to the right entity.
Why Wikidata matters for your reputation
Wikidata’s data is released under a CC0 public domain dedication, so anyone can reuse it without permission. That openness is why it travels so far. Wikipedia infoboxes in many languages pull from it, and other databases, apps and search services use it to identify and connect entities.
Google doesn’t publish exactly which sources its Knowledge Graph uses or how much weight each gets, so be skeptical of anyone who says a Wikidata item will produce a knowledge panel. What you can say with confidence is that an accurate, well-referenced item gives any system that reads it correct facts, and a wrong one can spread errors, such as an outdated headquarters or a merge between two people with the same name.
Who qualifies for a Wikidata item
Wikidata’s notability policy is broader than Wikipedia’s, but it isn’t a free-for-all. Under the policy, an item is acceptable if it meets at least one of these:
- It has a valid sitelink to a Wikipedia article or another eligible Wikimedia page.
- It refers to a clearly identifiable conceptual or material entity that can be described using serious and publicly available references.
- It fulfills a structural need, for example because it’s needed to make statements on other items more useful.
The second criterion is where most businesses and professionals would fall, and it’s where items get challenged. “Serious and publicly available references” means independent, verifiable sources. Your own website, a press release and a LinkedIn profile rarely convince other editors on their own. Items that look promotional or rely only on self-published sources are regularly nominated for deletion.
Conflict of interest and paid editing on Wikidata
The Wikimedia Foundation’s Terms of Use apply across its projects, including Wikidata. They require anyone who is paid to contribute to disclose their employer, client and affiliation. That covers employees editing their company’s item as part of their job and agencies hired to create or maintain items.
Beyond that legal requirement, the community expects people with a personal or business connection to be cautious. In practice:
- Disclose your connection on your user page, and mention it on the item’s discussion page when you propose changes.
- Stick to verifiable, neutral facts such as an official website or founding date, each with a reference.
- Don’t remove accurate, referenced statements because you dislike them.
- Use the discussion page or the Project chat for anything contested, so independent editors can decide.
- Never use multiple accounts to support your own edits. Sockpuppetry leads to blocks across Wikimedia projects and tends to draw more scrutiny to the item.
How to check and correct your Wikidata item
- Search wikidata.org for your name or your organization’s name. Check every result, because people with the same name are sometimes confused or merged.
- Read the item carefully: label, description, aliases and every statement. Note which statements have references and which don’t.
- Collect sources for anything wrong: a current official page, a news article, a public register. Independent sources carry the most weight.
- Decide how to raise it. Simple, uncontroversial fixes to factual data with a solid reference, such as a new official website after a domain change, are the kind of thing many editors accept from a disclosed connected person. For anything else, post on the item’s discussion page explaining the change and linking your sources.
- Be patient. Discussion pages on small items can be quiet. If nobody responds, the Project chat is the general place to ask for help.
- For serious privacy issues, such as a home address or information that puts someone at risk, contact the Wikimedia volunteer response team or use the project’s oversight process rather than arguing it publicly.
A worked example
This is an illustrative scenario, not a real client. A software company, “Cobalt Ridge Analytics”, has a Wikidata item created years ago by an independent editor after the company appeared in several trade publications. Two things are wrong: the headquarters is listed as a city the company left, and the “founded by” statement links to a different person with the same name as its co-founder.
The company’s operations manager creates an account and discloses on her user page that she works there. On the item’s discussion page she explains both problems, links a recent news article that names the new headquarters, and links the co-founder’s university profile, which shows that he isn’t the person in the linked item. An independent editor adds the new headquarters with a reference, keeps the old city with an end date qualifier, and corrects the founder link.
Nothing about the company’s reputation changes overnight. But the next time a service reads that item, it gets the right city and the right person.
Not sure where to start?
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Get a free auditCommon mistakes
- Creating an item with no independent sources. It’s likely to be deleted, and repeated attempts look like promotion.
- Using marketing language in descriptions. Descriptions are short, neutral disambiguators, such as “American software company”, not taglines.
- Deleting instead of deprecating. For outdated facts, adding an end date or changing the rank is often better than deletion, because it keeps the history accurate.
- Hiring a vendor who won’t disclose. Undisclosed paid editing breaks the Terms of Use, and the consequences land on your item and your name.
- Assuming Wikidata controls Google. It’s one source among many. Consistent information across your website, profiles and coverage matters just as much; see our guide on entity SEO.
Where Wikidata fits in a wider plan
For most people and businesses, Wikidata is a detail, not a strategy. The foundations are an accurate About page, consistent profiles, structured data on your site and genuine independent coverage. Those are also what make an item defensible if one exists. If you’re thinking about Wikipedia itself, read our guide on whether a company Wikipedia page is realistic, and for knowledge panels, see getting a Google knowledge panel.
If a wrong item or a merged identity is affecting what people see when they search your name, our personal reputation management service can help you trace the source and correct it through the proper channels.
Frequently asked questions
Is Wikidata the same as Wikipedia?
No. Both are Wikimedia projects, but Wikipedia publishes written encyclopedia articles, while Wikidata stores structured facts as items and statements. Wikidata’s data is reused by Wikipedia and by many outside services.
Can I create a Wikidata item about myself or my company?
The rules don’t forbid it outright, but you must disclose any paid or business connection, and the item needs serious, publicly available references to meet the notability policy. Self-sourced or promotional items are often deleted. Proposing it transparently and letting independent editors review it is the safer route.
Does a Wikidata item get me a Google knowledge panel?
Not by itself. Google doesn’t publish how it weights its sources, and many knowledge panels exist without a Wikidata item. An accurate item can help systems identify you correctly, but it’s one signal among many.
How do I remove wrong information from Wikidata?
Post on the item’s discussion page with sources showing the correct fact, and disclose any connection. Editors may correct the value, add an end date or deprecate the wrong statement. Accurate, referenced statements generally stay even if they’re unflattering.
