The topic of Wiki-jacking caused a minor stir around the water cooler this week.

The concept is an SEO tactic – in what used to be called gray hat practices – a euphemism for black hat for newbies.

So, what is Wiki-jacking? As you’ve probably seen, Wikipedia ranks all over the place – often stealing pole position in the SERPs. You can use the strength of Wikipedia’s visibility to steal a top ranking away from any other site – namely a competitor. How? By pointing more internal links to the relevant Wiki page. This should be enough to boost its rankings.

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Is this a viable long-term solution? I’m not sure. There was a time when search marketers were climbing all over Wikipedia and creating those coveted external links. Just until Wikipedia instigated the ‘nofollow’ tag on all external links and crushed the practice overnight. Is there any reason why the same fate couldn’t befall internal links?

Another word of caution – beware, Wiki Scanner may get you. This service shows who’s been editing which page, and a number of governments and companies have been receiving negative press for their heavy-handed approach to Wikipedia.