Wikibombing refers to the unseemly practice of using various SEO techniques, including the creation of Wikipedia articles, for purposes of maximizing the search engine results page of Wikipedia and/or non-Wikipedia articles, and thereby elevating their prominence in the service of commercial interests or political or social advocacy.

Urban Dictionary has various definitions dating back to 2008 (none related to the sense discussed herein).^[1] The term has been used in connection with SEO techniques as well.^[2]

The term was used in connection with SEO in a report by The Register^[3] on the use of the Campaign for "santorum" neologism Wikipedia article as part of an SEO and Google bomb campaign by Dan Savage to make his campaign website number one in SERPs for anyone googling for the candidate's last name.

Shortly after the press reported in late April and early May 2011 that Republican Rick Santorum might be running for president of the United States, the article on Dan Savage's campaign, then titled "santorum (neologism)", was expanded more than three-fold, to a length of over 5,000 words. Many editors became concerned that the article had become a part of the Google bomb attack, rather than reporting on it, thus compromising the project's political neutrality as well as raising WP:BLP concerns. The result was widespread controversy on-wiki, the wikien-l mailing list, an RfC on renaming or merging the article, a failed arbitration request, and a critical report in The Register that used the term "wikibombing".

When expanding articles (especially those related to existing online campaigns), consider appearances and effects. Creating exceptionally detailed coverage of a controversial topic subject to pre-existing online campaigning, may leave the community unsure of your motivations. If your actions look like those of an editor intent on using SEO techniques to use Wikipedia as a propaganda tool, the assumption of good faith may evaporate.

• WP:Activist
• WP:Advocacy
• WP:Advertising
• WP:DYK#Selection_criteria ("Articles and hooks that focus unduly on negative aspects of living individuals or promote one side of an ongoing dispute should be avoided.")
• WP:NPOV
• WP:Search engine optimization
• WP:Soap