28 Great Help Desk Knowledge Base Examples & How to Build Your Own

Browse 28 effective help desk knowledge base examples and get practical tips for building your own to enhance customer support and satisfaction.

Nov 11, 2024

•

28 Great Help Desk Knowledge Base Examples & How to Build Your Own

Table of Contents

Do not index

Have you ever tried to find an answer to a pressing question, only to be met with more questions and no clear solutions? Those feelings of frustration and confusion make it challenging to stay calm and collected. Imagine if you could type your query into a search bar instead of this elusive quest and quickly pull up exactly what you were looking for. This is the power of a well-organized help desk knowledge base for your customers and support agents. In this article, we'll explore examples of help desk knowledge bases and how they can help you create a high-performing help desk knowledge base that enhances customer satisfaction, provides 24/7 Customer Support, and empowers users to find answers independently.

One of the best ways to get started on your knowledge base is to check out some customer service examples to see what a well-organized help desk knowledge base looks like. ChatBee's AI customer support can help you create a high-performing help desk knowledge base that enhances customer satisfaction, reduces support workload, and empowers users to find answers independently.

What is the Knowledge Base in a Helpdesk?

A knowledge base is a centralized hub that stores information, data, and knowledge related to a specific topic or entity. Its primary objective is to facilitate users with fast and convenient access to information, enabling them to:

Resolve issues

Find answers

Make informed decisions

There are many reasons to have help documentation on your customer-facing site. Still, it’s not enough to just have them: If done poorly, your documentation may confuse or frustrate your customers even more. From top to bottom, a knowledge base should be:

Educational

Motivational

Organized

It must answer common questions efficiently to save customers time and confusion.

Most of all, a knowledge base should build upon itself to merge into an educational archive that’s accessible and practical. Regardless of what a knowledge base is called, here’s what you can expect to see:

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Informative articles about a business (e.g., blogs)

Troubleshooting guides (e.g., how to fix a Microsoft Word error code)

Step-by-step guides (e.g., how to change my password)

Complete user manuals for products or services (e.g., iPhone user manual)

These examples are relevant to customer-facing knowledge bases, but you can also have internal knowledge bases for your employees. For example, your company could have a knowledge base that covers:

Onboarding

Work policies

Standard operating procedures (SOPs)

Guides for using software or machines

Most companies you interact with online will have some knowledge base, which they may have built using knowledge base software.

What are the Benefits of Having a Help Desk Knowledge Base?

Employing a robust, well-rounded knowledge base can improve end users' support experience while streamlining internal processes for employees. Customers typically enjoy around-the-clock access to assistance and an increased sense of autonomy, while staff members benefit from decreased manual workloads and increased productivity.

Help Desk Knowledge Bases Offer 24/7 Support to Customers

Unlike traditional support channels that rely on human agents' availability, a knowledge base is always accessible, enabling customers to find solutions to their problems whenever needed. This continuous availability ensures that users can get help outside of normal business hours, during holidays, or in different time zones.

Help Desk Knowledge Bases Help More Customers

While live support agents can only assist one customer at a time, an unlimited number of users can access a help desk knowledge base. This means that myriad individuals can find answers to their issues simultaneously, significantly increasing a business's capacity to provide adequate support without increasing staffing levels proportionally.

Empowering Customers, Streamlining Support

When customers can easily find the information they need to solve problems independently, the number of support tickets typically decreases. This frees up customer service representatives to handle more complex cases and verifies that individuals who need direct assistance can receive it promptly.

Help Desk Knowledge Bases Help Employees Manage Workflows and Increase Productivity

Support staff that can quickly access comprehensive documentation, troubleshooting guides, and FAQs can generally resolve customer issues more efficiently. This reduces the time spent searching for information or consulting with colleagues, allowing employees to handle a higher volume of inquiries in less time.

A knowledge base improves day-to-day workflows and contributes to continuous improvement of support operations. Customer service teams can identify patterns and areas for process optimization by tracking common issues and resolutions. Support staff can also contribute unique insights to the knowledge base, creating a collaborative environment where information is continually refined.

Help Desk Knowledge Bases Create Consistency Across Support Tickets

When support agents have access to a repository of pre-approved responses, troubleshooting guides, and step-by-step instructions, they’re more likely to offer uniform solutions to similar issues. This verifies that users receive the same high-quality support regardless of which agent handles their inquiry.

Training and Development Hub

Knowledge bases facilitate ongoing training for support staff, further contributing to consistency. New employees can quickly get up to speed by using the knowledge base as a training tool, acclimating to an organization's standardized processes. The base is a reference for existing staff to refresh their knowledge and stay updated with new information.

Help Desk Knowledge Bases Are Scalable to Business Needs

As an organization grows, the volume and complexity of customer inquiries also often increase. A well-structured help desk knowledge base can accommodate this growth by allowing for the addition of:

New articles

Guides

FAQs

These can be added without requiring significant changes to the overall infrastructure. This scalability ensures that the base remains a useful resource regardless of a business’s size or the number of customers it serves.

Global Support, Localized Knowledge

The scalability of a knowledge base extends to its ability to support multiple languages, allowing companies to cater to global customer bases. As businesses expand into new markets, their knowledge base can be updated with localized content, ensuring that customers receive support in their preferred dialect and context.

Critical Elements of Effective Knowledge Bases

A well-rounded help desk knowledge base should help visitors effortlessly find the answers they want. There are many ways of making this happen. Nevertheless, a few essential aspects of an all-inclusive knowledge base include:

Comprehensive Coverage: This section includes detailed information on various topics, addressing common questions and scenarios that users might encounter.

User-Friendly Interface: Features an intuitive and easy-to-navigate layout, allowing users to find information quickly.

Search Functionality: Offers robust search capabilities with advanced filtering options to help individuals quickly locate specific information.

Up-to-Date Content: Ensures that information is regularly updated to reflect:

New developments
Changes
Solutions

Clear and Concise Writing: Presents information in a clear, concise, and jargon-free manner to make it easily understandable for users of all levels

Multimedia Support: Incorporates various formats such as:

Text
Images
Videos. This caters to different learning preferences and enhances comprehension.

Robust Search Functionality: Add a search bar so users can quickly find relevant articles by typing phrases and keywords. To improve the search experience, implement a knowledge base search engine that includes:

Advanced filters
Auto-suggestions
Predictive text

Clear Categorization: “Tidy by Category” is Marie Kondo’s core philosophy for cleaning clutter. But hey, it can also be applied to knowledge bases. Categorizing information helps users understand the knowledge base structure and improves accessibility.

Mobile Responsiveness: If given a choice to use our laptop or phone to do something, we always choose our phones! A mobile-friendly app helps users access information regardless of screen size or device.

AI Customer Experience

Omni Channel Customer Support

Help Desk Ticket Workflow

How to Scale Customer Support

What is a Support Ticket

What is a Help Desk

Help Desk Software Requirements

Helpdesk Best Practices

28 Help Desk Knowledge Base Examples

1. HubSpot: An Example of an Effective Knowledge Base

Unless you live under a rock, it is safe for me to assume you know a bit about what HubSpot does! Here’s the gist if you don't: HubSpot is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform that provides a suite of tools that helps businesses grow while prioritizing their customers.

Learn and Grow with HubSpot Knowledge Base

Whatever tool or hub (e.g., marketing, sales, or operations) you’re interested in, HubSpot Knowledge Base is a great place to learn about it. You’ll find plenty of images to help you navigate through your chosen tool. And then, there’s HubBot, the friendly AI chatbot on the right side of every page, eager to answer your “how-to” questions.

HubSpot Knowledge Base offers various information sources, including:

Help Center

Documentation

What I like: HubSpot Knowledge Base makes finding any information I need easy. I love exploring the handy search bar, the quick list of all product/service categories, and even the glossary. But I usually simply hop on a chat with HubBot to get answers faster.

2. Canva: A User-Centric Knowledge Base Design

Canva is a graphic design platform, but designers don’t just use it. Any average Joe can use it to create:

Pretty presentations

Templates

And more

This is also reflected in Canva's knowledge base design. Canva’s knowledge base stands out because its user-centric design makes it easy for everyone to navigate the platform. It’s also evident from their copy that they aim to help you ASAP so you can continue making amazing designs.

Key Takeaway

Create a knowledge base with predictive search functionality.

Help users resolve common queries with fewer clicks.

3. Mailchimp: Effective Knowledge Base Guidelines

When people hear “email marketing,” they think of Mailchimp. Mailchimp has detailed brand guidelines to help its team maintain consistency while creating content. It provides resources on everything from visual identity to tone of voice, ensuring that every content it produces aligns with its positioning.

Key Takeaway

Ensure your guides are clear and detailed so users can easily access all the information about a particular topic.

4. Asana: Offer Learning Resources in Various Formats

Asana is a project management tool used to:

Boost productivity

Improve team communication

Manage complex projects

Its knowledge base offers a variety of articles, guides, and video tutorials covering everything from basic features to advanced management techniques. Asana has learning resources in all formats, so users can browse and find material that best suits their learning style.

Key Takeaway

Some folks prefer text, while others watch videos at 2x speed.

A knowledge base should prioritize user preferences and offer content in multiple formats.

5. Dropbox: Personalized Learning for Users

Dropbox is a cloud-based file storage and collaboration platform that helps users store and share files securely. It also offers virtual troubleshooting sessions with well-versed instructors in the product.

The live troubleshooting model provides in-depth guided assistance. Users don’t just learn how to use the tool. They also discover how to use Dropbox in their organization according to their unique needs.

Key Takeaway

Incorporate personalized learning for users.

Brands can adopt the Dropbox approach and implement similar systems to boost user satisfaction and customer loyalty.

6. Optimizely: Building a Knowledge Base Community

Optimizely is a leading digital experience platform specializing in A/B testing and experimentation to optimize customer experiences. Its community forum, Optiverse, is a hub where users exchange ideas, troubleshoot issues, and share best practices.

Optimizely's knowledge base is community-driven. It leverages the expertise and engagement of its large user base to provide solutions and support.

Key Takeaway

Focus on building a strong user community.

User contributions can help your brand optimize knowledge base content, improve response time, and build brand loyalty.

7. LiveChat: User-Specific Paths Within Documentation

Every user visits a knowledge base for a different reason, and LiveChat, as a customer service platform, gets this! Live chat is a customer service software that streamlines communication between businesses and customers through:

Live chat

Ticketing

Messaging solutions

The knowledge base has a role-based guidance system tailored to different types of users, such as agents and managers. Each role has customized tutorials, best practices, and troubleshooting tips specific to their responsibilities.

Key Takeaway

Offer user-specific paths within the support documentation.

Businesses can increase usability by segmenting content based on user roles or expertise, ensuring that the right people get the right information at the right time.

8. Lyft: Mobile-First Knowledge Base Design

Lyft is a ride-sharing company that connects passengers with drivers through its mobile app. So naturally, its knowledge base prioritizes mobile-first access, catering to users who primarily access the platform on the go for quick and easy navigation. Its clean, responsive interface works seamlessly across smartphones and tablets.

Lyft also integrates in-app help and direct access to support, ensuring users never have to leave the app to:

Troubleshoot issues

Find FAQs

Key Takeaway

Create a mobile-friendly knowledge base design with fast loading times and integration within the app to reduce support requests.

9. Shipt: Tailored Knowledge Base for Different Users

Shipt is a same-day delivery service that connects customers with personal shoppers to deliver groceries and household essentials. The best part is that the knowledge base is tailored to both shoppers and customers.

For personal shoppers, it offers:

Guides on best practices

Tips for delivering excellent service

Troubleshooting advice for common issues in the field, like:

Navigating customer requests
Handling replacements.

For customers, it simplifies how to place orders, track deliveries, and resolve service-related concerns. The support includes real-time updates and FAQs for delivery delays or inventory shortages.

Key Takeaway

Tailor your knowledge base for all end users based on their roles and ensure they remain informed about how they should use your product.

10. Spotify: Community Integration in Knowledge Bases

Spotify is a popular music streaming platform, and its help center offers more than articles and guidelines. Its knowledge base integrates with the Spotify community, where users interact by:

Sharing playlist ideas

Discussing issues

Offering solutions to common technical problems

Spotify’s user community integration makes its knowledge base highly interactive and vibrant. The “Community Rockstars” play an active role in:

Guiding discussions

Helping fellow users

The voting and feedback system gives users a sense of ownership in Spotify’s development and improves customer engagement.

Key Takeaway

Spotify’s approach teaches the importance of promoting a strong, engaged user community.

Integrate community feedback loops to create a highly user-centric knowledge base.

11. Airbnb: A Multi-Audience Approach

Airbnb is a global online marketplace for lodging and travel experiences that connects hosts with guests. Airbnb has a segmented knowledge base to provide specific guidance for hosts and guests, ensuring each group gets specialized support.

For hosts, it offers comprehensive resources on:

Listing management

Hospitality best practices

Handling guest interactions

Guests receive guidance on:

Booking

Payment issues

Safety tips

The standout aspect of Airbnb’s multi-audience approach is showing its customers it truly cares. They’ve included a “safety guide” for travelers. This proves they go above and beyond to ensure their customers have a wholesome experience.

Key Takeaway

Think outside the box and offer valuable resources for all user journey stages.

Connect with your customers and show that you value them.

12. Slite: Collaborative Knowledge Bases

Of course, this list is complete with our favorite, Slite! For those who don’t know, Slite is a collaborative documentation platform designed to help teams organize and share knowledge efficiently.

The world has entered hybrid and remote work mode, so Slite’s knowledge base focuses on team collaboration. The platform allows teams to:

Leave comments

Tag members

Track changes

Its integration with other tools keeps knowledge sharing and task tracking in sync.

Key Takeaway

Maintaining a knowledge base shouldn’t be a one-person job.

Incorporate collaboration into the knowledge base so the entire team can improve your knowledge management process.

13. Buffer: A Transparent Knowledge Base

Buffer is a social media management platform known for its transparency and remote-friendly culture. Buffer’s knowledge base includes comprehensive resources designed to immerse new employees in the company’s:

Values

Tools

Workflows

It covers everything from company culture and communication guidelines to practical tutorials on using Buffer’s tools and systems. The onboarding process includes self-paced learning modules, which include:

Videos

Articles

Checklists

Buffer also incorporates an open-access philosophy, making much of its internal knowledge, such as salary data and remote work best practices, available publicly. Buffer ensures employees have clarity from day one. They provide a clear, structured knowledge base that includes:

Cultural integration

Technical training

Key Takeaway

Maintain transparency in your knowledge base. The more your users know about your process and story, the more they trust you.

14. Basecamp: Update Knowledge Bases for All Product Versions

Basecamp is widely known as an easy-to-use project management tool. It has been around for quite a while and has undergone many changes. The help center caters to different types of users through multiple versions of its platform. Each version includes clear, easy-to-follow guides for:

New users

Seasoned teams

The platform offers project templates, best practices for team communication, and tips on managing workloads efficiently.

Key Takeaway

Every user might use a different version of your product.

Keep your knowledge base updated for all variations so users won’t have to contact your support team if they use an older version.

15. Zendesk: An Extension of the Support Team

Zendesk is a customer support platform, so there’s no doubt they know how to maintain a knowledge base that serves as an extension of the customer support team. One unique aspect of Zendesk’s knowledge base is its “news and updates” section. They drop feature announcements within their help center so users can discover new product updates while learning about the product.

Users can learn how the update can benefit them or why Zendesk is removing a particular feature.

Key Takeaway

Keep users informed about the latest updates. Make sure they know about new features and how to use them in their daily activities.

16. Nordstrom: A Self-Service Portal for E-Commerce

About the company: Highly regarded American fashion retailer Nordstrom is known for its exquisite shopping experiences, both in-store and online.

What we like: A self-service portal that simplifies purchasing decisions in addition to support processes information regarding:

Tracking orders

Returns

Cancellation requests are easy to locate in Nordstrom’s intuitive customer service section. Beyond support, the company has neatly packaged all of its other services within its elaborate self-service portal, making for a fine e-commerce knowledge base example. Within Nordstrom’s base, users can quickly find the resources and guides that they’re seeking, such as:

Style help

Gift wrapping

Alterations

This allows shoppers to purchase with minimal barriers to overcome.

17. Whatfix: An Open Ecosystem for Knowledge Management

Whatfix is a digital adoption platform (or DAP) that enables seamless adoption of enterprise applications through:

In-app

Contextual guidance

Self-help knowledge base tools

Its open ecosystem allows it to integrate with hundreds of the most popular and widely-used SaaS products, providing its customers with comprehensive knowledge management tools that cover installation and use in detail.

Whatfix also allows users to find answers in both mobile and desktop views. Its robust knowledge base allows its customers to find answers to their questions without contacting their CSM or support.

18. Shipt: A Question-Based Knowledge Base

Online delivery service Shipt's knowledge base takes a question-based approach. The most popular questions are listed on the left side of the page, and on the right, information is presented in a FAQ page style.

One-Stop-Shop for Shipt Users

Shipt includes information for both shippers and shoppers, making its knowledge base a one-stop shop for everyone who uses Shipt. It also places a user-friendly search bar in the most valuable real estate on its page to let customers ask questions. Customers don’t have to dig through pages to find a specific answer.

19. OneFile: A Well-Structured Knowledge Base

OneFile is a B2B SaaS EdTech company that focuses on building apprenticeships and online training platforms. In the past twenty years, it has supported over 1.2 million learners.

What we like: Topic-based grouping, provisions for submitting a support ticket directly from the help center.

A thriving knowledge base is typically one that is well-structured:

Includes the right information in the right places

Categorizes in a way that promotes a seamless user journey

OneFile achieves this by creating relevant headlines and topic buckets for its FAQs that immediately grab users' attention and help them identify the particular section they’re seeking.

Streamlined Onboarding and Support

OneFile intentionally places guides and tutorials at the top for new customers who’re getting started with the platform, easing their onboarding process. It also includes a clear call to action (CTA) for users to raise a support ticket directly from the help center if they can’t find what they’re searching for.

20. Altium: A Knowledge Base for Complex Industries

About the company: Altium is a leading electronics board design tool widely used by engineers at large electronics companies such as:

Philips

Siemens

Bosch

What we like: Complex topics arranged and phrased as user questions for quick troubleshooting.

Customers often find knowledge bases instrumental in industries like:

Retail

SaaS

But do self-service options hold their value for complex industries like electronics or manufacturing? If Altium is any indicator, the answer is a resounding ‘yes!’

Customer-Centric Knowledge Base

Altium is a shining example of a knowledge base that works perfectly for more complex domains, attracting close to 19,000 active users. The articles within its knowledge base are developed directly from customers’ questions and displayed according to the number of views, making it easier for users to promptly find the answers to popular queries.

21. Slack: Troubleshooting with Shortcuts

Slack is a workplace messaging app that’s used by 77 of Fortune 100 companies. I’m no stranger to Slack’s iconic messaging sound and its stunning brand colors — I’ve used it to communicate with teams in different companies. But how does its knowledge base stack up?

Slack Help Center provides all the information you need to understand the app. Slack’s knowledge base displays a prominent search bar and direct links to common troubleshooting topics. It also has shortcuts that help users save time. I discovered that pressing the “Up” key lets me edit my previous message.

What I like: Slack intuitive, so I rarely use the knowledge base. The short YouTube explainer videos in some knowledge base sections are great for explaining Slack to new team members.

22. Confluence: A Collaboration Tool with an Impressive Knowledge Base

As a collaboration and knowledge-sharing tool for companies, you’d imagine Confluence’s knowledge base would be a sight to behold.

Spoiler alert: It is.

Confluence Resource Center offers:

Product guides

Demos

And more

If you’re considering using Confluence to create your knowledge base, visiting this Resource Center is necessary. You’ll see what a great example looks like and learn the steps and best practices for setting one up.

Beyond the clear and helpful main page, you’ll find well-structured documents containing all the necessary information alongside high-quality images and GIFs.

What I like: Confluence’s knowledge base is a great example of how marketing efforts can fit into an information site. Confluence adds customer success stories to reel you in alongside easy-to-access demo videos and product guides.

23. Apple: Self-Service Support for Product Owners

When my iPhone malfunctions, I usually go to Apple’s knowledge base, which links to great YouTube video tutorials with subtitles for enhanced accessibility. The knowledge base conveniently directs me to human support if I can’t find what I’m looking for.

What I like: Apple's self-service knowledge base displays all its products, letting users choose the ones they’re interested in. This filtering mechanism ensures I only see relevant content when I select “iPhone.”

Amplitude aims to make digital analytics accessible to every business. To achieve this, it needs a solid knowledge base for users to turn to. Amplitude’s help desk knowledge base has a user-friendly layout that’s easy to navigate, providing a great customer experience.

If you’re new to this platform, the “Start Here” section is the ultimate guide to get you up and running.

What I like: Amplitude categorizes common questions under five main sections, making finding the solutions I need easy.

25. Whale: An AI-Powered Knowledge Base

Whale is an exceptional AI-powered knowledge base and training tool for scaling companies. Its AI assist helps you create your knowledge base in seconds, so you don't have to do it from scratch.

A Comprehensive Knowledge Base Solution

Beyond the intuitive and user-friendly web and mobile app when you dive in, you’ll find the Whale Universe containing all the information you need to guide you through setting up your knowledge base, complete with automated workflows so you can easily share information with colleagues. Once you're set-up, their super handy Chrome extension surfaces knowledge when you need it while working in the apps where you need it.

What I like: Whale’s knowledge base is a stellar example of how seamless integration of AI can enhance information management. The ease of use is remarkable—you can get started in seconds. Whale provides easy-to-use templates, comprehensive product guides and training, and engaging customer success stories to keep you informed and motivated.

26. 1Password: Getting Started for New Users

1Password is a top password manager trusted by millions of customers, including 100,000+ businesses. If you’re just starting, you’ll find everything you need once you hit the “Start Here” button.

For more experienced users, the knowledge base offers valuable tips on getting the most from 1Password, like using:

Apps

Browser extensions

Vaults

What I like: When I navigated to the support hub (i.e., knowledge base), contacting support directly was in front of me. This was refreshing. Some companies bury their contact information to discourage you from getting in touch.

27. Google: An Extensive Knowledge Base

As the world’s top search engine with a market share of 90.91%, Google provides customer self-service options through an extensive knowledge base. Google’s knowledge base content for:

Chrome

YouTube

And more

Instead of a table of contents, the knowledge base displays a group of icons associated with popular Google products and services (e.g., Chrome, Gmail, and YouTube) for:

Consumers

Businesses

Developers

What I like: The support homepage is on-brand and uncluttered. With a few simple clicks, I can find whatever Google service I need help with.

28. OpenAI: Using AI in Knowledge Bases

Open AI, the company behind ChatGPT, has a good knowledge base primarily dedicated to account information and using ChatGPT.

AI-Powered Knowledge Base

As you might expect, the company uses an AI chatbot as a knowledge base tool. When I browsed some knowledge-based articles, I was impressed that they were recently updated. The knowledge base effectively uses hyperlinks within articles, which helped me navigate to sections of interest.

What I like: OpenAI’s knowledge base is transparent about ChatGPT's limitations, including its Western bias and the fact that it can be compelling while providing incorrect information. New users should study ChatGPT’s knowledge base to ensure they’re using the tool effectively.

Help Desk Benefits

Customer Experience Automation

SaaS Help Desk

Ticket Escalation

Self Service Customer Support

Service Desk Automation Ideas

Help Desk Benefits

Common Help Desk Problems and Solutions

Best Help Desk Software for Small Business

Generative Ai for Customer Support

Best Incident Management Software

Best Open Source Ticketing System

How to Create a Knowledge Base in 9 Easy Steps

Identify the Purpose/Need of Your Knowledge Base

Before creating a knowledge base, it's essential to determine why you need one:

Is it for customers or employees?

Do you want to help customers get up to speed with your products and services, provide in-depth tutorials, or answer frequently asked questions from potential prospects?

Perhaps it’s a mixture of all these things. When you’ve decided who your audience is for your knowledge base, identify the current gaps in knowledge that exist that create a need for the knowledge base.

What questions or topics do customers ask about the most?

Is your support team often overwhelmed with requests for information?

How long does it take your support team to respond to requests, and is that response rate getting longer?

Are there particular members of your team with knowledge that would leave gaps if those employees left the company?

Define the Core Elements of Your Knowledge Base

If you invest in proper knowledge base software, like ChatBees.ai, it’s likely to come pre-packaged with the core elements included. You don’t need to spend time designing a knowledge base from scratch because the software already comes with ready-made templates for you to take advantage of. All you’ll need to do is set up the knowledge base and add content.

Here is a list of core elements that every knowledge base should include:

FAQ Section

The FAQ section is the first place customers will look when they have a fundamental question about your product or service. It should consist of a list of commonly asked questions presented in alphabetical order.

Search Bar

Sometimes, customers arrive at your knowledge base with a topic already in mind. A search bar makes it easy for customers to search for the specific thing they want. It should predict what customers are typing and provide a list of results.

Contact Support

Even if you create the best knowledge base in the world, sometimes customers can’t find what they’re looking for you’ll still need more help. Including a quick link to contact customer support should be a core element of your knowledge base.

The core elements you must include in your knowledge base will differ for every company.

You might add a “most read articles” widget on your homepage to expose customers to popular content.

You might want to include a “related articles” widget at the bottom of every article alongside a form for gathering feedback.

Consider adding a live chat app to your knowledge base so customers can contact your team. It’s totally up to you how you set up your knowledge base – just do it with the customer at the front of your mind.

Prepare Your Knowledge Base Structure

A knowledge base is not only about collecting and storing information; you must consider its usability. Preparing a knowledge base structure will help you organize the content and allow the user to crawl and navigate through the articles easily.

There are many different innovative ways to organize your knowledge base structure. The common and highly successful type is to structure depending on the audience your knowledge base is to cater to. For example, if you are creating an internal knowledge base, you can build it depending on the audience:

Organizational knowledge base

New employee onboarding

Human Resources

Marketing

Sales

Customer Support

Product

Design

Engineering

Speaking of the customer when building your knowledge base, next you need to think about your customer service knowledge base structure. It’s no good throwing together articles in an untidy mess because that will make finding information like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Create the structure of your knowledge base with your user at the forefront. You will likely want to develop categories for your knowledge base containing individual articles. Your categories can be organized as follows:

By product type

Certain user actions

Any number of ways you can think of

You might want to organize your categories by user roles:

Beginner

Advanced

Expert

You can structure it by the stage your user is at in their journey, for example:

Getting Started

Upgrading Account

Product Tutorials

Prepare Content for Your Knowledge Base

When you’ve organized the structure of your knowledge base, you need to think about the topics you want to cover and start gathering information. One of the easiest ways to start developing topic ideas is to check your customer support queue for the most commonly asked questions.

Take note of any saved replies your support agents regularly send customers and use these as ideas for your knowledge base. Talk to your support agents about the topics they would like to see covered by the documentation.

While at it, converse with your sales and marketing team about topics prospective customers ask. Make a list of all the topics you want to cover in a spreadsheet and take note of any subject matter experts who need to be involved in the creation of content—record content that you have already and what gaps I have that need to be filled.

Organize Knowledge Base Content

When your content is prepared, you need to organize it into categories. We’ve already discussed the structure of your knowledge base, but this is about getting down to the article level and assigning a category to each piece of content. Creating subcategories to refine your navigation further is a good idea during this step.

Write New Articles for Your Knowledge Base

Now it comes down to actually writing your knowledge-base articles! This is the fun part. But remember, documentation isn’t like writing a blog post or a novel. It should be:

Informative

Straight to the point

Easy to skim

Title Structure

When writing your knowledge base article, think about the title. People search using self-explanatory terms and won’t be likely to use your company jargon when searching for a product feature. Use action words like “How to…” or “Using…” Remember to make your article titles simple and match customers' words when discussing your products.

Content Tone

As we mentioned earlier, knowledge base articles should be written in a particular way. Your language should be straightforward, assuming the reader has no prior knowledge about your topic.

Paragraphs

Your paragraphs should be short, with at most two or three sentences per paragraph. Readers should be able to skim your knowledge base to find the information that’s relevant to them.

Links

Instead of repeatedly explaining the same thing over and over, link to related articles from the body of your content so users can find out more if they want to.

Highlighting Using Bold and Italics

Highlight important parts of your texts using bold and italics. You can also use callouts to draw attention to these parts of your content and ensure they catch your customer’s eye.

Bullet Points and Lists

Use bullet points and lists to format sequences of steps in your content. This makes my steps easier to follow and adds variety to my documentation.

Adding Visuals

No one wants to read a wall of text. Consider including images and informative videos to accompany the written portion of your documentation.

Proofread

It may sound obvious, but proofread your knowledge-based articles before publishing them. I would like to get a second pair of eyes to edit my article.

Optimize Your Knowledge Base for SEO

We’ve told you how to make a knowledge base, so now it’s time to ensure that your knowledge base can be found “externally” through search engines like Google.

You want your knowledge base to be found by customers browsing for information on the web. When search engines index your knowledge base, this can even attract new customers to your business.

Your knowledge base may be the first time they encounter your brand so this is your chance to make a good impression. Make sure your article URLs contain the keyword for your knowledge base article.

Include the keyword in your meta descriptions as well. Most knowledge-based software has SEO settings you can adjust to suit your needs. If you don’t want your knowledge base accessible to the public, you can turn off search engine indexing.

Publish Your Knowledge Base

The time has come to publish your knowledge base. You’ll send it out to start helping your customers. But first things first.

Domain/Subdomain

Decide if your knowledge base will have its domain or be a subdomain or folder of your main website. If it is a subdomain, it could help.mycompany.com. If it’s going to be a folder, you might choose mycompany.com/help.

Integrations

If you choose the right knowledge base software, you can integrate with many popular applications like:

Help desk tools

Live chat

Analytics

Integrating your knowledge base into your workflows so users can create documentation on the fly can significantly expand its capabilities.

User Access Levels

You must decide who can access your documentation in the back end. You might give some of your team members editing rights, while some might be restricted to read- or write-only. If you use user access levels, your knowledge base will be protected from unauthorized edits.

When you’ve taken care of all these things, you are ready to make your knowledge base live. Hit that publish button, sit back, and wait—not really! A knowledge base is never done.

Gather Feedback and Improve

Once you’ve made your knowledge base live, you will want to start collecting feedback on my content. Knowledge-based software should come with in-built analytics that tell you how your content is performing and give indications for improvements.

Leveraging User Feedback for Knowledge Base Improvement

You can analyze how many searches are receiving no results and use these as ideas for creating new content for your knowledge base. Articles that receive many thumbs-down ratings can be rewritten and improved. Respond to any customer comments you get on your knowledge base and take steps to improve your articles based on their recommendations.

Best Practices and Tips To Create A Knowledge Base

Now that you know how to create your knowledge base website, we have some best practices and tips to help you. Learn from others. Don’t be shy about researching the knowledge bases of other companies and incorporating what you learn into your site.

Gather Customer Feedback

It’s the only way you are going to learn and improve.

Audit Your Content

Set regular dates to audit the content of your knowledge base, adding new content and removing articles you don’t need anymore. Take care when designing your knowledge base. Remember the user experience when accessing your knowledge base and ensure it is accessible.

Choose the right knowledge base software. We strongly recommend Document360 as a good fit for your company. Enlist your customer support team. Who better to do than write articles that will help your customers? Make it easy to contact support. Your knowledge base is not a wall preventing customers from talking to a human.

Freshdesk vs Zendesk

Salesforce Alternatives

Email Ticketing System

Freshdesk Alternatives

Help Scout vs Zendesk

Tidio Alternatives

Talkdesk Competitors

Use ChatBees’ AI Customer Support Software to 10x Customer Support Operations

ChatBees optimizes RAG for internal operations like:

Customer support

Employee support

Our AI customer support software provides:

Highly accurate responses

Easy integration into workflows with low-code or no-code setup

ChatBees' agentic framework automatically chooses the best strategies to improve response quality for these use cases, enhancing:

Predictability and accuracy

Query handling capacity for operations teams

No DevOps is required to deploy or maintain the service.

Try our AI customer support software today to 10x your customer support operations. Get started for free, with no credit card required. Sign in with Google and start your journey with us today!