[Blog] Best practices for developing content for your Knowledge Base
Self-service is a dynamically developing trend related to the changing needs and expectations of users.
Knowledgebase plays a pivotal role in self-service that empowers users to find information, request services, and resolve issues on their own. It’s about giving them the tools they need to solve their own problems in the future, and a self-service portal does this just beautifully.
One of the key steps in creating a knowledge base is ensuring great content. Regardless of who is authoring the content for KB (support teams, content writers, or whosoever), it's important that articles are clear, concise, and consistent.
Here are some tips to write effective Knowledgebase articles:
1. Design a template for your articles:
A well-designed template can help to create content faster and easier. It ensures your articles are consistent and users know what to expect.
2. Keep titles short and sweet but descriptive:
Not many likes to read. Short titles that contain main keywords can help users find the right article with the answers they need more quickly. When crafting article titles, try to keep article titles short and sweet and try to think about what a user might search for.
3. Convert complex knowledge simple to consume:
Keep the content short and crisp so that users can instantly understand the information shared. Make use of product screenshots wherever relevant and more so if it’s a step-by-step how-to-guide. Ensure you define terms in your articles or point users to a resource, such as a glossary, that defines key terms for your product or business. Keep explanations as simple and to-the-point as possible.
Avoid using complex terms or jargon as users will search for terms that they are familiar with and if they don’t understand something, they'll quickly lose interest. Put yourself as a user and do not make assumptions that users can follow a simple procedure easily.
For advanced concepts, consider linking to an article that explains the concept. Avoid including a lengthy explanation for a concept if users don't need it. But for those who might need it, point to reusable content that provides more information.
4. Make the content easy to follow:
Large chunks of text will likely make your users’ eyes glaze over. Consider breaking your articles into short paragraphs. It greatly helps to pick out important information from a wall of text.
Help them easily find the info. they need in your articles by using bullet points and lists to display the information in a way that’s easy to read and follow. Use bold and italics to give more dimension to your content.
5. The importance of keywords and tags:
When publishing a KB article you might want to pay more attention to keywords. Almost every search algorithm works based on these keywords. When planning keywords, what you want to do is to add as many relevant keywords as possible to be sure that your article will be shown in the results when a user tries to find a specific piece of information.
An extremely informative article could be a colossal failure without the right keywords that users are actually searching for.
6. Section and/or Categorize articles:
KB articles must be categorized under relevant topics to allow the information to be found by browsing as well as searching.
7. Choose the right set of knowledge managers to approve articles to publish them in self-service:
Knowledge managers review, validate, and approve articles for publication is critical to creating a reliable knowledge base. It gives you more control over the content and publication of your articles.
8. Regular knowledge base content updates:
A knowledgebase is only as good as the information it contains. An incorrect, outdated and confusing articles are more common than most users would like to admit. It is important to regularly update the knowledge base content based on the changes in your product, feature updates and enhancements, and more. It is advisable to assign an owner for the knowledge base and if you notice anything wrong with an article while you’re busy doing or looking for something else, flag it when you see it, so you can review it when you have time.
The world has changed dramatically in recent months in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. With most major cities and dense areas under quarantine and social distancing has become the new norm, millions of people around the world have been forced away from the office and are now working remotely.
Now, more than ever, there’s a critical need for self-service for quick help. In the post-pandemic world, there would be an acceleration of knowledge management. As the world adjusts to the realities of a global pandemic and the shift to the remote working model, it’s important for businesses to do everything in their power to make the transition as smooth as possible.
Check this article to learn about managing Knowledge Base. Download ServiceDesk Plus to manage your solutions effectively.