How to Create a Knowledge Base: Step by Step Guide

In the world of technology, the knowledge base refers to the information a computer system has to resolve a problem. It contains various rules, facts and assumptions. In essence, it’s a central library that contains in-depth information about topics, services, products or departments. A knowledge base can be used to support a wide range of organizational functions, including automated customer support, cash management, troubleshooting issues, staff training and company policies. Creating a knowledge base can be as basic or as intricate as you want. Our how to guide for creating a knowledge base simplifies the process even further, providing easy-to-follow step by step instructions to lead you through each stage of the process.

Step 1: Select the Right Knowledge Base Software

Several tools are available to make a knowledge base, with diverse features that make it both easy to organize and issue content and simple for users to find information.

The best knowledge base software should:

• Be search engine friendly
• Have a quality search function
• Make it easy to publish information
• Be easy to use both on the backend and frontend
• Be easy to navigate
• Have good in-built organization
• Produce comprehensive reports    

It’s important to know that you’re using the right tool for your needs before creating a huge knowledge base.

Step 2: Decide What Information to Include

There’s little point creating a knowledge base full of information that nobody needs or wants. It’s important to focus on topics that are useful, helpful and relevant for users. After all, your knowledge base’s purpose is to support, not hinder, customer enablement.  

Start by creating a list of commonly asked questions. Break this down into specific topics.

If there are few topics, you can jump right in and create content that covers topics in depth and answers explicit questions. If there are many topics, there is a further step: prioritizing your content. Order your list so your team creates higher priority content first.

Step 3: Organize the Topics

Using your topic list, decide how to group your content for a cohesive and easy-to-understand structure.

Start with general collections of topics and then consider more specific categories within each collection.

Step 4: Create Content

If there are few topics, you can jump right in and create content that covers topics in depth and answers explicit questions. If there are many topics, there is a further step: prioritizing your content. Order your list so your team creates higher priority content first, then work through the list.

Content should contain links to other useful resources, contain visuals, where appropriate, and be:

• Relevant
• Detailed
• SEO optimized

Step 5: Publish the Knowledge Base

You can publish your knowledge base when you’ve completed a few key articles; you don’t need to complete every topic first. Particularly if you have hundreds of topics to cover, it’s often better to get your knowledge base live and the gradually expand it as new content is created.

When you publish your knowledge base, you should also ensure:

• It’s publicly accessible
• You add relevant links to it from your homepage, contact page and other pertinent places

Step 6: Maintain and Monitor Your Knowledge Base

Ongoing, your knowledge base will need updating as products, services, policies and practices change. You should also monitor the effectiveness of your knowledge base, as this will show you ways to improve and other topics to include.

With this step-by-step guide, creating a knowledge base doesn’t need to feel daunting.

Check out Guidde’s other how to guides, including how to have success with customer service enablement and how to onboard customers, to simplify a wide range of processes and make matters more convenient.    

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