5 Steps Towards Creating a Searchable Knowledge Base

Implementing a knowledge base for a website can prove to be useful. There are varied reasons how knowledge base platforms are capable of improving the operational efficiency of an organization. First and foremost, they can improve customer satisfaction in various ways, as they help people get quick and valuable answers without having to wait or call someone.

It is proficient to improve customer services drastically and help an enterprise increase the satisfied customers count and boost sales if used externally. On the other hand, when used internally,  a knowledge base software can help a business become more organized and improve the overall efficiency level.

It’s important to leverage it appropriately in order to get the best results possible. One of the most important things to keep an eye on is to create a searchable and efficiency focused knowledge base so that it benefits the stakeholders.

Before we start explaining, bear in mind that this method doesn’t require coding nor building right from the scratch. You need to implement your content into a pre-existing environment and implement these changes.

1. Pay attention to Titles

The title is the first thing that catches the eye of a reader who visits a knowledge base. This is why you will should create titles which are intuitive and can be easily searched. When a visitor comes to your knowledge base, he or she is looking for a solution.

This is why all the titles should directly focus on resolving a key problem. For example, “how to put together the (name) toy?” This is a clear example how the title directly talks about the problem. Not only this, but when a person writes the name of that toy, it will also appear in the search box.

Another approach involves creating titles that talk about the solutions. Carefully designing titles which users are expected to look for is an alternative option. In such a scenario, the solution would be “(name of the toy) put together”, or something similar to that.

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2. URLs are important

When it comes to your URL addresses, there are similar rules similar to titles that needs to be followed. When you are creating a URL for a certain page, or anything else in your knowledge base, it is important that you pay attention to these things in order to get it right.

– Make sure that the URL also contains keywords which are relevant to the article

– Apply the same methods, such as focusing on the solution or the problem directly within the URL

– Keep URLs short, simple and clear enough for the search engine to index them and the readers to understand them

– All of your URLs need to have correct and logical semantics

It is a good idea to match the titles and URLs when possible. This is like a safety net, as this method makes your searches a lot stronger. For example, if the title fails to be recognized for some reason, the URL will be there to make up for what is missing.

3. Tags and Keywords

When publishing articles in your knowledge repository, pay close  attention to the keywords.

When you are considering what keywords to use, you should first ensure that they are all relevant so that the wanted articles appear in search results when a person is looking for a specific content. Similarly, with the titles, you should plan keywords by considering what your visitors would search for when looking for a specific content.

For example, when writing a brand new article on “How to build a knowledge base” you should consider inclusion of keywords such as: how to, build, knowledge base software. When a person types this question or uses some of these keywords or some combination of these mentioned keywords, the search will display the article. The same rule applies to tags as well.

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4. Internal links

It’s always a good idea to have multiple articles which cover a similar topic or related topics in order to improve both internal and external searchability. What does internal and external searchability mean?

Internal searchability is when someone is searching for something within the knowledge base and the external one is when users are looking for solution in Google and they find your articles there.

When you link similar articles together, those anchor texts that you use will get indexed and this will help search engine results greatly. The larger your network of linked articles, the better your searches will work.

5. ALT tags and images

When you decide to add images to your articles, it will help the readers understand the articles better and enhance the visual appeal. The engagement will go up and bring great value when it comes to SEO and the overall search-ability of the self-help repository and the articles placed within it.

• When you insert images, you need to add ALT tags which can explain to search engines what the image is all about
• They can also explain what those images are about to a non-technical person
• The file-name of the image is also important, as they get indexed by search engines for keywords

Conclusion:

Make sure that you pay attention to the above mentioned best practices when you are optimizing your knowledge base to strengthen the search-ability of content stored in it. Like i mentioned before, all of these tricks will make your knowledge base software more searchable, both internally and externally.

Author Bio:

Jason Grills is a technical writer currently associated with ProProfs Knowledge base Software. He enjoys writing about emerging knowledge management products,trends in customer support industry and the financial impacts of using such tools. He lives in Los Angeles, California. In his spare time, Jason enjoys long walks on beach, listening to blues and doing all things creative.