10 tips for building a knowledge base

How to build and create your own knowledge base

Knowledge is an important corporate resource. In order to store, manage and structure existing knowledge, many companies use a knowledge database. Once you have decided on such a tool for knowledge management, it is important to maintain and structure it. Read our 10 tips for building your own knowledge base:

1. Simple design for knowledge base usage

The design of your knowledge database should be geared towards the users, i.e. either your employees or your customers. A clear, simple design and clear navigation are crucial. Clear categories and a clear menu navigation help to organize and find many different articles of knowledge. Depending on the tool, you can adapt your knowledge base to your company’s branding and, for example, use the company colors or insert your company logo to promote the user experience.

In addition to the user-friendly application, a simple design usually has the advantage that the knowledge database can be loaded quickly and accessed with different end devices and mobile.

2. Continuous maintenance of the knowledge base

A knowledge database only has added value if it is continuously maintained and always up to date. It should also always be recognizable when content was last edited and by whom. Checking older articles should become routine when maintaining a knowledge base.

3. Search function: full text and keywords

Searching for content using only the navigation or menu navigation is often tedious and not very efficient. Therefore, a knowledge database should definitely have a search function. Search terms should be found either via a full-text search or via keywords. You can add so-called tags to each post by adding important core terms that serve to describe the content. Place the search bar prominently on the interface so that it immediately catches the eye.

4. Good structure and navigation

However, a search function does not replace navigation and user guidance in the knowledge database. The basis for this is a good menu structure that is clear (i.e. should not contain more than 10 menu items per level) and unambiguous at the same time. All content should therefore be clearly assignable to a menu item and there should be no content that is stored next to menu items or folders on one level. To develop good navigation, you can consult our tips for a digital folder structure.

5. FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions

If the same questions keep coming up, for example when onboarding new employees or using special company software, you can summarize the answers in FAQs. This saves the users of the knowledge database from having to click around wildly and, for example, you can guide new employees directly to the FAQs for induction.

6. Good comprehensibility and easy language

In order for the content of a knowledge database to be quick and easy to understand, the texts should be written simply – of course, depending on the context, industry or company-specific terms can appear. If possible, however, explain technical terms in a glossary or refer to further information. If users of the knowledge base experience that the content there is not helpful or written in a complicated way, they will soon stop using it and turn to other sources if they have questions or problems. With complicated or overly complex content, you achieve the opposite of successful knowledge management.

7. Templates and templates for new entries

Ideally, a knowledge database is maintained and kept up-to-date by employees from many departments. Make it easier to create new entries by storing templates for them. Creating new entries should be as simple and clear as possible. Here, too, a clear design should be used that is user-friendly and excludes ambiguity. Use standardized input fields and format templates to enter recurring information such as dates or keywords.

8. Guidelines for care

Guidelines and instructions on how to maintain the knowledge database, create new content and revise existing ones should also be stored in the knowledge database. Operating instructions and screencasts, i.e. screen recordings that demonstrate the procedure on the screen step by step, are suitable for this.

9. Moderation and Editing

Even if you train your employees in how to use the knowledge database, pay attention to a simple design for use and maintenance, store instructions and guidelines and create a clear navigation and structure – you will still have inadequate or outdated content or duplications in the knowledge database, for example Example of texts saved twice or more in different versions. In order to guarantee the quality of the knowledge database over the long term, it is worth employing a moderator or editor who regularly checks the content, deletes duplications or moves incorrectly filed files to the correct folder. An editor can also identify what issues are common and train staff accordingly.

10. Regular updates and IT support

A knowledge database is usually maintained or searched by a large number of users. Therefore, make sure that you regularly update the software in your knowledge database and close security gaps. You should also save backups, i.e. backup copies, regularly so that you do not lose all your carefully maintained data in the event of a software problem. When selecting a knowledge management tool, it is advisable to involve your IT department or IT experts. They should also be responsible for regular IT support, updates and backups.