How to Effectively Build a Powerful Knowledge Base

In this post, we’re going to guide you on how you can effectively create a powerful knowledge base. We will also cover the basics of knowledge bases; what they are, the benefits they provide, and so forth.

What is a Knowledge Base?

A knowledge base is a repository of information from which said information can be searched and retrieved whenever needed.

Knowledge bases can be physical or digital. A physical knowledge base could be a file or folder containing information about a particular person, place, or project. However, nowadays, when people refer to knowledge bases, they refer to digital ones, the ones that are present on the internet or in a soft form on a computer system.

Here are some key attributes of knowledge bases:

• They are organized, and they provide information in a structured way.
• They are easily accessible and are usually used by a group of people (which can be an organization, a team, or even the general public).
• Knowledge bases are also searchable, which means the content inside them can be searched using keywords/tags.

What are the Types of Knowledge Bases?

There are mainly three types of knowledge bases:

• External
• Internal
• Personal/Private

These various types of KB are differentiated on the basis of their access.

External knowledge bases are the ones that are available to the general public. These are the ones used for customer support purposes.

Internal knowledge bases are the ones that are accessible to an organization/team, and not to the general public. In order to access an internal knowledge base, you may need to sign in to an account.

Private/personal knowledge bases are the ones that are maintained by a single individual for personal use. For example, such a knowledge base could be used by a person to keep a record of their finances.

Benefits for Users, Support Teams, and Businesses

Here are some benefits that knowledge bases have for individual users, support teams, and businesses.

• For individual users, knowledge bases are beneficial in storing large amounts of data online in the form of structured articles. Users can create said articles using the knowledge base platforms, edit them whenever they like, search amongst them, and so on. It creates efficiency in creating and storing documentation.
• Moving on, for support teams, knowledge bases can help reduce the number of support tickets opened by customers. External knowledge bases can be used to provide customers with commonly needed information. Instead of opening support tickets to acquire said information, customers can search for it in the knowledge base. (This information can be provided in the form of help articles, guides, and FAQs.)
• For businesses, knowledge bases can help store useful information in a centralized repository where it can be accessed by various members according to their hierarchical level and clearance. It can be useful for sharing SOPs, onboarding instructions, etc., with people in the organization.

How to Effectively Build a Powerful Knowledge Base: A Guide with Steps

Now that we have covered the basics of knowledge bases and their benefits for various users, let us move on to how you can create one effectively.

1. Choose the purpose of your knowledge base

To get started, you first need to define the purpose of your knowledge base. Think about the objectives that you plan on achieving with the knowledge base.

This will help you adjust your content creation and publishing strategy later on.

Here are some of the things that you need to determine:

• What type of information do you want the knowledge base to contain?
• What type of individuals do you wish to cater to with the knowledge base?
• Is the knowledge base going to be external or internal?

If you want to create an external knowledge base with support articles for end consumers, you can then create a strategy that focuses on creating detailed articles, enabling feedback on them once published, checking analytics for constant improvement, and so on.

If you want to create an internal knowledge base with organizational SOPs for employees, your focus will instead be on creating clear and easily understandable content with limited access.

These are two examples of how the intent of the knowledge base can impact the strategy that maintains it.

2. Plan the content and the topics that you wish to cover

After you are done with the first step, the next thing you need to do is plan the content and the topics you wish to cover in the knowledge base.

Make a list of the various topics/questions/queries that you want to write your content around.

In each of the topics, list the sections and headings to include in them. For example, you could create a topic list for an external knowledge base like this:

• Customer onboarding article
• How-to guide for product 1
  
  • Explanation of the product
  • Steps to use the product
  • Common problems and solutions
  • Warranty guidelines
• How-to guide for product 2
  
  • Explanation of the product
  • Steps to use the product
  • Common problems and solutions
  • Warranty guidelines
• Return and refund policy article

3. Choose an excellent knowledge base software

After creating a list of the various topics, you then need to pick an excellent knowledge base software. Picking the right software will help you make sure that your knowledge base is effectively crafted and has all the features that you need to make it work.

There are quite a few different things that you need to check and ensure in a knowledge base platform. For example,

• You have to make sure that the software has a good text editor. A good text editor will let you create articles with ease, styling and formatting them however you want.
• The access management features in the software should allow you to easily pick who can read the articles.
• The knowledge base should also give you analytics and insights regarding your knowledge base’s visits, reads, bounce rate, etc.
• The software should also provide decent searchability so that users can easily find the articles they need.
• Collaboration features are also a big plus as they allow multiple people to work together on the same article. You can collaborate with other members in your team, such as writers, graphic designers, and project managers, to make sure the article turns out perfectly.

If you don’t know which software you should pick, don’t worry.

Check out this guide on the best and most feature-loaded knowledge base software that you can use in 2025, including free and open-source solutions.

4. Create a taxonomy in your knowledge base

Once you have chosen the best knowledge base software for your needs, you need to create a taxonomy/hierarchy in the KB.

Here is what you should do:

• Identify “parent” articles: the articles that cover a broad range of topics
• Plan “child” articles; articles that explain the finer aspects of the parent articles
• Create further sub-posts for the child articles (call them “grandchild” articles) if needed.
• Group together the various parent and child articles so that you can cover them category by category.

You can interlink the parent pages to the child pages, and vice versa. This helps in ensuring that the user can intuitively navigate between them and get all the information they need.

As for how you can create them, that’s what we’re going to cover in the next heading.

5. Create high-quality content for your knowledge base

Next up, you have to create high-quality content for the topics that you have collected for your knowledge base.

The “definition” of high-quality content is a bit different depending on the type that you are creating. However, there are some things that are common to all excellent content, such as clarity, brevity, detail, etc. We’re going to list some tips that you can follow to make sure that your content has those elements as well.

• Make sure your wording is concise and clear. Don’t use obscure and difficult words, especially in the content meant for external knowledge bases.
• Use images in the articles to provide illustrative examples and visual aids to your readers.
• Make sure that your articles provide actionable tips and steps that readers can follow, and not vague instructions. While a blog can contain general information, the same is not suitable for a knowledge base article.
• Format your article properly with heading styles and bullets to make it scannable and easy to navigate.
• Check and proofread your content after completing it to ensure there are no grammar or spelling errors in it.
• Interlink various articles and external resources to make the article more valuable and effective.

6. Periodically check the knowledge base to make updates

Another important step to build an effective knowledge base is regular updates. You should check the knowledge base periodically to find any information that needs to be updated. Doing routine checks can also help you discover topics that are not yet covered in the knowledge base.

Here are some actionable and practical ways to maintain and update your knowledge base.

• Set a regular schedule every few days to check the content that you’ve published.
• Use the analytics feature in the knowledge base software to find the articles that are performing well and the ones that aren’t.
• Check user feedback on the articles to see which ones are popular and which ones aren’t getting attention.

By doing this, you will be able to see which articles have to be discarded due to not getting enough views, positive feedback, or traction. As for the ones that are getting it all, you can work on improving their quality so that they become even more useful. 

Conclusion

Building a powerful knowledge base isn’t easy. There are many different steps that you have to follow. You may have had an idea about that after reading this post.

But once you do build such a knowledge base, it can benefit you immensely.

In customer support, a powerful, searchable, comprehensive knowledge base will help you reduce the number of support tickets. It will increase customer satisfaction, and the informative articles will also act as marketing material.

Other than customer support, a powerful knowledge base can also be a great tool for organizational information sharing. It can help you share important information and data among the various members of a team to improve operational efficiency.