You might be writing blog posts for your website, but what if you need something more informative and focused for your visitors? This is where a knowledge base can be helpful. In this article you’ll learn about the best knowledge base plugins for WordPress.
What is a knowledge base?
A knowledge base is a focused area where your visitors can find information to help either guide them to buy your product, or assist them in using your service. They are great companions for ticket support, so if the customer can’t find the information in the knowledge base, then it acts like due diligence so the customer support can easily direct them to the article.
Fun fact: Over 47% businesses have a knowledge base or FAQ section on their website.
Why you might need a knowledge base for your website
Here are some reasons you might want to include a knowledge base section on your website:
Boost customer satisfaction
SEO benefits
Quick access for support
Way to track customer behavior and improve experience
Time saver for you as a business owner
Boost customer satisfaction
When you use a knowledge base, you are giving your customers a more personalized experience. Customers love to try to do things on their own, about 70% of them. When you’ve already done the homework for them, they spend less time in the ticket support queue, and more time either troubleshooting the issue they have or possibly buying or upgrading a service.
SEO benefits
Content is king even today. Probably more so than ever. The knowledge base is a great companion to your website’s blog and other pages. You can link to blog articles, add video, or even add images to make your knowledge base more robust, and keep your visitors on your site far longer.
Quick access for support
Your visitors will find that a knowledge base is an easy and quick way to access support. They can surf the articles and if they don’t find what they are looking for, or not sure what to look for, they can search or if need be, contact you.
Way to track customer behavior and improve experience
You can track what information is popular, or see where you need to write more articles for your knowledge base. When you first put together a knowledge base, you’ll have a nice core set of articles, but with time, you’ll discover from either tracking search queries or from customer support tickets, that you will need to provide more content.
Time saver for you as a business owner
You might be running a business that is online and open all day and night. A knowledge base is a time saver so you or your employees don’t have to be online all the time fielding questions.
What to look for in a good knowledge base plugin for WordPress
When you’re shopping around for a knowledge base plugin for WordPress, here’s some criteria to look for:
Intuitive search
A means to organize knowledge base articles
Seamless brand integration
Ability to track customer queries
Easy connection to customer support
Intuitive search
A good knowledge base plugin should have a search that suggests articles, depending on what the customer types in the search field. However, if you can’t find one that does that, at least having a search field that is focused solely for the knowledge base, and not the entire site can help whittle down possible articles that your visitors are looking for.
A means to organize knowledge base articles
When you have a well organized knowledge base, it’s far easier for your customers to find the information they need.
Seamless brand integration
Whether your knowledge base plugin integrates into a 3rd party service or provides an extension of your WordPress site, it should look like it belongs with the rest of your site. If it looks totally different from your company’s branding, you might confuse your customers into thinking they’ve been sent elsewhere.
Ability to track customer queries
Whether the plugin has its own tracking capabilities or can integrate well with any of your chosen analytics, this is a handy feature that will allow you to make sure you cover all your bases. Your customers will appreciate that you’ve created content on the fly, based on what they searched for.
Easy connection to customer support
Any knowledge base plugin for WordPress should have an option to integrate with your forms or customer support area of your website. This is a good back up plan in case your customer’s can’t find an article for the issue or question they want to resolve.
Knowledge Base Plugins for WordPress: Top 8
Below are some of the best knowledge base plugins for WordPress. Please note that some of these are paid solutions and some are free. Furthermore, some of the free knowledge base plugins may have paid upgrade options.
BetterDocs DocuPress
Echo Knowledge Base
Helpie WP
Knowledge Base documentation & wiki plugin
weDocs
WordPress Knowledge base & Documentation Plugin
WordPress Knowledge Base plugin
