Is your online knowledge base just sitting there not being used? If so, you are missing out on a major opportunity to connect with your audience and provide them with valuable information. You are also missing out on site traffic that could generate more leads and revenue for your company.
To avoid having your knowledge base languish in obscurity, you need to be proactive in driving traffic to it, and from there to other pages on your website. Here are 11 strategies for how to drive traffic to your online knowledge base.
- Make sure your knowledge base is search engine friendly
Apply all of the same SEO best practices as you do to your blog articles and other web pages to your knowledge base articles. This includes using title and header tags, meta descriptions, keywords, and proper web formatting. These practices will help search engines index your articles so your audience can find them. - Link to your online knowledge base from other pages of your website
The best place to do this is in your blog posts. Posts like how-tos, and those that address customer questions and problems, are perfect places to link to your knowledge base. - Link from your online knowledge base to other pages on your website
In the same vein, be sure to link from your knowledge base to blog posts, product pages, and other areas on your website where people can find more information. This gives them a clear indication of what to do next after they’ve finished reading a knowledge base article. - Promote your online knowledge base on social media
You can promote your knowledge base articles in the same way you do your blog and other content you produce. Start by identifying the top articles -- such as those that answer the most common questions or have the highest ratings -- and incorporate them into your social media strategy. - Make your knowledge base articles shareable
You sharing your own articles on social media is a start, but you will drive even more traffic if you make it possible for other people to share your articles as well. Add social sharing buttons to each article. To make sharing your posts even easier, provide standard text for people to use. - Provide links to your knowledge base when you respond to tickets
Rather than just answering questions via email or online chat, provide links to your knowledge base articles. This will serve two purposes: it will drive more traffic and it will make your users more aware of your knowledge base, which will lead to a lower number of customer service tickets coming in. - Link to your knowledge base in your email newsletters or marketing campaigns
When you send a newsletter or email marketing campaign, you are already making direct content with your target audience. You can include a link to your online knowledge base in the sidebar or footer, or you can link to individual articles in the body of the email. Try both approaches to see which one works best. - Make sure your online knowledge base is mobile friendly
More and more Internet traffic is coming in through mobile devices, so make sure your knowledge base is design with mobile in mind. - Enable comments or discussion forums
Allow people to ask questions and comment on the articles in your knowledge base. This keeps users engaged and coming back to your site. If you do this, be sure to monitor the questions and comments to make sure they are useful and appropriate. - Keep your online knowledge base up-to-date
You may not be adding articles daily like some huge companies do, but make sure that articles are added and updated on a regular basis. - Use videos in addition to written content
Video is currently the secret sauce of website traffic. Especially for tutorials, consider using videos, like screencasts, instead of or in addition to written content. As an added measure, post these videos on your YouTube channel.
There is no great secret to driving more traffic to your knowledge base. In large part, the same strategies that work for the rest of your website will work here as well. These 11 ideas will give you a good start. Try them for a few articles, see what works best, and then replicate the top-performing strategies with other content from your online knowledge base.
