Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid When Building an External Knowledge Base

An external knowledge base is often the first place users go to find help. 

Whether they’re troubleshooting an issue, trying to understand an unfamiliar feature, or referencing technical documentation, a well-built and maintained knowledge base can improve customer satisfaction, decrease support ticket volume, and even drive conversions. 

But not all knowledge bases deliver those results. 

Building and managing a knowledge base requires a significant amount of time and effort. It’s often the first thing to get deprioritized, especially for small support teams stretched thin. I’ve seen this over and over again in my time working in customer support.

The good news is that by being proactive, you can keep your knowledge base up-to-date and make it a high-performing extension of your team. 

If you’re new to building or managing a knowledge base, don’t worry. In this article, we’ll break down the top mistakes to avoid when building an external knowledge base and share tips for how to do it right.

What Is an External Knowledge Base? 

An external knowledge base is an online self-service repository of information intended for customers, users, and the general public.

A knowledge base typically contains onboarding guides, product documentation, troubleshooting tips, FAQs, and video tutorials. 

Unlike an internal knowledge base, which is designed to serve employees, external knowledge bases require special attention to clarity, usability, and search engine optimization (SEO).

Many companies make their knowledge bases accessible via URLs such as “help.company_name.com” or “support.company_name.com”. 

Example: The Swifteq knowledge base can be found at support.swifteq.com, and it’s used to help our users install our Zendesk apps and share FAQs.

10 Mistakes to Avoid When Building an External Knowledge Base

Creating a high-performing knowledge base takes more than simply writing articles, and if you’re not careful, you might miss some critical steps along the way. 

Here are some pitfalls to avoid if you’re responsible for building and maintaining your external knowledge base.

1. Fluff and confusing articles

Customers come to your knowledge base for clarity, not marketing copy, mysterious acronyms, or vague language.

Articles packed with filler text, buzzwords, or generic content will frustrate users who want the details quickly.

The result? Users who are stuck on a question or problem waste valuable time trying to find answers on their own, only to end up reaching out to support in the end. 

By the time they reach out to support, they’re already frustrated after unsuccessfully trying to find help on their own.

Tip: Get straight to the point. Use short sentences, active voice, and clear steps. A good article should answer a user’s question in under 3 minutes of reading. Create a style guide for all writers to follow, ensuring consistency and well-written content.

2. Poorly structured information

A poorly structured knowledge base is like being dropped into a cluttered attic with no labels, no map, and no flashlight. 

You know the answer is in there somewhere, but good luck finding it.

Having great and well-written articles means nothing if your customers can’t find them. 

There are several ways to approach this, and it requires a thorough understanding of both the users and your product to create a logical structure. 

Tip: Organize content by product area, user journey stage (getting started, troubleshooting, advanced configuration), or task type. Use clear, nested categories and a breadcrumb trail to help users easily navigate and orient themselves. 

Here’s an example of Intercom’s knowledge base, broken up into clear and simple categories.

3. Outdated content

Your external knowledge base has to evolve in response to changes in your product. 

Otherwise, your users will walk away frustrated as they navigate outdated content, broken links, and irrelevant information. Outdated content damages trust and sends the message that your support team doesn’t prioritize the user experience. 

It can also create habits where customers skip checking your documentation (because they don’t trust it), thereby bogging down your support team with requests that could otherwise be handled through self-service content in your knowledge base. 

Tip: Schedule regular content reviews, especially after product updates. Treat your knowledge base as an extension of your product and use feedback widgets so users can flag outdated or unhelpful articles.

4. Poor UX design

If your knowledge base is meant to supplement your product and improve the user experience, why would you tolerate a subpar UX in your knowledge base? 

You shouldn’t. 

Every web page has a UX. Your knowledge base is a digital experience just like your product. Maybe the layout is cluttered, difficult to read, and hard to navigate. Or perhaps the mobile design is broken with a ton of wasted space.

Before launching your knowledge base, take some time to evaluate the user experience:

• Is it easy to navigate?

• Does it serve practical purposes?

• Is it accessible across various devices?

• Does the content interlink appropriately?

• Would you be happy to use it if you were a customer? 

Tip: Invest in clean, responsive design. Stick to one or two font sizes, and keep layouts simple. Partner with an experienced UI or UX designer to ensure you deliver a knowledge base your users truly value, and one that represents your brand.

5. Poorly formatted articles

Walls of text are hard to scan. 

Without proper formatting, even the most detailed content can become overwhelming.

Your knowledge base articles should follow a consistent format and style. If multiple team members are contributing, consider an approval process and create a style guide to ensure that every article is consistent in its appearance and style. 

Consistency builds trust and makes content easier to scan and understand.

Tip: Break content into sections with headers. User numbered steps for instructions, include screenshots or GIFs, and highlight key info with callout boxes. 

Slack’s knowledge base is peppered with call-out boxes throughout to highlight important information. 

6. Complicated structure 

Users should be able to find answers in 2-3 clicks. 

Deep, complex folder structures or inconsistent categorization are major usability blockers. 

Consider the hierarchy of your product navigation and how that might influence the structure of your external knowledge base. Navigating your knowledge base should feel intuitive and familiar, mirroring how users already think about and move through your product. 

When your knowledge base has a logical structure that aligns with your product or the user journey, users are more likely to find what they need without friction. 

A well-structured knowledge base makes self-service help more seamless.

Tip: Watch how users navigate using heatmaps or session replays. Test your knowledge base structure by asking someone new to find a specific answer. If it takes longer than a minute, it’s too complex.

7. Poor searchability

Most users start navigating your knowledge base by typing in a keyword or phrase. 

If your search functionality is weak or poorly optimized, it’s highly likely they’ll just bounce. 

For example, your search results might be irrelevant or slow to load. Your customers might use different terminology to yours. Or you might have low click-through rates because titles are either not descriptive or not specific enough. 

Poor searchability is a huge mistake when it comes to building and maintaining an external knowledge base.

A strong search function should be fast, intuitive, and capable of handling misspellings and synonyms.

It should surface the most relevant results first and offer filters to help users narrow down their search. 

Without this, even the best-written articles become buried and underutilized, defeating the purpose of having a knowledge base in the first place.

Tip: Use a search engine that supports keyword variations, fuzzy matching, and article ranking. Monitor what users search for and refine content based on gaps. Make this a part of your regular knowledge base audit.

Zendesk’s knowledge base is set up so it can start searching as soon as you start typing to make this fast and easy.

8. Missing or hard to find contact info

While a knowledge base should reduce the number of support tickets, you don’t want to hide your contact information.

 If users can’t find an answer, their next step is likely to be contacting you. Make it easy for them to reach out for help, don’t lead them to a dead end.

There are a few scenarios where it’s really easy to give the impression that it’s hard to contact you. 

For example, you might require customers to be logged in to reach out, so the only contact option is in your product. Or you might only display contact information on your main website, forcing users to navigate away from the knowledge base entirely.

Another common mistake is burying contact details in a generic "About" or "Company" page rather than making them prominently accessible from every knowledge base article.

Instead, treat your contact options as part of the support journey. 

Tip: Make contact options contextual and visible. Add a "Still need help?" section at the bottom of each article with direct links to your support channels. Users who've just read an article but still need assistance shouldn't have to hunt for ways to reach you.

9. Ignoring SEO

SEO might not be the first thing you think of when writing a knowledge base article. Good SEO in your knowledge base can not only help existing customers find answers, but also help potential customers find you. 

Existing customers might use Google for their search queries, even though they’re familiar with your knowledge base. As they search for help and find results from your knowledge base, it drives them back to your product and strengthens the trust in your brand. 

Likewise, as non-customers search for questions and come across your knowledge base content, it introduces them to your brand, driving more recognition as a trusted resource. 

Tip: Optimize titles, meta descriptions, and URLs for maximum impact. Use your target keyword naturally throughout the article. Add alt text to images and link related content. 

10. Dysfunctional team collaboration

Content creation is a team sport that often involves (and sometimes requires) collaboration from product managers, marketers, and support agents. 

A lack of collaboration can create a ton of problems. 

• That might be duplicate work because two people start preparing articles for the same release. 

• It could be outdated content because no one realizes they’re responsible for updating the content. 

• It might even result in incorrect information being published because the product team makes changes to a feature while it’s in development without sharing that with the support team. 

• It also often results in content gaps where each person only prepares content that’s relevant to them without considering the whole customer journey. 

Without clear workflows and shared ownership, teams may operate in silos, creating content in isolation, which obviously limits collaboration and productivity. 

That’s a sure-fire way to have inconsistent tone and a lot of confusion for your customers. 

Strong collaboration helps unify the voice of your knowledge base, ensures that subject matter experts weigh in where needed, and keeps content aligned with evolving customer journeys.

Tip: Use a shared workspace or project tracker, such as Notion or Trello, to keep track of new content that needs to be added, existing content that requires updates, and other tasks related to managing your external knowledge base. 

Don’t Let Your Knowledge Base Become a Chore

A well-crafted and curated external knowledge base is an extension of your product and brand. 

When it’s thoughtfully structured, kept up to date, and easy to search, it empowers users to solve problems quickly and confidently.

Failure to maintain your knowledge base creates a mountain of cleanup work for you and your team.  

Avoid the common mistakes that lead to customers abandoning your help center. Treat your knowledge base like a product worth investing in, and use it to enhance the user experience across all channels. 

If you build it right, your users will thank you. Not with tickets, but with stronger trust and loyalty in your brand.

Swifteq builds tools to help support teams manage their external knowledge base at scale. With Swifteq, you can find and replace text across all articles, translate content, and measure help center performance.

Interested in learning more? Schedule a demo today!

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Written by Jake Bartlett

Jake Bartlett is a writer for tech companies and customer-centric businesses. He has 13 years of experience working in customer support and success, across various roles. You can find out more about Jake on his website.