Creating a knowledge base is one of the most impactful investments you can make in your organization's operational efficiency. A well-structured knowledge base serves as your company's single source of truth for reducing repetitive questions, preserving institutional knowledge, and enabling self-service support—a critical function, considering that 75% of organizations say preserving knowledge is important to their success.

This guide covers:

• What a knowledge base is and why it matters for modern organizations

• Seven essential steps to build one that actually gets used

• Tools and best practices that set successful implementations apart

What is a knowledge base?

A knowledge base is a centralized, digital library where organizations store and organize their collective information. It serves as your company's single source of truth for everything from HR policies to product documentation.

Key characteristics of modern knowledge bases:

• Searchable: Easy to find information quickly

• Current: Consistently updated and accurate

• Accessible: Available to the right people at the right time

• Self-service: Empowers users with trusted answers

Why is having a knowledge base important?

Having a knowledge base is crucial for businesses and organizations because it allows for the centralized storage and organization of important information and expertise. This can include customer support documentation, company policies and procedures, product information, and more. With a well-organized knowledge base, employees can easily access the information they need to perform their jobs effectively, reducing errors and improving productivity. And in today's environment, it's becoming increasingly important – after all, nearly half of employees struggle to find the information they need to do their jobs.

Additionally, a knowledge base can help to standardize processes and procedures across the organization, ensuring consistency and quality in service delivery. Ultimately, a knowledge base is a powerful tool for improving collaboration and knowledge-sharing, leading to better outcomes and improved performance—in fact, when organizations implement knowledge technologies, productivity often rises by 50 percent.

How to create a knowledge base in 7 steps

Step 1: Conduct research to determine knowledge base need

The first step is determining what specific need your knowledge base will fulfill. Identify your primary audience—employees, customers, or both—then research where the biggest knowledge gaps exist.

• What questions or topics do your employees or customers ask most often?

• What department is overwhelmed by requests for information on a consistent basis?

• What is your current response rate to employee and client questions and is that response rate getting longer?

• Is productivity within your organization falling because information can't efficiently be shared?

• What serious gaps would exist if certain company employees left the organization and took their knowledge with them? This is a significant concern, as research shows a frequent shift in roles is a common barrier to effective knowledge sharing.

The answers to those questions will help you understand if you do need a knowledge base and to begin thinking about how it should be structured.

Step 2: Determine type of knowledge base

Once you know that you need a knowledge base, determine which type best serves your needs:

1. Internal knowledge base: Designed for employees, this type houses company policies, training materials, and SOPs to support internal operations.

2. External knowledge base: Public-facing and aimed at customers, it includes FAQs, product guides, and troubleshooting content for self-service support.

3. Partner knowledge base: Tailored for external collaborators like vendors or resellers, offering resources and documentation they need to work effectively with your organization.

4. IT knowledge base: Focuses on technical support, storing documentation on system configurations, troubleshooting steps, and ticket resolutions.

5. HR knowledge base: Centralizes employee-related information like benefits, leave policies, and onboarding documents for easy access by staff.

6. Product knowledge base: Contains detailed documentation about a product's features, specifications, and usage, often created by product or support teams.

Quick selection guide:

• Choose Internal if your priority is employee productivity and process standardization

• Choose External if you want to reduce customer support tickets

• Choose IT if technical support is your main challenge

• Choose HR if employee onboarding and policies need centralization

To decide on the type of knowledge base you may want to create, think about the audience the knowledge base will serve, how accessible you want the knowledge base to be to the general public, and whether you will host the knowledge base on your company server or rely on a provider to host it.

Step 3: Develop knowledge base structure

Proper organization is crucial for knowledge base success. Users need to quickly find what they're looking for, and good structure from the start ensures scalable content organization and intuitive navigation.

There are a number of different ways you can choose to organize your knowledge base:

• User Type or Role: When you have different users or customer types, organizing your knowledge base by role is effective. Your users would be able to quickly tap into the knowledge that would be specific to them. For example, an HR knowledge base could be organized by breaking out specific information about your company with designated sections aimed at contractors, full-time employees, and part-time employees.

• Activity: If your audiences who will use the knowledge base need specific information about actions to take, organizing your knowledge base by activity works well. For example, a knowledge base for a large travel agency may be organized by activities like planning your trip, booking tickets, and contacting an agent.

• Stage/ Experience of User: When you organize by stage or the experience of the user, the user of your knowledge base is quickly able to match their needs with your information. For example, a knowledge base for an online service may be organized by stages like getting started, upgrading service, and user tutorials.

• Product Type: You could also organize your knowledge base by product type. For example, a furniture business may organize its knowledge base by living room furniture, bedroom furniture, kids' furniture, and office furniture.

Your knowledge base will constantly change as your content expands, is edited, or archived. That's why it is important to make your categories broad enough to encompass an array of content that can be subcategorized by topic or theme.

Step 4: Establish SMEs to create content

Establish a content creation workflow with subject matter experts (SMEs) and designated editors to ensure quality and accuracy, which is crucial when studies show 28% of employees believe the information they receive is not accurate. Here's an effective process:

• The knowledge base manager determines the content necessary for each category. The manager outlines the purpose of each piece of content, the primary messaging, keywords, and the call to action for each article. They also set the deadlines and are responsible for assigning content development to SMEs.

• SMEs are responsible for using their specialized knowledge to create content that follows the directions outlined by the knowledge base manager. SMEs also review edited content for accuracy.

• Editors review the content provided by SMEs and correct for spelling, grammar, style, and readability.

Because you will likely have more than one SME writing content for your knowledge base, you will need a style guide to make sure your content is consistent in look, tone, and feel regardless of who is writing or editing that content. Your marketing or communications department likely has a style guide that includes guidelines for punctuation, brand style, formatting, and more.

Step 5: Write knowledge resources

You want to be sure your content is easy to understand and that your SMEs provide that content in an efficient manner. To do both, provide them with writing directions that cover these basics:

• Clarity: Use action-based headlines to help your audience know at-a-glance what the content will explain. Explain all jargon or technical terms in clear language.

• Readability: Readers prefer content that provides information at-a-glance. That means paragraphs should be short and blocks of text should be broken up with headings, subheadings, bullets or numbered lists where applicable.

• Engagement: Include images, charts, infographics, or videos within content or as stand-alone content to increase engagement.

• Utility: Be sure to link to related articles within your knowledge base. This will help your audience easily find other resources that fully answer their questions.

• Value: Every piece of content in your knowledge base should offer a valuable solution or insight.

Step 6: Upload resources to shared platform

Choose a knowledge base platform that makes information easily accessible to users who need it. Essential platform features include:

• Search functionality: Powerful search to find information quickly

• File sharing: Easy upload and organization of documents

• Analytics: Usage reporting and content performance insights

• User feedback: Systems to gather improvement suggestions

• Scalability: Ability to grow with your organization

Step 7: Update content often

Updating content will be a regular activity in order to keep your knowledge base relevant and useful. Rely on your knowledge base software system's built-in analytics to help. The data you review will help you better understand:

• The type of information people are accessing

• How search traffic on once-popular articles changes

• When an article was first published and updated

Plan to have your SMEs review all content (on a rolling basis) throughout the year in order to update, optimize, or retire content as necessary. In addition, you should plan to update relevant content any time your company policies, products, or changes to your services.

Best practices for building a knowledge base

A well-crafted knowledge base doesn't happen by accident—it requires strategy, consistency, and ongoing care. Keep these best practices in mind:

• Write for your reader: Use plain language and avoid jargon to make content accessible. Consider the user's perspective and anticipate their questions.

• Make it searchable: Use metadata, tags, and clear headings so users can find what they need. Search optimization increases findability and minimizes frustration.

• Stay consistent: Use templates and a uniform tone of voice to ensure professionalism and clarity. Consistency helps readers trust and understand your content faster.

• Meet people where they work: Use integrations to embed knowledge into the tools your team already uses, especially since the average knowledge worker may use IM 77 times and visit more than 40 Web sites a day. This makes adoption easier and puts answers where they're most useful.

Tools to help you create a knowledge base

There's no shortage of software out there, but the best knowledge base tools make content easy to create, manage, and find. Here are a few options:

• Guru: AI-powered knowledge base software that delivers verified information into workflows. It's designed to support internal teams with trusted answers wherever they work.

• Zendesk Guide: Great for customer-facing help centers. It integrates with Zendesk Support to reduce ticket volume and improve self-service.

• Notion: Flexible workspace with simple wiki-building capabilities. Ideal for startups or teams that want a lightweight internal knowledge solution.

• Confluence: Collaborative documentation tool ideal for internal teams. Offers rich formatting and version control for structured documentation.

When choosing a tool, consider how intuitive it is, how well it integrates with your stack, and how it supports long-term content maintenance. Look for platforms that balance flexibility with governance.

Build your knowledge base with the right foundation

A great knowledge base is more than just documentation—it's a strategic asset that supports scale, reduces friction, and keeps teams aligned. By following these steps and best practices, you can build a resource that saves time and empowers users.

Ready to see how it works in action? Watch our demo to explore how Guru makes it easy to create, share, and maintain trusted knowledge.