What is a knowledge base?

A knowledge base is the set of answers to the questions people ask about your business before, while and after they buy: what it costs, how it works, how to pay, what happens if something goes wrong, how to reach you. People ask these of search engines and of AI assistants, and an assistant that cannot find your answer makes one up. The knowledge base gives both a page to quote.

It is open to every funded account. Trial and never-funded accounts see what it is and that it opens once their plan starts. English sites only for now.

How it works

1. Build it. We map the questions your customers ask, read your site and your help centre, and write the answers. See How do I build a knowledge base?.
2. Look through one list. The Answers tab lists every answer, written from your own site, by category. Every one is ticked. Untick any you don't want on your site.
3. Publish. Press Publish, then download the file for your platform or host the answers on your own subdomain. See How do I publish the knowledge base?.

Questions your site doesn't answer are listed apart, under Not in your knowledge base yet. They are optional. Answer any of them in your own words and it joins the list, or leave them; nothing waits on them.

Where the answers come from

Only from official sources of your business:

• Your site. Your policy, pricing, contact and about pages first, then the pages the top questions need.
• Your own help centre, when you have one on another host (Freshdesk, Intercom, Zendesk, a docs site). Every article is read in full. See How do I add my help centre?.
• You. Anything you type in answer to a question, saved in your own words.

Nothing comes from other businesses' FAQs, other websites, reviews, search data or what an AI assistant says. Answers never name or compare competitors.

How it stays true to your business

Every sentence in an answer comes from a quote on your pages, your help centre or your own words, kept word for word with the page it came from and the date we read it. A sentence we can't trace to one of them is cut before you see it. Prices and policies are quoted word for word from your page.

On a site about money, health, legal matters or safety, a named reviewer approves the answers before they go out.

See How are knowledge base answers checked?.

What the questions are

The question map walks a customer's journey for every service your site sells: about the business, choosing, cost and payment, how it works, results and guarantees, risks, after you buy, account and access, when something goes wrong, and general questions about your kind of service. Your site's own FAQ and the questions you add join it. Search phrases and login help are dropped. Every question keeps the evidence that people ask it.