1. How to Optimize your Knowledge Foundation
Doug Warner
Director of Product ManagementKnowledge Foundation

2. Knowledge Optimization is a process – there is no single best approach or quick fix!
Analyze
Adjust
I will cover a few key topics, but you must apply them to your specific business needs!

3. How to evaluate effectiveness:
Analysis
How to evaluate effectiveness:
Compare ratios, focus on Answer Views
Answer Views
Tells you success stories!
Searches
Tells you only expert interactions and content failures!
Sessions
Tells you only number of visitors, not importance of interaction!
Service -> Site Reports -> Service Summary

4. Keyword search report: Review regularly!
Analysis
Keyword search report: Review regularly!
Popular Searches
Sort by search frequency, descending
Shows most important content in KB—polish these results!
Failed Searches
Sort by number of results, ascending
Shows where content is missing—look for popular searches with 0 results!
Noisy Searches
Sort by number of results, descending
Shows opportunities for tuning and content cleanup: stop words, topic words, bad aliases?
Service -> Site Reports -> Keyword Search
Define “regularly”: 1/day, 1/week, 1/month?

5. Use topic words to their full potential
Adjustment
Use topic words to their full potential
Umbrella Answers
Promote frequent landing points
Teach users how to search/access your content
Topic Word
Search Query
Web Page
Answer List
Answer 1

6. Using keywords vs. aliases
Adjustment
Using keywords vs. aliases
Less than 20% of Answers have keywords
Keywords used for universal synonyms
Aliases used for common acronyms and misspellings
Aliases entered symmetrically (A=B and B=A)
Keywords used to boost rankings
Aliases match content NOT in Answers

7. Trends to watch Emerging trend: Issues: Search is “primary”
Site search mandates
Issues:
Search is best for experts, not good for novices
Expect ↓ CSAT and ↑ Incident submissions!
Site search is outside local control
Tuning?
Emergency changes?
Popular culture is changing expectations of how to access information. The Google-world has come to expect search as the primary method for accessing content.
Search fails when domain expertise is low, such as with customer support. Browsing is more accessible to novices.
More and more corporate sites are mandating a single search interface for their entire site content. In addition to harming novices, this raises many issues that need consideration as you approach a solution.

8. Knowledge Base and Search Tune-Up
Additional Resources
Knowledge Base and Search Tune-Up
Knowledge Base Optimization

9. Questions from the Community
Q1: how to optimize a new KB
Q2: suggestions to increase our KB usage