Knowledge base naming conventions: from docs to FAQs

Catherine Heath | October 13, 2016

If you work in the knowledge base software industry, you definitely know what a knowledge base is. However, you will almost never come across any company publicly referring to its ‘knowledge base’ on their website. 

From the perspective of the customer, a company’s knowledge base can be called many things, and often differs according to whether you are in the B2B or B2C industry. 

You’ve probably seen a number of websites that have a link called ‘help’, which is generally tucked away in the footer or inside a menu. But have you noticed any with ‘documentation’ or ‘support’? 

We’ll go through the most common names for a company’s knowledge base on their website. 

Help / help center

On the whole, using the name ‘Help’ or ‘Help center’ means your knowledge base is aimed at B2C customers. It suggests an element of passivity on the part of the customer who needs ‘help’ from your team. 

Customers will instinctively gravitate to a link named ‘help’ because we traditionally associate it with companies providing their assistance to users. 

It also suggests that a static section of your website that has been created to deal with stock questions or queries, after something has ‘gone wrong’. 

Support

‘Customer support’ is almost interchangeable with customer service. However, the term ‘support’ is more suggestive of technology or software, and is particularly common on B2B SaaS websites. 

Calling your knowledge base ‘Support’ is more typical of companies who want to build a relationship with their customers. They will invest their resources in their agents to help customers, but with the aim to ultimately empower customers to serve themselves. 

‘Support’ also suggests a dynamic, ongoing interaction between the customer and the company, and is a more empowering and engaging name for your knowledge base than ‘help’. 

Docs / documentation

‘Docs’ or ‘Documentation’ is a common naming convention for specialist B2B companies as it is more reminiscent of software development. It implies a reference to the shared instructions for a team of experts, rather than one active party ‘helping’ the other, more passive, party, as in ‘Help’ or ‘Support’. 

It’s commonly used in more technical companies since it implies your knowledge base is the official handbook for your product or software, rather than intended for assistance when things go wrong. 

FAQs

‘FAQs’ is slightly old fashioned and is not that accurate a name if you’re building a knowledge base. ‘FAQs’ implies a static list of answers that your company decided were important a while ago and refer to a group of relatively simple queries. 

This would be fine for a B2C product website, charity website or online retailer, but not for a company with software or services so complex as to require a knowledge base. 

Your turn! 

Ultimately, whatever you decide to name your knowledge base is up to you. 

Remember, language is important and the copy you choose (ie, the words on your site) will shape your customers’ perceptions of your brand and your intentions towards them. 

If you want to build a collaborative relationship between your support team and your customers, think about naming your knowledge base ‘Support’. If you just want to offer up a relatively static list of commonly asked questions, call it ‘Help’. 

KnowlegeOwl provides sophisticated, affordable software that allows you to make your own knowledge base. Contact us at support@knowledgeowl.com today to find out more.

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