How to SEO a knowledge base article

Optimising your tawk.to Knowledge Base articles for search engines (SEO) is crucial to ensure your customers can easily find the information they need, and to potentially attract new users to your brand. While tawk.to handles some technical SEO aspects, there's a lot you can do within the article creation process.

Here's how to SEO an article within tawk.to:

1. Keyword Research:

· Identify relevant keywords: Before you write, think about what words and phrases your customers would use to search for the information your article provides.

· Long-tail keywords: Don't just focus on short, general keywords. Longer, more specific phrases (e.g., "how to reset password on tawk.to" instead of just "reset password") often have less competition and higher intent.

· Use your existing data: Look at your tawk.to Knowledge Base reports (under "Searches") to see what terms your customers are already searching for within your help center. This is a goldmine for identifying content gaps and popular queries.

· Competitor analysis: See what keywords your competitors' knowledge bases are ranking for.

2. Optimise Your Article Elements within tawk.to:

· Title (H1):

o Include your primary keyword: Place your main keyword or key phrase as close to the beginning of the title as possible.

o Make it descriptive and engaging: The title is the first thing users see in search results, so make it clear what the article is about and entice them to click.

o Keep it concise: While there's no strict character limit, aim for around 55-60 characters to ensure it displays fully in Google search results.

o Where to find in tawk.to: This is the main "Title" field when creating or editing an article.

· Subtitle (Optional, but useful):

o Use the subtitle to provide a bit more context or an additional keyword if it flows naturally.

o Where to find in tawk.to: This is the "Subtitle" field when creating or editing an article.

· Slug (URL):

o Include your primary keyword: The slug (the part of the URL after your domain, e.g., yourname.tawk.help/how-to-reset-password) should be concise and contain your main keyword, separated by hyphens.

o Keep it short and readable: Avoid unnecessary words.

o Where to find in tawk.to: The slug is automatically generated from your title, but you can edit it in the left-hand menu when creating/editing an article.

· Meta Description:

o Summarise your article: Write a compelling, 155-160 character summary that accurately describes the article's content and includes your main keywords.

o Encourage clicks: This is often what users see under your title in search results, so make it enticing.

o Where to find in tawk.to: This is a dedicated field in the left-hand menu when creating/editing an article.

· Content (Body of the article):

o Keyword density (natural usage): Don't keyword stuff! Integrate your primary and secondary keywords naturally throughout the article. Google prioritizes content that is helpful and relevant to users, not just full of keywords.

o Headings and subheadings (H2, H3, etc.):

§ Break up your content with headings and subheadings. This improves readability for users and helps search engines understand the structure and topics of your article.

§ Include keywords in your headings where it makes sense.

§ Where to find in tawk.to: Use the "Header" block type (H1, H2, H3, etc.) in the article editor.

o Readability:

§ Use short paragraphs.

§ Use bullet points and numbered lists to make information easy to digest and scan.

§ Avoid jargon where possible, or explain it clearly.

§ Write in a clear, concise, and active voice.

o Answer the user's intent: Focus on comprehensively answering the question or solving the problem your target keyword addresses.

o Add images and videos: Visuals make your articles more engaging and can help clarify complex steps.

§ Image Alt Text: Crucially, add descriptive alt text to all your images. This helps search engines understand what the image is about (as they can't "see" it) and also improves accessibility for users with visual impairments.

§ Where to find in tawk.to: When you add an image block, you should have an option to add alt text.

· Internal Linking:

o Link to other relevant articles: When appropriate, link to other articles within your tawk.to Knowledge Base. This helps users navigate your help center, keeps them on your site longer, and tells search engines that your articles are related and authoritative.

o Use descriptive anchor text: Instead of linking with "click here," use descriptive text that includes keywords (e.g., "learn more about setting up your tawk.to chat widget").

o Where to find in tawk.to: You can easily highlight text and create internal links to other articles. There's also a "Related Articles" section you can use at the bottom of your article.

· External Linking (Judiciously):

o Linking to highly authoritative external sources (if relevant and valuable) can sometimes signal to search engines that your content is well-researched.

· Categories:

o Organize your articles into logical categories. This helps users navigate and improves the overall structure of your Knowledge Base, which is beneficial for SEO.

o Where to find in tawk.to: When creating/editing an article, you can assign it to one or more categories.

3. Beyond the Article - Overall Knowledge Base SEO:

· Custom Domain (Paid Add-on): While tawk.to provides a subdomain (yourname.tawk.help), using your own custom domain (e.g., help.yourcompany.com) is generally better for branding and SEO authority.

· Mobile-friendliness: tawk.to Knowledge Bases are inherently responsive, which is excellent for SEO, as Google prioritizes mobile-first indexing.

· Site Speed: tawk.to handles the hosting and optimizes for speed, which is a significant SEO factor.

· Sitemap and Robots.txt: tawk.to automatically generates and manages these for your Knowledge Base, helping search engines crawl and index your content efficiently.

· Monitor Performance:

o Google Search Console: Connect your Knowledge Base to Google Search Console to monitor how your articles are performing in search results, identify crawl errors, and see what keywords users are searching for to find your content.

o tawk.to Reports: Use the built-in "Knowledge Base" reports in your tawk.to dashboard to see article views, search queries, and feedback, which can inform your SEO strategy.

o Feedback: Pay attention to user feedback on articles (thumbs up/down). Low scores might indicate that an article isn't meeting user needs, which could affect its long-term search performance. Update unhelpful articles.

Key Principle for Knowledge Base SEO:

Always remember that the primary goal of your Knowledge Base is to help your users. Focus on creating high-quality, comprehensive, and easy-to-understand content. When you provide value to your users, you're naturally doing a lot of what search engines want to see. SEO is about making that valuable content discoverable.