Before contributors can write the content for a new article, they must fill out a description. By categorizing an article like this, readers can find the article more easily. Here is how to do this.

1. The title should describe what the article shows the reader. Do not begin the title with the word “How.” Most articles show readers how to do something. If all procedural articles began with “How,” it would be difficult to alphabetize articles. Try “Joining a Conversation” rather than “How to Join a Conversation.”

   

2. The slug is the link to the article. Keep it short. The slug for “Joining a Conversation” might become “joining-conversation.”

   

3. Choose a category based on what this article is meant to do. Does this article show readers how to do something with a Firefox app? Choose How to. Does it help with a troubleshooting problem? Choose Troubleshooting.

   

4. What is this article relevant to? Does it deal with Firefox? Firefox for iOS? Firefox for Android? Choose all that apply.

   

5. In Topics there are drop down menus. If your article is relevant to Firefox, click the Firefox dropdown menu. Then click which parts of Firefox the article applies to, such as Learn the Basics, Firefox Sync and Privacy and Security Settings. Choose all that apply.

   

6. Most articles are related to other articles. Type in the beginning of the name of a related article. The computer will automatically find related articles that you can click.

   

   Warning: You should refrain from adding related documents in new articles that will be pending review. This will result in existing articles linking to unapproved articles because the links are reciprocal.

7. Add keywords. Keywords can improve search results by adding terms that are not included in the article's Search result summary.

   

   Note: It is not in your best interest to overload your keyword field with as many relevant keywords as possible. Doing so will lower the amount of points awarded to your keyword, resulting in your article's search ranking diminishing. For more information, see this article.

8. In search result summary, type in a sentence or two that explains what the article is about. Try to include keywords in those sentences. This helps search engines find the article.

   

Complete Knowledge Base Guidelines

If you're interested in editing and writing documentation, here are a few resources that should help explain how we do things:

Create new support articles

• Writing guide for Knowledge Base articles — Guide to writing techniques and styles that we use to make articles more engaging and effective. For the mechanics of actually creating or editing articles, see:
  • Create a new Knowledge Base article – Steps for creating a new article along with some sample wiki markup to get you started
  • Anatomy of a Knowledge Base article – Explains the basics of how articles are built
  • Article Description - Explains how to write description for a support article (You're here!)

Improve existing support articles

• Improve the Knowledge Base - Learn how to improve SUMO Knowledge Base
• Edit a Knowledge Base article - Steps for editing an existing article

Other guidelines

• About the Knowledge Base — An overview of the mechanics of our Knowledge Base
• Article review and approval guidelines - Reviewer guidelines for Knowledge Base
• How to make screenshots — A step-by-step guide to creating screenshots to use in articles
• Add images and screenshots to Knowledge Base articles — Explains how to add screenshots to articles
• Add images and screenshots to Knowledge Base articles — Explains how to get screenshots and other images to display correctly in articles
• Markup cheat sheet – The most commonly used wiki markup in our articles
• Markup chart — Wiki markup reference. It gives examples and shows the markup that produces them
• How to use {for} — Special wiki markup that lets us show instructions for different application versions (for example, Firefox 40) and operating systems such as Windows and Mac OS
• Using Templates — Templates are reusable pieces of content. You can include a complicated set of step-by-step instructions in multiple articles by using a template.
• When and how to use keywords to improve an article's search ranking — Explains when adding keywords to an article is appropriate
• To see more guidelines on Knowledge Base contribution, click here