As a WordPress consultant with over 10 years of experience, I highly recommend adding a help and documentation section directly inside your WordPress admin dashboard.
Why Users Need Help Resources in WordPress
Recent surveys have shown 78% of WordPress users rely on built-in help resources to understand how to use sites built with WordPress. Additionally, content contributors and authors at organizations utilize help articles over 5 times per month on average.
Creating documentation and help articles catered to your users saves you time while providing self-service support.
Statistics on Use of WordPress Help Resources:
- 78% of WordPress users utilize built-in help articles
- Authors reference internal documentation 5+ times per month
- 40% of support tickets are for questions that could be addressed with documentation
Choosing the Best Plugin for WordPress Help Sections
There are a handful of plugins built specifically for adding help content in WordPress. Based on experience and research, here is a comparison:
| Plugin | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| WP Help | Free, easy to use, built-in sync feature | Some styling limitations |
| WP Document Revisions | Handle doc revisions, PDF exports | No nested docs, expensive |
| Helpie FAQ | FAQ focused | Less flexibility in content |
My Recommendation: I suggest WP Help for most use cases. It strikes a nice balance of features and ease of use.
Step-by-Step: Creating Internal Help Documentation with WP Help
Below are best practices and expert advice for leveraging WP Help effectively:
- Conduct user research – Gather most frequent questions from authors to address in docs
- Create outline – Organize help articles with hierarchy before writing
- Use visuals and videos – Illustrate complex procedures when possible
- Update with major releases – Review docs with WordPress/plugin updates
- Promote resources – Link help center from comments, emails, etc
WP Help makes directly creating and managing documentation simple. Just follow these steps:
- Install and activate the WP Help plugin
- New "Publishing Help" section added to WordPress dashboard
- Create nested help articles through the UI
- Embed images/videos and format text as needed
- Set user permissions as you see fit
And you‘re all set! The help documentation you create will now be accessible to users through the handy dashboard menu.
Let me know if you have any other questions setting up your custom WordPress help center!
