1. Overview

In Brainfish, articles serve as the foundation for answering customer queries. The Brainfish answer engine relies on well-structured, organized, and easily retrievable articles to generate accurate responses. Brainfish converts each article into textual chunks and stores them as vector embeddings (a machine-learning representation that captures textual meaning). For a customer query, the Brainfish hybrid search engine finds the best-suitable articles by combining full-text search over the article content with semantic search over the textual chunks. Poorly structured or disorganized content can result in improper chunking, leading to irrelevant answers and reduced customer satisfaction.

This document outlines best practices for optimizing articles to improve AI ranking, retrieval efficiency, and overall user experience.

2. Standardised Article Structure

Each article should follow a consistent format to enhance readability and searchability:

• Title: Use clear, specific, and keyword-rich titles (e.g., "How to Reset Your Password" instead of "Password Issues"). Avoid ambiguous titles (e.g., "Troubleshooting" or "Help"); instead use action-based titles (e.g., "How to Fix Login Errors (Incorrect Password, Locked Account, etc.)").
• Summary: Include a concise answer or key takeaways to improve AI ranking and relevance.
• Step-by-Step Instructions: Use bullet points or numbered lists for clear guidance.
• FAQs Section: Address related common questions to enhance contextual retrieval.
• Tags: Add relevant keywords, synonyms, and categories for better indexing.

Example

Title: "How to Reset Your Password on [Product Name]"

Summary: "To reset your password, go to the login page, click 'Forgot Password,' and follow the instructions in the email sent to your registered address."

Steps:

1. Visit [login page URL].
2. Click on 'Forgot Password.'
3. Enter your registered email and submit.
4. Check your inbox for a reset link.
5. Follow the link to create a new password.

FAQs:

• "What if I don't receive the reset email?"
• "Can I reset my password without email access?"

Tags: Password Reset, Account Issues, Forgot Password

3. Optimizing Article Organization

Proper organization enhances AI's ability to retrieve the most relevant content efficiently. A well-defined taxonomy improves article discovery:

• Logical Grouping: Organize articles into clear collections (e.g., Billing Issues, Order Tracking).
• Cross-Link Related Articles: Including related-article links in the article helps customers navigate seamlessly and helps the answer engine proactively suggest next steps. Ensure that links use descriptive anchor text (e.g., "Learn how to reset your password" instead of "Click here").

4. Embedding Friendly Language

Brainfish uses vector embeddings to understand text meaning, and writing with embedding-friendly language improves retrieval accuracy. Techniques for embedding-friendly article creation:

• Write concise, factual, and direct statements (avoid overly complex sentence structures).
• Use keywords naturally within explanations.
• Avoid generic phrasing and be specific in your explanations.

Example

A complex sentence like

"To change your account password, you need to navigate to the account settings, locate the password section, and proceed with the reset process."

can be replaced by an embedding-friendly sentence like

"To change your password, go to Account Settings > Password > Reset."

5. Follow-up Questions

Brainfish uses retrieved articles for the customer queries to generate follow-up questions. To improve the follow-up questions, try to include:

• Related FAQs: Add a Frequently Asked Questions section related to the article and include questions based on next possible actions. (E.g., for an article like "How to reset your password," include an FAQ like "What to do if you can't access your email?")
• Related Links: Use descriptive related links in order to point out the next steps.

Example

A step like the one below can be improved by adding a "Didn't get the email?" related FAQ along with a descriptive "Troubleshooting Password Reset Email Issues" link.

Step 1: Enter Your Registered Email

1. Type in the email address linked to your account.
2. Click "Send Reset Link."
3. Check your inbox for an email with the reset link.

Didn't get the email? Troubleshooting Password Reset Email Issues.

6. Platform Specific Articles

When you have similar content for different platforms (e.g., website or mobile app), the structure should be optimized to ensure efficient content retrieval. Some tips to follow:

• If instructions are mostly similar for all platforms, keep them in a combined article to maintain a single source of truth.
• If instructions differ significantly between platforms, create separate platform-specific articles and follow the general article guidelines explained in the sections above.
• For combined articles:
  • Add platform-specific sections.
  • Include platform-specific keywords and tags within each section.
  • Include platform-specific descriptive cross-links within each section.

Example

Here is an example of a combined article with platform-specific sections:

Step 1: Go to the Password Reset Page

For Web:

1. Visit the Login Page.
2. Click "Forgot Password?"
3. Enter your email and click "Send Reset Link."

Keywords: Password Reset, Web Login Issues, Account Recovery

Related: What to Do If You Can't Access Your Email

For Mobile App:

1. Open the [Your App Name].
2. Tap "Forgot Password?" on the login screen.
3. Enter your email and follow the on-screen instructions.

Keywords: Password Reset, Mobile Login Issues, App Authentication

Related: How to Secure Your Account with Two-Factor Authentication

7. Content Deprioritization

Content deprioritization refers to the process where certain articles or information get ranked lower or are less likely to be retrieved. This means that even if an article exists, it might not be suggested, retrieved, or ranked as highly as other content. This will generally happen for multi-platform articles with almost similar content but aimed at different platforms (e.g., mobile or web). It happens for the following reasons:

• Generalised Articles: If an article doesn't specify targeted use-case differences clearly, the answer engine may consider it too generic and prefer a more specific article. To fix this:
  • Clearly mention the targeted use case in the title, headings, and keywords.
  • Combine the articles into a single article with targeted-use-case-oriented sections if the contents are mostly similar.
• Lack of Keywords: If targeted-use-case-specific keywords are missing in an article, answer generation will give preference to keyword-rich articles. Fix this by adding tags, keywords, and synonyms specific to the article.

Example

An article like the one below can be easily deprioritized due to generic content and lack of keywords if a specific article is present in the knowledge base related to the same topic (e.g., "How to Reset Password in Mobile App"):

How to Reset Password

1. Open the app and click "Forgot Password?"
2. Follow the on-screen instructions.

To avoid deprioritization, the article can be updated like below:

How to Reset Password (For Web & Mobile)

For Web (Desktop/Laptop)

• Open your browser and visit the Login Page.
• Click "Forgot Password?"
• Follow the website instructions to reset your password.

For Mobile App (iOS & Android)

• Open the [Your App Name] on iPhone or Android.
• Tap "Forgot Password?"
• Follow the in-app instructions to reset your password.

8. Final Thoughts

• An effective article management strategy improves AI accuracy and ensures accurate, timely, and helpful responses to customers.
• By combining structured writing, organized articles, and embedding-friendly language, you can build an efficient knowledge base that eases the AI retrieval process.
• Follow-up questions can be improved by related FAQs and links.
• Multi-platform content should be placed into a single article if contents are mostly similar.