The FAQ or Frequently Asked Questions module is an important addition to knowledge base articles. This guide will focus on configuring and adding a FAQ section to your site.
The questions module is typically displayed on the support home page, but it’s not limited to it. You can display different question categories on different pages using shortcode or page builder modules (Elementor or Visual composer).
Here is how it typically looks on a page.
Same as other MinervaKB modules, the questions module has many configuration options available.
How is FAQ different from KB?
Compared to knowledgebase articles, FAQ questions are typically much smaller and contain the most often requested information about a product or service. While KB guides may be quite long, the FAQ answers are usually 1-2 paragraphs of text.
While MinervaKB allows using categories to group FAQ answers, often they are not needed, as all FAQ items are usually displayed on a single page in an accordion view.
Another difference from articles is because frequently asked questions typically have all content fully displayed on a support home page, they don’t have dedicated pages by default. But this can be changed in settings, if necessary.
MinervaKB FAQ overview
In MinervaKB the FAQ is a custom post type, similar to articles. This means that you can use your preferred content editor, such as Classic or Gutenberg, as well as shortcodes and content plugins to create the content.
You can add images and youtube videos in answers as well, same as in articles or blog posts.
Frequently asked questions can be organized in categories, similar to KB articles or blog posts. The category editing interface is similar as well.
When you display frequently asked questions module on the home page you can hide or display categories or pick which ones to display.
FAQ module for pages
To display the list of your questions on a page you can use any of the following options:
- FAQ shortcode [mkb-faq] (in text mode or using the shortcode builder with Classic editor)
- WordPress Gutenberg editor block
- Elementor block
- Visual Composer module
When using Gutenberg or Elementor, you can see the changes in module appearance instantly.
It’s up to you which option to use for adding a questions module to page, they all have the same configuration options available.
On-page question filter
You can display the on-page filter for questions. It works differently from the global search and only filters the questions that are displayed in the current module. Because it doesn’t contact the server, it works very quickly for the end-user.
Using KB Live Search with FAQ
Since version 1.6.8 of MinervaKB you can include frequently asked questions in KB live search results as a separate group. To allow this, go to plugin settings / Search (global) and add the appropriate section to enabled blocks.
The rules for opening matching questions in live search are as follows:
- If the question is present in the FAQ module on the same page as search, the on-page question will be opened and the content will scroll to it when the user selects the result.
- If the question is not available on the same page, but standalone FAQ pages are enabled in settings, the standalone page will be opened on click.
- If the question is not found on the page and standalone pages are disabled, the question will not be displayed in KB live search results.
Here is how FAQ matches are displayed in the knowledge base search module.
Custom sorting
Questions can be reordered using drag n drop within their categories. To enable custom sorting you need to visit plugin settings and turn the ‘Enable FAQ Drag n Drop reorder‘ switch. Next, go to KB FAQ / Sorting in the Dashboard menu and change the order of the questions, it’s very similar to KB articles reorder.