How to Collect Helpful Article Feedback

SoftwareRoad Knowledge Base can ask visitors whether an article answered their question.

A simple feedback prompt appears near the bottom of the article with Yes and No buttons.

The results are recorded in the knowledge base analytics, helping you see which guides are working well and which ones may need improving.

Enable article feedback

To enable the feedback prompt:

1. Sign in to your WordPress dashboard.
2. Open Knowledge Base > Settings.
3. Select the Articles or Features tab.
4. Find the article helpful feedback option.
5. Enable it.
6. Change the feedback wording if required.
7. Select Save Changes.

Open a published article afterwards and scroll to the bottom to check that the question appears.

What visitors see

The feedback area usually contains a short question followed by two buttons.

For example:

Was this article helpful?

• Yes
• No

Visitors can select the answer that best reflects their experience.

The feature is deliberately simple so that someone can respond without completing a form or writing a message.

Change the feedback question

You can change the wording shown above the buttons.

Examples include:

• Was this article helpful?
• Did this guide answer your question?
• Did you find what you needed?
• Was this information useful?
• Did this article solve the problem?

Keep the question short and easy to answer with Yes or No.

Avoid asking several questions at once.

For example:

Was this article clear, accurate and easy to follow?

could be difficult to answer if the article was accurate but not easy to understand.

Change the Yes and No wording

Depending on your plugin version, you may be able to customise the button labels.

Simple labels normally work best:

• Yes
• No

Other possible wording includes:

• Helpful
• Not Helpful

or:

• It Helped
• It Did Not Help

Make sure both choices are clear and balanced.

Avoid making the positive option much more prominent than the negative one.

Where the feedback section appears

The helpful feedback prompt appears near the end of a published knowledge base article.

It may be shown alongside other article features such as:

• Social sharing
• Recommended Articles
• Related Articles
• The support help box

The exact position depends on the article layout and the features you have enabled.

How feedback is recorded

When a visitor selects Yes or No, SoftwareRoad Knowledge Base updates the feedback totals connected to that article.

The result is then available from the Analytics area in the WordPress dashboard.

The visitor does not need to provide:

• Their name
• Their email address
• A user account
• A written explanation

The feature is intended to provide a simple overall indication of article usefulness.

Open the feedback analytics

To review the results:

1. Open Knowledge Base > Analytics.
2. Find the Article Feedback or Helpful Feedback section.
3. Review the Yes and No totals for each article.
4. Compare articles with similar levels of traffic.
5. Open any article that appears to need attention.

Depending on the analytics layout, the results may also include a helpfulness percentage.

Understanding the totals

An article could show results such as:

• Yes: 18
• No: 2

This suggests that most visitors who responded found the article useful.

Another article might show:

• Yes: 4
• No: 7

This does not automatically mean the entire article is poor, but it is a good reason to review it.

Look at the article itself and consider what visitors may have struggled with.

Understanding the helpfulness percentage

If a helpfulness percentage is displayed, it is based on the positive and negative responses received.

For example:

• 8 Yes votes
• 2 No votes
• 80% helpful

An article with only one Yes response could show 100%, but that is not enough information to judge the guide confidently.

Pay attention to the number of responses as well as the percentage.

Do not judge an article from one vote

A single negative response may be caused by many things.

The visitor may have:

• Opened the wrong article
• Had a different problem
• Missed an important step
• Used an older version of the product
• Expected a feature the guide does not cover
• Selected the wrong button accidentally

Look for patterns rather than reacting to every individual vote.

An article receiving several negative responses over time is more useful evidence than one isolated result.

Compare feedback with article views

Feedback is easier to understand when it is considered alongside article views.

For example:

Article A

• 1,000 views
• 8 No votes

Article B

• 40 views
• 8 No votes

The second article is likely to need attention more urgently because a much larger proportion of its readers responded negatively.

Use both Article Views and Helpful Feedback analytics when deciding what to improve.

Check search analytics as well

Search Analytics can provide more context.

For example, visitors may repeatedly search for:

licence details not recognised

and then leave negative feedback on the activation article.

This may indicate that the article:

• Does not cover that error clearly
• Uses different wording from visitors
• Places the answer too far down the page
• Needs a separate troubleshooting guide
• Links to outdated instructions

Looking at feedback and search data together can reveal more than either report on its own.

How to improve an article with negative feedback

When an article receives several No votes, read it as though you are a new visitor.

Check whether:

• The title matches the actual content
• The first paragraph explains what the guide covers
• The steps are in the correct order
• Button and menu names match the current plugin
• Screenshots are still accurate
• Important warnings appear before the related step
• Error messages are covered
• The article uses clear headings
• Links still work
• The answer is easy to find

Small improvements can make a large difference.

Make the answer easier to find

Sometimes the information is present, but visitors cannot find it quickly.

You can improve this by:

• Adding a table of contents
• Using clearer Heading 2 sections
• Moving the main answer nearer the top
• Shortening long introductions
• Adding a troubleshooting section
• Using the same wording visitors search for
• Breaking long paragraphs into clear steps

Visitors often open a knowledge base article because they want one specific answer.

Make that answer easy to locate.

Check whether the article is too broad

A guide covering several unrelated tasks may receive negative feedback because visitors have to search through too much information.

For example, one article covering installation, activation, design settings, analytics and licence errors may be difficult to use.

It may be better to create separate articles such as:

• How to Install SoftwareRoad Knowledge Base
• How to Activate SoftwareRoad Knowledge Base
• How to Customise the Knowledge Base Design
• Fix Licence Details Not Recognised

Focused guides are easier to search, maintain and understand.

Check whether the article is too short

A very brief article may not answer the visitor’s full question.

If an article explains where a setting is located but not how to use it, consider adding:

• Clear steps
• Examples
• Expected results
• Common mistakes
• Troubleshooting information
• Mobile checks
• Links to other relevant parts of the knowledge base

Do not add text simply to make the article longer. Add information that helps someone complete the task.

Review outdated instructions

Negative feedback can increase after a plugin or website update changes:

• Menu names
• Setting locations
• Button labels
• Screenshots
• Licence behaviour
• Page layouts
• Available options

Review articles after important SoftwareRoad Knowledge Base updates.

Update the instructions and modified date when something has genuinely changed.

Use clear article titles

A visitor may select No because the article did not cover what they expected from the title.

For example:

Knowledge Base Search

is quite broad.

A clearer title would be:

How to Customise Knowledge Base Search

The more specific title sets a clearer expectation before the article is opened.

Can visitors leave written comments?

The helpful feedback feature is based on the Yes and No buttons.

It does not require the visitor to submit a written explanation.

This keeps the process quick and avoids collecting unnecessary personal information.

If you need detailed reports, use the help box to link visitors to your support or contact page.

Add a support option after the feedback area

A visitor who selects No may still need help.

Make sure your article layout includes a clear next step, such as:

• A support help box
• A contact page link
• Related troubleshooting articles
• A recommended guide
• A compact knowledge base search

The feedback buttons tell you that the article may not have helped, but the visitor should also have somewhere useful to go next.

Feedback and visitor privacy

Helpful feedback can be recorded without asking visitors for names or email addresses.

It is used to update the Yes and No totals for the article.

Review the SoftwareRoad Knowledge Base privacy settings and make sure your website privacy information reflects the analytics features you have enabled.

If you use the optional privacy access gate, visitors may need to accept your privacy notice before accessing the knowledge base.

Feedback from signed-in administrators

While testing, your own response may be handled differently when you are signed in with permission to manage the knowledge base.

For the most accurate public test:

1. Open a private browser window.
2. Visit a published article.
3. Select Yes or No.
4. Return to the Analytics area.
5. Check whether the total updates.

Clear any page or analytics cache if the result does not appear immediately.

Test the feedback buttons

After enabling the feature:

1. Open a published article while signed out.
2. Scroll to the feedback question.
3. Select Yes.
4. Check that the button responds.
5. Open the Analytics dashboard.
6. Confirm that the article total has changed.
7. Repeat the test with another article and No if needed.
8. Check the layout on mobile.

Use test responses carefully so they do not significantly affect your real feedback totals.

The feedback section is not showing

If the question is missing, check that:

• Helpful Article Feedback is enabled
• The settings were saved
• You are viewing a published knowledge base article
• Your SoftwareRoad Knowledge Base licence is active
• The article page has been refreshed
• The website cache has been cleared

The section will not normally appear on the knowledge base homepage or category pages.

The buttons do not respond

If selecting Yes or No does nothing:

1. Reload the article.
2. Test while signed out.
3. Clear the WordPress cache.
4. Clear any script optimisation cache.
5. Check for JavaScript errors.
6. Temporarily disable settings that delay JavaScript.
7. Test using another browser.

The feedback buttons need JavaScript to send and display the result.

A script error elsewhere on the page may prevent them from working.

Feedback is not appearing in Analytics

Check that:

• The vote was submitted successfully
• You are viewing the correct analytics section
• The correct article is being checked
• Analytics features are enabled
• The licence is active
• The dashboard cache has been refreshed

Try submitting a test response while signed out and reload the Analytics page.

The same person can vote more than once

The feedback feature is intended to provide a useful indication rather than act as a secure voting system.

Browser behaviour, cleared storage or different devices may allow someone to submit another response.

Do not treat the totals as a formal survey.

Use them as one source of information alongside:

• Article views
• Search analytics
• Support questions
• Customer emails
• Common troubleshooting requests

An article has no feedback

No feedback does not necessarily mean the article is unhelpful.

Visitors may read the guide and leave without selecting either button.

Articles with lower traffic may also take longer to collect responses.

You can encourage participation by using a clear question and keeping the feedback area visible without making it intrusive.

Feedback totals are low

Low participation is normal for a simple feedback feature.

To improve the chances of receiving responses:

• Keep the question short
• Use clear Yes and No buttons
• Place the prompt directly after the article
• Avoid surrounding it with too many other sections
• Make sure the buttons work well on mobile
• Keep the article page fast and easy to use

Do not repeatedly interrupt visitors or require a response.

The feedback percentage suddenly changes

Percentages can change sharply when an article only has a small number of votes.

For example:

• 1 Yes and 0 No equals 100% helpful
• Adding 1 No changes it to 50% helpful

As more responses are recorded, the percentage becomes less affected by each individual vote.

Always check the response total before drawing a conclusion.

Check the feedback layout on mobile

On a phone or tablet, make sure that:

• The question is easy to read
• Yes and No buttons are easy to tap
• The buttons do not overlap
• The section fits within the screen
• The support help box remains accessible
• The feedback area does not feel crowded

The buttons may appear side by side or stack depending on the available space.

Disable article feedback

To remove the prompt:

1. Open Knowledge Base > Settings.
2. Select the relevant Articles or Features tab.
3. Disable Helpful Article Feedback.
4. Select Save Changes.
5. Clear the website cache if needed.

Disabling the public prompt does not require you to delete your articles.

Previously recorded analytics may remain available in the dashboard.

Helpful feedback checklist

Before finishing, check that:

• Article feedback is enabled
• The question is clear
• The buttons are easy to understand
• Responses appear in Analytics
• The section works while signed out
• Article views are considered alongside feedback
• Negative results are reviewed for patterns
• Outdated instructions are updated
• Visitors have another support option
• Privacy information reflects the enabled analytics
• The buttons work on desktop and mobile

You can now use helpful article feedback to identify which guides are answering visitors’ questions and which ones may need more attention.