Best practices for GenAI - Articles
Article title
The titles should provide a clear description of what is included in this article. It should use words and terminology understood and used by the intended audience.
Article headings
Use headings to give GenResponses an easy way to chunk information.
Article content
- Article content should focus on a single outcome. For example, if the goal is to explain how to reset a password, the article should only include that information. If there is other information that is related but not part of the password reset outcome, it should be in a separate article.
- Language should be as simple as possible in order to reach the most varied audience. Natural, friendly language is similar to the way customers phrase their questions.
- Use descriptive words to provide as much context as possible. Context is key for generative search, so include relevant context associated with the outcome desired to explain why the article is useful.
- Context is better than keywords, because of how GenResponses groups related bits of information close to each other.
- Example: A user looking at bakery selections asks "What kinds of icing can I order?" The site content only refers to icing as "frosting" so no search results come up. In the past, content authors might have added the keyword "icing" to the end of the article (or somewhere else) without any context, in order to ensure that the page pops up in search results. Instead, to give the word contextual meaning for an LLM to identify its relevance to a query, authors should provide context. The updated content might look something like, "We offer several types of frosting and icing for our cakes, including..."
- Content should be created in short, human-readable paragraphs. This allows for easier handling of information for both humans and GenResponses. When you have short paragraphs, GenResponses can more easily retrieve the relevant information from a page. When the answer for a GenResponse query comes from more than one page, this enables the correct context to be retrieved most efficiently from all pages.
- Avoid acronyms or provide the description of the acronym within the article itself. Acronyms can be difficult for a GenAI model to manage properly. Early testing has shown that defining the acronyms both in a glossary of terms and in-line with the page content provides the best results.
- Example:
Glossary of Terms: WFH - Work from Home - This would be a page which all user types have permissions to read.
Inline: The WFH (Work from Home) policies reflect input from the employee survey.
- Example:
Content format
Tables
Create clear and easily digestible tables. Be sure to use clear definitions for headers and rows, and do not create tables within tables.
If you notice difficulty with table information, check the following:
- Are table headers under 50 characters, and 4 words or less?
- Does every cell have a value of more than 2 characters?
- Do cells contain less than 100 characters and less than 50 words?
- Are tables nested?
- Are there nested structures like
<ul>
or<ol>
in the table? - Does the table have a description of the contents and explanations of the data before the beginning of the
<table>
? Providing context is useful for GenAI.
For persistent issues with an article containing a long table, consider removing the page from the LLM index.
Example of a table that GenAI can use effectively:
Feature |
Base Bronco |
Big Bend Bronco |
---|---|---|
Cost |
2-Door: $28,500 |
2-Door: $33,385 |
Engine |
2.3L EcoBoost |
2.3L EcoBoost |
Transmission |
7-Speed Manual with Crawler Gear |
7-Speed Manual with Crawler Gear |
G.O.A.T. Modes |
Normal, ECO, Sport, Slippery, and Sand |
Normal, ECO, Sport, Slippery, Sand, and Mud/Ruts |
Wheels and Tires |
16-inch silver-painted steel wheels 30-inch P255/70R16 all-season tires |
17-inch Carbonized Gray-painted aluminum wheels 32-inch P255/75R17 all-terrain tires |
4WD System |
4x4 with part-time selectable engagement Optional: Advanced 4x4 with automatic on-demand engagement |
4x4 with part-time selectable engagement Optional: Advanced 4x4 with automatic on-demand engagement |
Content structure
Organize the body of the article using a logical structure, with clear headings and subheadings based on the topic. Use bullet points and numbered lists to support findability.
Every article is in competition to be the most relevant article for the question asked. If the topic for the question exists in multiple articles, the article you deem as being the most relevant needs to surpass the relevancy of every other article in that topic for that question.