What Is Notion Sites? Can You Build a Help Center with It?

Notion has always been a favorite tool for its all-in-one workspace capabilities, and with its recent upgrade, it's now stepping into the world of website building. But how does this new feature measure up when it comes to creating a help center? In this article, we’ll explore what Notion Sites is and whether it’s suitable for building a comprehensive help center for your customers.

What is Notion Sites?

Notion Sites builds upon Notion's existing page-building features, evolving them into a more comprehensive website creation tool. Prior to this update, users could already create simple web pages or small websites and share them publicly without needing any coding skills. This functionality made it easy to share information, but it wasn't quite a full-fledged website solution.

The introduction of Notion Sites changes this by allowing users to create more complete websites quickly and easily. It incorporates Notion’s familiar tools, enabling users to embed web content like PDFs, social media posts, and videos. Additionally, Notion’s generative AI can assist in drafting content, making it even easier to populate your site with relevant information.

Notion Sites also offers customization options for page design, the ability to create custom site domains, and a one-click publishing feature. The Template Gallery provides a variety of pre-designed templates to help users get started with minimal effort.

Content organization within Notion Sites is intuitive, using a system of pages and subpages rather than folders. This structure is akin to a collection of Post-it notes, making it easy to build a logical, well-organized help center.

Creating a Help Center with Notion Sites

Creating a help center with Notion Sites involves a few straightforward steps:

1. Template Selection: Choose a suitable template from the Template Gallery. Notion offers a variety of templates that can be tailored to fit the structure and design of a help center.

2. Content Organization: Use Notion’s page and subpage system to organize your help center. Each primary topic can be a main page with subpages covering related subtopics or specific issues.

3. Embedding Media: Enhance your help center by embedding videos, images, and other media that can provide more detailed instructions or visual aids.

4. Customization: Customize your pages to align with your brand’s look and feel. Though Notion Sites offers limited design possibilities, it ensures a clean and professional appearance.

5. Custom Domain: For a more professional touch, connect a custom domain to your help center. This feature is available for paying subscribers and adds credibility to your help center.

6. Publishing: Once your help center is ready, publish it with a single click. Notion Sites ensures your content is live and accessible to your audience.

Notion Sites: Best Use Cases for Help Centers

🌱 Early-Stage Startups

Early-stage startups often need a simple yet effective help center to support their customers. Notion Sites offers the simplicity and ease of use that startups require, allowing them to set up a help center quickly without the need for extensive resources.

🏢 Small Businesses

Small businesses can benefit from Notion Sites by creating a help center that provides customers with essential information and support. The straightforward setup and maintenance make it an ideal solution for businesses with limited technical expertise.

💼 Freelancers and Consultants

Freelancers and consultants can use Notion Sites to create a professional help center that provides clients with guidance and support. This can include onboarding documents, service explanations, and troubleshooting guides.

📝 Internal Company Documentation

Notion Sites can also be used to create internal help centers for companies, providing employees with easy access to policies, procedures, and other essential information. This improves efficiency and ensures everyone has access to the same information.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Using Notion Sites for Help Centers

➕ Strengths:

• Ease of Use: Notion Sites' intuitive interface allows for quick setup and management of help centers.

• Templates: Pre-made templates make it easy to get started and structure your help center.

• Custom Domain: Adding a custom domain gives your help center a professional appearance.

• SEO Capabilities: Basic SEO features help improve the visibility of your help center in search engines.

➖ Weaknesses:

• Limited Customization: While Notion Sites is great for basic design, it lacks advanced customization options. This can be a drawback for those who want their help center to have a unique, professional and branded look.

• Lacking Analytics Insights: Naturally you want to see how well your help articles are performing so you can take actionable steps in improving your support. Unfortunately Notion Sites does not allow you to get these insights.

• Integration Limitations: Notion Sites might not integrate seamlessly with other tools and systems that a help center may rely on, such as customer relationship management (CRM) software or live chat providers.

• Content Search Limitations: The search functionality within Notion Sites may not be as robust as dedicated help center platforms, potentially making it harder for users to find specific information quickly.

• Mobile Responsiveness: While Notion Sites is generally mobile-friendly, it may not offer the same level of optimization and customization for mobile devices that specialized help center platforms provide. It can feel quite finicky to navigate a Notion site on your phone

Optimizing Your Help Center with HelpKit

While Notion Sites provides a robust platform for creating help centers, HelpKit offers enhanced features tailored specifically for the purpose of creating customer support help centers. HelpKit transforms Notion pages into professional help desks, ensuring search engines can easily find your help articles. It includes a full-text search support, analytics, and an embeddable widget for your website, offering a seamless experience without leaving Notion. Famous certified Notion experts such as Easlo and Thomas Frank are using HelpKit for a reason.

Benefits of Using HelpKit:

• Customizable Design: Unlike Notion Sites, HelpKit provides more robust customization options, allowing you to tailor the appearance and structure of your help center to match your brand's look and feel.

• Analytics and Insights: HelpKit includes powerful analytics tools that provide insights into user behavior and content performance. This helps you understand what your users are looking for and how effectively your help center meets their needs.

• Embeddable Widget: HelpKit’s embeddable widget allows you to integrate your help center directly into your website. This feature provides instant help to your customers without requiring them to leave your site, enhancing user convenience and satisfaction.

• Seamless Integrations: HelpKit integrates seamlessly with other tools and systems your business might use, such as CRM software, analytics platforms, and ticketing systems. This ensures that your help center works smoothly with your existing workflows and tools.

• Robust SEO Capabilities: HelpKit is designed with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind, helping your help center articles rank higher in search engine results. This increases visibility and makes it easier for users to find your help articles.

• AI-Trained Chatbot Support: HelpKit supports AI-trained chatbots that can assist users by answering common questions and guiding them to the relevant articles in your help center. This reduces the workload on your support team and ensures users get quick, accurate responses.

• Comprehensive Documentation and Support: HelpKit provides extensive documentation and customer support to help you get the most out of the platform. Whether you’re setting up your help center or optimizing it for better performance, HelpKit’s resources and support team are there to assist you.

Creating a Help Center with HelpKit:

1. Setup: Go through a super simple onboarding process where you connect your Notion to HelpKit’s custom help center template.

2. Customization: Customize the appearance and structure of your help center to match your brand. Add your own company logo, brand colors and more.

3. Publish: Once everything is set up, publish your help center. If you want you can even integrate it into your website using the embeddable widget.

Notion Sites vs HelpKit

Let’s have a quick look at how HelpKit can serve as a Notion Site alternative for creating professional help desks with Notion.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  I freaking love Helpkit. We use it to host and share all the support articles for my paid Notion templates, and it's a perfect complement to our active support community.

Thomas Frank (Famous Productivity YouTuber and Notion Expert / @tomfrankly)

Conclusion

Notion Sites offers a viable solution for creating help centers, especially for those looking for simplicity and ease of use. However, for a more robust and feature-rich help center, HelpKit provides the necessary tools and integrations to enhance the user experience and improve support efficiency. By leveraging the strengths of both Notion Sites and HelpKit, you can create an effective help center that meets the needs of your audience and supports your business goals.