How to Build a Knowledge Base from Scratch (Using Video)

To build a video knowledge base: plan your categories around real user questions, record short screen recordings or walkthroughs, use an AI knowledge base generator to turn each video into a written article with the video embedded, then organize everything in a searchable help center. The result? A knowledge base people actually watch, read, and use.

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Building a knowledge base sounds simple — until you're staring at a blank page trying to document 47 processes your team "just knows." Text-only articles take forever to write, go stale fast, and often miss the visual context that makes instructions actually click.

There's a better way: start with video.

This guide walks you through how to build a video knowledge base from scratch — one that combines the clarity of screen recordings with the searchability of written articles. Whether you're documenting internal processes or building a customer-facing help center, this approach saves time and produces better results.

What Is a Video Knowledge Base?

A video knowledge base is a structured collection of help articles where each article includes a video walkthrough alongside written steps. It's not a YouTube channel or a random folder of Loom recordings. It's an organized, searchable resource where video and text work together.

Think of it this way: the video shows how, the text explains what and why, and the structure makes everything findable.

The best knowledge base examples combine both formats. If you've seen what great knowledge bases look like, you'll notice the top ones always include visual content — screenshots at minimum, video ideally.

Why Video Beats Text-Only

• Faster to create. Recording a 3-minute walkthrough is faster than writing 800 words of step-by-step instructions with screenshots.
• Easier to follow. Users see exactly what to click, where to navigate, and what the result looks like.
• Higher engagement. People watch videos. Bounce rates drop when articles include embedded recordings.
• Better for complex workflows. Some processes are nearly impossible to explain in text alone.

Why You Still Need Text

Video alone isn't enough. Text makes your knowledge base:

• Searchable — search engines and internal search index text, not video content
• Scannable — users can skim to the step they need
• Accessible — screen readers, translations, low-bandwidth situations
• Updatable — changing a paragraph is easier than re-recording a video

The sweet spot is both: a video people can watch, and a written article they can scan. That's what a video knowledge base delivers.

When to Use Video vs. Written Articles

Not every article needs a video. Here's a simple framework:

Use video when:

• The process involves navigating a UI or software
• There are more than 5 steps
• Visual context matters (drag-and-drop, design tools, configurations)
• Users have repeatedly asked "can you show me?"

Text-only is fine when:

• The content is conceptual (policies, definitions, FAQs)
• It's a simple one-step answer
• The information changes frequently (pricing, feature lists)

Use both when:

• It's a core workflow your users perform regularly
• You're building customer support documentation
• The process involves technical steps that need visual + written reference

For most teams, 60–70% of knowledge base articles benefit from video. The rest work fine as text.

Step-by-Step: How to Build a Video Knowledge Base from Scratch

Step 1: Plan Your Structure and Categories

Before recording anything, map out what your knowledge base needs to cover.

Start with real questions. Pull from:

• Support tickets (what do people actually ask?)
• Internal Slack/Teams messages (what do teammates keep explaining?)
• Sales calls (what objections or confusion comes up?)
• Search analytics (what are people searching for on your site?)

Organize into categories. Common structures include:

• Getting Started / Onboarding
• Core Features / How-To Guides
• Account & Billing
• Troubleshooting
• Integrations
• FAQs

Prioritize ruthlessly. Start with 15–20 articles covering your most common questions. You can always expand later. A small, high-quality knowledge base beats a sprawling, half-finished one.

Step 2: Record Your Videos

Keep recordings short and focused. Each video should cover one topic or workflow.

Recording tips:

• Aim for 2–5 minutes. Under 2 is ideal. Over 7 and you'll lose people.
• One topic per video. "How to create a project" — not "Everything about projects."
• Clean your screen. Close notifications, hide bookmarks, use a clean browser profile.
• Talk through what you're doing. Narrate naturally — "First, I'll click Settings, then navigate to Integrations."
• Don't aim for perfection. A slightly rough recording that exists beats a polished one that doesn't.

Tools for recording:

• Screen recording: Loom, OBS, QuickTime, or your OS built-in recorder
• For SOPs and internal docs, a simple screen capture is plenty
• For customer-facing content, consider a brief intro and cleaner transitions

You don't need a studio. You need a quiet room and a clear screen.

Step 3: Turn Videos into Articles

This is where most teams get stuck. You have 20 recordings — now someone has to write 20 articles. Manually, that's days of work.

The modern approach: let AI do the heavy lifting.

An AI knowledge base generator can watch your video, extract the steps, and produce a structured article — complete with written instructions and the original video embedded at the top. Instead of transcribing and reformatting by hand, you upload a video and get a publish-ready article.

This is Vidocu's core workflow: you record (or upload) a video, and it generates the documentation. The written article includes step-by-step instructions pulled from the video, with the recording embedded so users can choose how they consume the content.

You can also turn existing videos into documentation — training recordings, webinar replays, product demos. If you've got a library of Zoom calls collecting dust, that's a goldmine of content waiting to be converted into knowledge base articles.

For teams building standard operating procedures alongside their KB, the same video-first approach works for creating SOPs from video.

Step 4: Edit and Refine

AI-generated articles are a strong first draft, not a final product. Review each article for:

• Accuracy — Does every step match your current UI?
• Completeness — Are there edge cases or prerequisites to mention?
• Tone — Does it match your brand voice?
• Links — Add cross-references to related articles

Writing guides that people actually follow is an art. If you want to level up your articles, check out how to write a how-to guide users actually follow.

Step 5: Organize and Publish

Structure matters more than most teams realize. A knowledge base with great content but terrible navigation is still a bad knowledge base.

Organization best practices:

• Use clear, descriptive category names. "Getting Started" not "Basics."
• Order articles by frequency. Most-viewed articles should be easiest to find.
• Add a search bar. Non-negotiable. Most users search, not browse.
• Cross-link related articles. "See also" links keep users in your KB instead of going back to support.
• Include a visible FAQ section. You can even generate FAQ pages from your videos to cover common questions.

Publishing platforms:

• Standalone tools: GitBook, Notion, Zendesk Guide, HelpScout
• CMS: WordPress with a KB plugin, Webflow
• Custom: Many teams build on top of their existing site

Wherever you publish, make sure videos are embedded (not linked) and articles are indexable by search engines.

Comparing Tools and Approaches

There's no single "right" tool for building a video knowledge base. Here's how the main approaches compare:

Manual (Screen Record + Write by Hand)

• Pros: Full control, no tool dependency
• Cons: Extremely time-consuming, hard to maintain
• Best for: Teams with 5–10 articles, no plans to scale

Step-Capture Tools (Scribe, Tango)

• Pros: Auto-captures clicks into screenshot-based guides
• Cons: No video, output feels robotic, limited formatting
• Best for: Internal IT documentation, simple click-through processes

Video-First with AI (Vidocu)

• Pros: Video + written article from a single recording, fast to produce, keeps video embedded
• Cons: Requires video input (you need to record first)
• Best for: Customer-facing KBs, technical writing teams, anyone who wants video + text

Documentation Platforms (GitBook, Notion, Confluence)

• Pros: Great organization and collaboration features
• Cons: No video-to-article conversion, you still write everything manually
• Best for: Text-heavy knowledge bases, internal wikis

For a broader comparison, see our roundup of the best AI documentation tools in 2026.

5 Common Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

1. Videos that are too long. Keep it under 5 minutes. If a process takes longer, split it into parts. Nobody watches a 15-minute knowledge base video.

2. No text version. Video without text means no SEO, no searchability, no accessibility. Always pair video with written steps.

3. No clear structure. Dumping 50 articles into a flat list helps nobody. Invest time in categories and navigation.

4. Trying to be perfect. A "good enough" knowledge base that exists will help more people than a perfect one that's still in planning. Ship, then improve.

5. Never updating. A knowledge base is a living resource. Schedule quarterly reviews. When your product changes, update the affected articles — re-record the video and regenerate the article if needed.

Start Building

A video knowledge base doesn't require a massive team or months of planning. Start with your top 10 most-asked questions, record a short walkthrough for each, and turn them into articles.

The video-first approach — record once, generate both the video and written article — is the fastest path from "we need a knowledge base" to "we have one."

If you want to see how it works in practice, try Vidocu for free. Upload a video, and you'll have your first knowledge base article in minutes.

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Written by Daniel Sternlicht