How to Link Related SOPs, Guides, and External Docs
Learn how to connect how-to guides to related SOPs, external tools, and cross-KB articles so readers always find the full context they need.
Linking is one of the most valuable habits you can build as a knowledge base contributor. When you connect a guide to the other articles, SOPs, and external resources that surround its topic, you give readers a complete picture without forcing yourself to duplicate content across multiple places. This page explains the types of links available to you, how to add them in the editor, and how to keep your linked content healthy over time.
Why Linking Matters
Every guide you write exists in a context. A how-to on requesting database access sits next to an SOP that governs data access policy. A setup guide for a third-party tool relates to the vendor's own documentation. A walkthrough for an internal process connects to the team's broader onboarding checklist.
When you surface those connections explicitly — through inline links, related-content panels, and tags — readers can navigate that context naturally. They don't have to open a new search and hope they find the right article; they follow the thread you've laid out for them. The result is a knowledge base that behaves like a web of understanding rather than a collection of isolated documents.
The other benefit is keeping your content DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself). Instead of copying a paragraph from one guide into another, you link to the source of truth. When that source gets updated, every guide pointing to it benefits automatically — without you having to remember every place you pasted the text.
Types of Links You Can Add
There are three categories of links available in the guide editor, each serving a distinct purpose.
1. Internal links — other guides and SOPs in the Internal KB
Internal links point to other articles within the same knowledge base section. Use them when another guide or SOP in the Internal KB covers a prerequisite step, a related task, or a policy that governs what your guide describes. Internal links resolve automatically even if the target article's URL changes, because the platform uses stable article IDs under the hood.
2. External links — third-party docs, tools, and websites
External links point to destinations outside the platform entirely: vendor documentation, public API references, GitHub repositories, Notion pages, Confluence wikis, or any URL on the web. Use external links to give readers access to the authoritative source for a third-party tool rather than paraphrasing it yourself. External links open in a new tab by default.
3. Cross-KB links — Internal KB to External KB
Cross-KB links let you connect an internal how-to guide to an article in the External KB section (the customer-facing side of the platform). Use these when an internal process is directly related to a customer-facing workflow — for example, an internal guide on processing a refund might cross-link to the customer-facing article that explains the refund policy. Cross-KB links are clearly labeled in the editor and render with a distinct icon so readers know they're navigating to a different section.
How to Add a Link in the Editor
Highlight the word or phrase you want to turn into a hyperlink. Choose anchor text that clearly describes the destination — "see the data access SOP" is more useful than "click here." Descriptive anchor text also improves the searchability of both articles.
With text highlighted, click the Link icon in the editor toolbar (or press Cmd+K on Mac / Ctrl+K on Windows). The link dialog opens with two tabs: Internal and External.
- Select Internal to link to another article in the platform. A search field lets you type the title of the target article — results update as you type, showing guides, SOPs, and cross-KB articles that match.
- Select External to link to a URL outside the platform. Paste the full URL into the field. The editor validates that the URL is well-formed before letting you save.
For cross-KB links, use the Internal tab and select the "External KB" section filter from the dropdown next to the search field.
Click Insert Link. The selected text in your guide is now underlined and hyperlinked. Hover over it in the editor to preview the destination URL in a tooltip before publishing.
Building a "See Also" Related Content Panel
Every guide supports an optional See Also section that appears at the bottom of the published page, below the main body content. This panel displays a list of related articles as clickable cards, giving readers a natural next step after finishing your guide.
To add a See Also section:
- Open the Guide Details panel on the right side of the editor.
- Find the Related Guides field and click Add related article.
- Search by title and select up to five articles to feature. You can include internal guides, SOPs, and cross-KB articles in the same panel.
- Drag to reorder the items — the first article in the list appears most prominently in the rendered panel.
- Save or publish your guide. The See Also section renders automatically at the bottom of the page.
The platform also surfaces related content automatically based on tag overlap. Articles that share two or more tags with your guide may appear in an algorithmically generated "You might also like" section below your manually curated See Also panel. You don't need to configure this — it works as long as you've applied relevant tags to your guide.
How Tags Surface Related Content Automatically
Tags are the connective tissue of the Internal KB. When you tag your guide with onboarding, tooling, or security, the platform uses those tags in two ways:
- Search ranking — Queries that match a guide's tags rank that guide higher in search results, even when the tag word doesn't appear in the body text.
- Related content suggestions — The platform calculates tag overlap between articles and surfaces guides with strong tag overlap as suggestions in the sidebar and at the bottom of articles. The more specific and consistent your tagging is across the knowledge base, the better these suggestions become.
Apply tags that describe the topic, tool, team, and product area relevant to your guide. Using existing tags (rather than creating new variations) builds denser content clusters that produce better automatic suggestions for everyone.
Instead of writing a second guide that covers the same ground as an existing one, link to the existing guide from yours and focus your new guide on the specific angle or step that's different. This keeps the knowledge base tighter, reduces maintenance overhead, and ensures readers always find the most up-to-date version of shared information rather than a stale copy.
Handling Broken Links
Links break when a target article is archived, deleted, or moved to a different section. The platform detects broken internal links automatically and flags them in two places: the Link Health report (accessible from your guide's More options menu) and the admin-level Broken Links dashboard.
When a linked SOP or guide is archived, any guide pointing to it will display a broken link indicator to readers until the link is updated or removed. Archived articles are not deleted from the platform — they're hidden from public search results but still accessible via direct URL — so your link won't 404 immediately. However, readers who follow the link will land on an "Article archived" page, which is a poor experience. Resolve broken links promptly.
To find and fix broken links in your guides:
- Open the guide in the editor and click More options (the three-dot menu) in the top-right corner.
- Select Link Health to see a list of all links in the guide, flagged as healthy, broken, or redirected.
- Click a broken link entry to jump directly to that location in the editor.
- Update the link to point to the replacement article, or remove the link if no suitable replacement exists.
- Save and republish the guide.
For external links, the platform checks URLs on a weekly schedule and flags links that return a 404 or connection error. You can trigger an on-demand check at any time from the Link Health panel.