Global KB settings — require sign-in, unsafe content, GA – Gravity CX

Ref: C20 · Track: Knowledge Base Admin · Time to complete: ~3 min

Why this matters

Most of Guide is configured at the article, section, or category level. But a few settings apply to the whole help center and change how it behaves for everyone. Know where these live before you need them.

Where global settings live

Guide admin → Settings. The panel groups the global options.

A single toggle that forces authentication for the entire help center. Options:

Open — anyone can read public content without signing in.
Restricted — visitors must sign in (even to read public content).

Most B2C and marketing help centers stay open. Most B2B or sensitive-content help centers are restricted.

When flipping to restricted: all indexed search results and shared article links suddenly require sign-in. Plan an announcement and expect an inbound wave the week after.

Flag inappropriate / unsafe content

Settings let you configure:

Moderation defaults (hands off → require-approval, see C10).
Profanity filter behaviour — use the default list, customise it, or disable.
Auto-hide comments flagged by multiple users — re-enter moderation queue if flagged N times.
User bans — global blocklist of users whose comments are always rejected.

Review these on launch and every quarter thereafter. Defaults shift as Zendesk updates.

Google Analytics and tracking

Connect Google Analytics (GA4) at the global or brand level:

Get your GA4 measurement ID (G-XXXXXXXXXX).
In Guide admin → Settings → Integrations, paste the ID.
GA starts recording help center traffic.

Useful for: - Top articles by pageview. - Search queries (via GA search-term reports). - Referrer tracking (where readers come from). - Funnel analysis (article → contact form → ticket).

Explore has its own built-in reporting for article views; GA is complementary — gives you web-metric-level granularity.

Other global settings worth knowing

Help center language

Primary language; affects default localisation. You can add additional languages for multilingual help centers.

Default article settings

You can set default visibility and default template for new articles to skip repetitive setup.

Community (if enabled)

Separate product from KB articles, but admin'd similarly. Covered elsewhere if your org uses community forums.

Custom SEO / metadata

Custom page title template.
Default meta descriptions.
Robots.txt overrides (careful — can de-index your site).

CSS / theme global bindings

Which theme is active per brand (see C17).

Redirects

Vanity URLs.
Redirects for retired articles or renamed sections. Configure these here to avoid 404s on old links.

Gotchas

"Require sign-in" is global — there's no per-section setting for this. If you need some sections open, leave the global setting open and restrict via per-section/article visibility instead.
GA takes 24–48 hours to populate. Don't panic if data doesn't show up same-day.
Changing language breaks existing translations. Language changes touch the whole help center; plan carefully.
Robots.txt and noindex. Blocking search engines is easy to do accidentally. If organic traffic matters, audit this on launch and after any SEO fiddling.

A launch-checklist for a fresh help center

Before flipping your help center live, verify the global settings:

Sign-in policy set correctly (open vs restricted).
GA4 connected and firing.
Moderation defaults configured (or comments disabled — see C10).
Primary language set.
Robots/SEO metadata not blocking indexation (unless intended).
Redirect rules in place for any URLs being migrated from an old system.
Theme active and previewed across devices (see C04).

Quick check — have you got this?

You want everyone (signed-in or not) to read your KB but partners-only for certain articles. Global setting?
GA isn't showing data an hour after hook-up. Cause?
Where do you set redirects for retired articles?

Answers

- Global = Open. Restrict specific articles or sections via visibility settings (C12). - Normal — GA4 ingest typically lags 24–48 hours. Wait before debugging. - Guide admin → Settings → Redirects (or equivalent section per plan).

C10 — Content moderation and comments
C12 — Controlling access at the article level
C17 — Themes, versions, and Copenhagen