Using Anchors In Your FAQ And Other API Support Pages

I was going through some of the Twitter feeds of the APIs that I track on and noticed Spotify's team providing support to some of their API users with quick links / anchors to the answers in their API user guide available at developer.spotify.com. This might sound trivial, but having an arsenal of these links, so you can tweet out like Spotify does can be a real time saver.

This is pretty easy to do with a well-planned API portal and developer resources but is something you can rapidly add / change to using a frequently asked questions page for your API. The trick is to make sure you have anchors to the specific areas you are looking to reference when providing support for your community.

Another benefit of doing this beyond just developer support is in the name of marketing and evangelism. I'm often looking for specific concepts and topics to link to in my stories, and if an API doesn't have a dedicated page or an anchor for it, I won't link it--I do not want my readers to have to dig for anything. The trick here is you need to think like your consumers, and not just wear your provider's hat all the time.

When crafting your API portal, and supporting resources make sure you provide anchors for the most requested resources and other information related to API operations, and keep the links handy so you can use across all your support and marketing channels.