# What your visitors see

> Source: https://support.usebluehill.com/help-center-what-visitors-see  |  Updated: 2026-10-26T22:19:30Z

## The address

Your default help center lives on the customer portal at an address that ends in */help/* followed by your workspace's short name. A brand site adds a tilde and the brand's short name. The exact address is on the **Your help center** card in **Support → Support settings → Help center**, and the **Open help center** button in the wiki's Help center tab takes you there.

Once you verify a custom domain and make it primary, the site answers at that domain with clean addresses: the home page at the root, an article at */article-name*, a category at */c/category-name*, plus */search*, */contact* and */chat*. The portal address then redirects to the domain. See [Use your own domain](./help-center-custom-domain).

## The header and footer

Every page shares the same frame:

- Your logo (or a lettermark in your accent colour), the help center name and the words **Help center**.
- A search field in the middle on wide screens, with the placeholder **Search or ask a question…** when AI answers are on, or **Search articles…** otherwise. The **⌘K** hint (**Ctrl K** on Windows) opens the same search from anywhere.
- **Ask AI** when the chat is on, **All articles**, and a **Contact support** button when the contact form is on.
- For signed-out visitors, a light/dark theme toggle, **Sign in** and, if you allow self sign-up, **Sign up**. Signed-in portal users see **Home** and **Tickets** too, and an avatar menu.

The footer shows your footer text (or **© *year* *Help center name***), **Help center**, **Contact support** and **Powered by BlueHill**.

The site follows each visitor's light or dark system setting. Links use your accent colour.

## Home page

<img src="https://api.usebluehill.com/wiki/media/public/org_5a6906d4877a411f83f525d10e20355c/dcb48ad491b5054a3983e1f02b84a5cb.png" alt="The public help center home page" width="1440" height="900" />

From top to bottom:

1. **How can we help?** with a search box. After two characters a dropdown suggests up to five articles with their categories, ending with **See all results for "…"**.
2. **Popular:** chips with the searches other visitors make most. A search only appears once several different visitors have tried it. You can turn these off; see [Features](./help-center-branding-contact-and-sign-up#features).
3. **Ask the assistant:** chips with your starter questions, each of which opens search with an instant AI answer, and an **Open AI chat** button when the chat is on.
4. **Recently viewed**: the last five articles this visitor opened on your site, kept in their browser.
5. **Featured articles**: up to six cards with the category, title, a short excerpt and **Read article**. You choose these on the Arrange page.
6. **Browse by category**: one section per top-level category, in the same order as your wiki. Each section has the category name, its description and **N articles**, then a card per subcategory listing its first three entries and **View all N articles**. Categories you hide from home are left out, as are empty ones. With four or more top-level categories, a row of jump chips sits above the sections.
7. A closing strip, **Can't find what you need?**, with a **Contact support** button when the contact form is on.

## Category pages

<img src="https://api.usebluehill.com/wiki/media/public/org_5a6906d4877a411f83f525d10e20355c/27154549c0258b1a318f3df7ca07682b.png" alt="A category page" width="1440" height="900" />

A category page shows a **Browse** tree on the left (on screens wider than a tablet), a breadcrumb starting at **Help center**, the category name and description, cards for its subcategories, and its articles with a two-line excerpt and reading time. An empty category reads **No articles here yet.**

## Article pages

<img src="https://api.usebluehill.com/wiki/media/public/org_5a6906d4877a411f83f525d10e20355c/985637447cdc06716163490297f70c43.png" alt="An article page" width="1440" height="900" />

An article page has three columns on wide screens: the **Browse** tree, the article, and **On this page**, a table of contents built from the article's headings that highlights the section being read.

The article shows its title, **Updated** date and reading time, its description as a lead paragraph, then the body. Images open in a zoomed view on click. Below the body:

- **Was this article helpful?** with **Yes** and **No**. A **No** vote shows **Sorry this didn't help. Contact support and we'll get you an answer.** Votes feed the helpful rate in analytics.
- **Linked articles** and **Linked from**: pages this article links to, and pages that link to it.
- **Related articles**.
- **Previous** and **Next** cards that follow the category's order.

If you rename an article, its old address keeps working and redirects to the new one.

## Search

<img src="https://api.usebluehill.com/wiki/media/public/org_5a6906d4877a411f83f525d10e20355c/a365233e12141233db85a2b96ac89f96.png" alt="The search results page" width="1440" height="900" />

The search page updates as the visitor types and shows **N results for "…"**, each with the title, an excerpt with the matched words highlighted, the category and the reading time. With AI answers on, an **AI answer** card sits above the results. See [What visitors get](./help-center-ai-assistant#what-visitors-get).

No results shows **No articles match your search**, with **Ask the assistant** (when AI is on) and **Contact support**, which opens the contact form with the search already typed in.

<img src="https://api.usebluehill.com/wiki/media/public/org_5a6906d4877a411f83f525d10e20355c/73250b79e97953c2822a110ade73074c.png" alt="The ⌘K search palette" width="600" height="490" />

Pressing **⌘K** opens a palette on any page with the placeholder **Search the help center**. Before typing it offers **Recent** articles, your **Ask the assistant** starter questions when you have set some, and **Browse categories**. While typing it lists an **Ask the assistant** row that produces an AI answer in place, then **Articles** and **Categories**, and ends with **See all results**.

## Contact form

<img src="https://api.usebluehill.com/wiki/media/public/org_5a6906d4877a411f83f525d10e20355c/03b34ad7d492811b8ac52cf05b768ff4.png" alt="The contact support page" width="1440" height="900" />

**Contact support** opens a form with **Your name**, **Email**, **Subject** and a **Message** editor. Visitors can paste or drag up to six screenshots into the message. The **Submit request** button stays disabled until the four fields are filled. Signed-in visitors get their name and email filled in; visitors arriving from an AI answer's **Contact us** link get the subject and message filled in with their question.

As the visitor types, a **Before you submit** panel appears beside the form with up to three articles that match the draft and, when AI answers are on, a **Get an instant answer** button.

After submitting, the visitor sees **Request received** with the ticket reference and a note that a confirmation email is on its way. The request becomes a ticket in your support inbox. On a brand site it is filed under that brand's desk.

The contact page also shows your support email as **Email us** and, if you turn it on, **Call us** with your phone number. See [Contact channels](./help-center-branding-contact-and-sign-up#contact-channels).

## Page not found

A missing or unpublished article shows a branded **404** page: **We couldn't find that page**, a search box, **Popular articles** (your featured ones) and **Back to the help center**.

## Sign in and sign up

Visitors do not need an account to read the help center. **Sign in** takes customer-portal users to their tickets and tasks on the same site. If you turn on self sign-up, **Sign up** lets a visitor create a portal account with a verification code. See [Self sign-up](./help-center-branding-contact-and-sign-up#self-sign-up).

Next: [Set up and publish a help center](./help-center-set-up-a-help-center).