Introduction: Why Even Use Notion for an Internal Wiki?
Let’s face it—teams today deal with way too much information. Stuff lives in emails, chat threads, and random docs. But when you need to find “that process” or “those guidelines,” you’re left searching fifteen places.
That’s why a lot of teams are using Notion to create internal wikis. Notion isn’t only for to-do lists or personal notes anymore. It organizes company knowledge so it’s searchable and easy to update, and most people already know how to use it.
One big plus is how collaborative Notion is. Multiple people can edit pages at once, and the interface is simple enough that almost anyone can figure it out in a day or two.
Deciding What Your Wiki Is For
Before you open Notion and hit “new page,” let’s talk about what you actually need in your wiki. Some companies just want a place for HR policies. Others want a living playbook that everyone can add to.
Start out by writing down what you hope your wiki will solve. Maybe you want to cut down on repeat questions or onboard new team members faster. It helps if you get a few people together and ask: what do we look up again and again?
Now that you have a sense of your goals, think through your topics. Consider things like getting started guides, core processes, style guides, company updates, or FAQs. You won’t need everything from day one, and it’s fine to add as you go.
Getting Started with Notion
If you’re setting this wiki up from scratch, you’ll want to create a dedicated Notion workspace. That keeps wiki content separate from other stuff like project boards or meeting notes.
The cool thing about Notion is you don’t need any special training to use it. You can drag and drop pages, rearrange blocks, and use @ mentions. There’s a left sidebar for navigation, and you’ll spend most of your time creating individual pages linked together.
Once you’ve poked around, think about a basic starting point—maybe a simple list of main sections like “HR,” “Operations,” and “How-To Guides.” You can flesh out the details later.
Structuring Your Wiki So People Can Actually Find Stuff
A wiki is only useful if other people can navigate it. The homepage is your chance to make a good first impression. A clean welcome page with quick links to the most important sections gets people where they need to go.
You might use headings for each main category—like “Getting Started,” “Policies,” or “Project Templates”—and add subpages underneath. It helps to use Notion icons or cover images to give your homepage some personality.
Inside sections, create a simple index or table of contents. Link pages to each other, especially when topics overlap. For example, if your onboarding guide mentions a company policy, hyperlink straight to it.
Making Pages People Want to Read
Text is expected, but Notion lets you add images, charts, tables, and even videos. Let’s say you have a step-by-step guide. Drop in a quick explainer video or annotated screenshot—people copy from visuals way more than big blocks of text.
Templates can save a lot of time and keep things consistent. For example, an FAQ template might have spots for common questions and quick links to solutions. Or you could make an SOP (standard operating procedure) template with tasks, owners, and deadlines.
You can also embed Google Drive files, PDFs, Figma boards, or Github gists right in the page. This way, people see up-to-date information without leaving Notion.
Customizing Your Wiki: Making It Fit Your Team
Notion lets you play with layouts. You can move blocks side-by-side or group useful quick links at the top. If your brand matters, add your logo or use company colors. It doesn’t have to be fancy; simple tweaks make your wiki feel less generic.
Permissions are important. If you’re a manager, you can make some pages private (like sensitive HR info) while keeping most content open. Share edit access with a few trusted people at first, then slowly open it up as the wiki gets more mature.
You want people to feel comfortable updating or correcting things. So be sure the permissions match the culture you want.
Keeping Your Wiki Alive and Useful
The biggest problem with any wiki? It gets out of date. Suddenly, people trust it less, and then no one uses it.
It works better if you schedule regular reviews. Maybe you block an hour each month to check priorities or set up automations to remind page owners.
Assign sections to different people or teams, if possible. You could have the HR team handle people policies, while engineering is responsible for technical how-tos. Review cycles fit well into quarterly planning or standard operating reviews.
Helping Your Team Actually Use the Wiki
Rollout matters. Send a quick Slack message or ask for feedback in your next all-hands meeting. The more people see the wiki as something they own—not a top-down thing—the more they’ll contribute.
If you’re a manager or main editor, show folks how easy it is to search, link content, or add a screenshot. Even a five-minute walkthrough can save hours of confusion later.
Ask for feedback on what’s missing or hard to find. Sometimes you’ll realize that words you use in the wiki don’t match what people call things in conversation.
Fixing the Most Common Frustrations
Sometimes people can’t find what they need, or they say they “don’t have access.” Double-check page permissions—sometimes a page inherits controls from its parent page, which can cause confusion.
Content overload is real. If your wiki starts to feel messy, try cleaning up old pages every few months. You can archive pages you don’t need right now instead of deleting them. If things are getting lost, add a quick nav box or call out the most-used pages.
Broken links and confusing names sneak in over time. If your team is growing, add a “change log” or regular review checklist. That way, you catch issues before they impact everyone.
If you ever need extra ideas or want a sense of what’s working for other teams, check resources like Northshoredev for real-world Notion setup stories.
What Happens Once Your Wiki’s Up and Running?
Don’t expect perfection right away. You’ll edit, reorganize, and refine things as the team starts using it. Early on, your wiki will probably just answer the basics—like policies, how-to guides, and a few documentation pages.
But once people realize the wiki makes their life easier, you’ll start seeing more user-generated content. The best team wikis are the ones people actually update, not the ones with the most pages.
Encourage a culture of small changes. If someone spots a mistake or a missing step, have them update it on the spot. That makes the wiki grow organically with your team’s needs.
One Last Thing: It’s a Tool, Not a Silver Bullet
Notion is a great tool for building an internal wiki. But it won’t fix information chaos overnight. It works best when you treat it as a living system, not a set-and-forget solution.
Let people know it’s there, remind them to use it, and give them ownership. Over time, you’ll spend less time answering the same questions and more energy on the work that matters.
If you keep the structure simple, the content current, and the process open to everyone, Notion can honestly make day-to-day work just a little less chaotic.
That’s usually all most teams are looking for—and it’s entirely doable.