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March 2024 Newsletter

Search.gov report

2023 in review

Last year, we released a special report on website modernization, which told the stories of many of our customers as they moved through the phases of redesign. We also reported on how the redesigns interacted with search experiences and search engine optimization (SEO). This year, we are returning to a focus on search data.

When it comes to the public’s interactions with government search, this is how 2023 looked in numbers:

  • 264 million searches
  • ~2,200 gov websites
  • 13 top topics
  • 365 days of connecting people with what they need

    • Public needs for government information are fairly consistent year to year. In 2023, searches related to finance and banking emerged as a top topic. Some of the most searched query topics were:

  • Space
  • Benefits
  • Health
  • Banking and finance
  • Forms

    • Read the full report

    Office hours: join us on April 18!

    New results page design and search filters

    Join us on April 18 at 1-2pm ET for our next Office Hours to talk about the new results page and search filters:

  • How to implement the new results page design for your site
  • Tips for adding metadata to be ready to take advantage of our search filters feature

    • [Meeting details removed]

    New results page design implementation

    Get ready!

    As you all know, our new results page design is available in Beta! All Search.gov customers have access to the new design from the display settings in the Admin Center:

    Admin Center > Display > Visual design (new)

    Thank you to everyone who is testing the new design and has shared their feedback with our team. Also, thank you to those who have already implemented the new design on their live sites, including NIH.gov, NSF.gov, or FTC.gov.

    We are working through some last issues and are moving the full cutover back to mid-April. We will announce when the Beta period closes, and give you a few days to review your results page and make any updates you want before all sites are shifted to the new design.

    You can follow along with our progress on resolving reported beta issues.

    Important notes:

  • We have now copied image and links data from most existing search results pages into the new design.
  • If you had already made changes to the new results page in your production site (links, logos) we did not migrate any data, because we did not want to overwrite your work. You will need to continue editing the new results page settings.
  • Color settings will be migrated soon, for sites where no changes have been made to the new results. Again, we do not want to overwrite any work you have done.
  • If you use the current default color scheme, you will use the new default color scheme.

    • You can test the new design using the preview on the new visual design page in your main search site, or in a sandbox site, whichever is more comfortable for you. To create a sandbox site simply clone your production search site and use the new cloned site to test.

    If you’re ready to use the new design on your live results before the full cutover, email us at search@gsa.gov.

    Release Notes

    Want to learn about the latest features, fixes, and focuses of the Search team? We post monthly Release Notes on our website.

    Read the latest notes


    View all newsletters
    April 11, 2024