Novemeber 2021 Newsletter
Summary
We will be hosting a focus group in January on Faceted Search. Google will be updating their desktop search ranking in February.
You Are Invited
Faceted Search Focus Group - January 2022
As announced in our previous newsletter, we have received additional resources to work on significant improvements to our service, including faceted search. As we prepare the different pieces for this project, we will be hosting a virtual focus group in January 2022 (date to be determined) to discuss metadata-driven search and faceted search. The goal is to learn more about your search needs around these in-demand features.
The main objectives of this focus group are to (1) learn more about how you manage metadata for your web content, and (2) how you envision using it in your search experience.
Also, this session will be an opportunity to follow up on the focus group we had in March 2020. How has the landscape changed for your agency?
If you would like to participate in this conversation, please contact us. We will share the date and details on how to participate in our December newsletter.
Google Ranking Update
Page Experience Rollout Will Begin in February
As announced in the spring, this year Google started to include page experience signals as part of their search ranking calculations. Early this month, Google posted an update on their plans to bring page experience ranking to desktop. These changes to their algorithm will not affect your Search.gov search.
Google search results for mobile users saw these updates beginning summer 2021, and desktop searchers on Google.com will see changes beginning February 2022:
- Core Web Vitals - Google’s high level metrics on site performance
- Mobile friendliness
- HTTPS
- Direct access to content - no interstitials
Read more about page experience signals
Release Notes
Want to learn about the latest features, fixes, and focuses of the Search team? We post monthly Release Notes on our website.