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An official website of the United States government

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Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

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Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

How to design your results page

You can make the search results page match the design of your website.

There are dozens of fields, so you may need to consult your style guide or ask your design team for help.

Set fonts and colors

Set your fonts and colors on the Visual Design page in the Admin Center.

Upload images

Upload the logo that you want to appear at the top of your search results page on the in the Visual Design page in the Admin Center.

The file must be a GIF, JPG or PNG format and under 64 KB. Be sure to add alternative text, also known as alt text, to convey the meaning of your logo.

You can choose to display your site name at the top of the search results page. Visit the Settings page under the Dashboard section of the Admin Center to edit your site name, if needed.

You can also provide the URL for your agency’s favicon. A favicon, or favorite icon, is a small image associated with a website, typically displayed in the browser tab or address bar.

Create navigation

You can add header links to support navigation between your website and the search results page to create a more seamless experience.

Use the header title and URL fields on the Visual Design page in the Admin Center to add these links.

Create tabs and filters

If you created any collections to search a narrower or broader scope than the default results page, you can turn on their display on the Display Overview page in the Admin Center.

The same is true for video results from YouTube and news results from RSS feeds.

You can also link between two related sites to help visitors find other relevant content. This option is often used to point searchers to your department-level search results or websites in other languages.

Preview the results page

Any updates you make to the design appear immediately on the search results page. Use the Preview option in the Admin Center to preview the design.

Advanced options

Add an alert

Use an alert to keep the public informed of important and sometimes time-sensitive changes.

For example, after a website redesign, you can use an alert to tell searchers about this update.

Visit the Search Page Alert page in the Admin Center to add an alert. Enter a title and text for the alert and set the status to active. Then, save it to turn on the alert.

Customize the no results message

When there are no results for a search, users see a message, “Sorry, no results found for ‘__’. Try entering fewer or broader query terms.”

You can customize this message by:

  • Adding a more personal message for your agency
  • Adding links to other resources on your website

For example, the USAGov team customized the no results message on USA.gov to include the following.

Sorry, no results found for ‘__’. Try entering fewer or more general search terms.

You can also contact us about USA.gov or about any government question you have: