Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

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

Https

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 go live with Search.gov

After you create an account, follow these five steps to go live with Search.gov.

Step 1. Create a new site

To customize the search experience for your website, you need to create a new site in the Admin Center. Start by entering some basic details about your site, including its homepage and display name.

Step 2. Add domains

After creating the new site, you need to add the domains for the content you want included in the search results. You can add one or more domains in the Content section of the Admin Center.

Review how to optimize your content for more information on adding domains.

Step 3. Manage other content (optional)

Search.gov offers several other ways to manage the content on your results page. You can set up collections, best bets, and routed queries in the Content section of the Admin Center.

  • Use collections to search a narrower or broader scope than the default results page.
  • Use best bets to promote specific pages at the top of your search results.
  • Use routed queries to bypass the results page entirely for a specific search term

Review how to optimize your content for more information on using collections, best bets, and routed queries.

Step 4. Design the results page

There are several options you can use to make the results page match the design of your website. You can set fonts and colors and upload your logo in the Display section of the Admin Center.

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

If you created any collections, you can select the option to display them on the Display Overview page in the Admin Center.

Use the Preview option in the Admin Center to preview the design.

Review how to design your results page for more information.

Step 5. Connect your search box to Search.gov

When you are ready to go live, you will need to modify the form code for the search box on your website.

We provide this form code in the Activate section of the Admin Center.

To modify the form code for the search box on your website, you will probably need to work with your technical team. They can also help you use these parameters to create a more customized search box on your site.

Review how to connect your search box to Search.gov for more information.

Special instructions for Cloud.gov Pages customers

If you use Cloud.gov Pages, you will also need to update the _config.yml file in your Cloud.gov Pages repository.

  • Confirm that the jekyll-sitemap gem is listed as a plugin.
  • Add your domain to the url field. This builds the XML sitemap for this domain.
  • Add your site handle from the Admin Center to the affiliate line in the Search.gov configuration section.
  • Delete the value in the access_key line.
  • Set the inline value to false.

Please contact the Pages support team if you need help making these updates.

Then, when you’re ready to go live, email the Search.gov team so we can index your content.