USA.gov Blog

USAGov manages a contact center that answers questions from the public via phone and chat in both English and Spanish. We analyze the types of questions we get so we can learn about our users and their needs. This data allows us to continuously revise and improve the ways we’re providing services to our audience, not just through the USAGov Contact Center, but online at USA.gov, and through outreach and social media as well. 

When it comes to writing content for the web, we can’t ignore Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It doesn’t matter how great your content is if the user can’t find it quickly. That’s why a good relationship between SEO and content is key to improve content visibility.

Right now, the common denominator across all online platforms seems to be video. Whether it’s breaking news or information about a long existing government program, video content is a powerful way to present information.

Over the years, the structure and the volume of content on USA.gov has changed as the Internet has matured and user needs have evolved.

Earlier this year, we shared a blog post about our methods for surveying our bilingual email subscribers. We wanted to learn more about our users, their needs and preferences, to serve them better.

The USAGov team plays a challenging, but important role in times of national disaster in helping people across the country prepare for and recover from disasters. To do this, we use different tactics across our channels to ensure we are delivering accurate, helpful information to those who needed it most.

For nearly 50 years, USAGov has been working to serve every person and every government agency. Our history has been full of change, and never static as we improve people’s lives by connecting them with the government services and information they need.

One of the 2018 goals for our email outreach efforts was to learn more about our audience. Though in the past we had performed different exercises to do so -- email-level data analysis, content testing, and persona development to name a few -- we decided nothing beats being able to ask questions directly to our subscribers.

When it comes to email marketing, many communicators measure success by growing their number of unique subscribers. But the number of list subscribers isn’t the only metric to track. 

One of our core principles behind the USAGov chatbot is consistent, iterative improvements. We recently released our newest batch of small changes and wanted to share them with you.