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A significant part of USAGov’s work is to answer the public’s questions about government through our USAGov Contact Center. In 2019, we received more than 430,000 calls. Our agents answered many requests for other agencies’ phone numbers and questions about the status of applications, payments, or personal information. We believed that we could answer these requests more efficiently by expanding our use of interactive voice response (IVR). An IVR is an automated system that routes callers on a phone tree, based on their voice responses or pressing a specific button on their phone keypad.

Take a look at the Top USA.gov Queries from Google in 2019 and compare.

Take a look at the Top Searches on USA.gov in 2019 and compare.

How many people are visiting USA.gov and USA.gov/espanol right now? What kind of devices are they using and what content are they looking for the most? These are all easy-to-answer questions with the USAGov analytics dashboard. It’s open to everyone and provides a snapshot of popular content on our websites and technical and geographical stats about our users. 

Earlier this year, we piloted our USAGov chatbot to help visitors find answers to their questions about scams and fraud. After the launch, we made tweaks to the interface based on customer feedback and usage data. 

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.