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# Enterprise Solutions for Government Website Search

MV

Mohanraj Venkat

Solutions Lead, Keyspider

April 2024

10 min read

Government websites serve as critical hubs for information, services, and resources that cater to a wide array of stakeholders. From citizens seeking essential services to researchers looking for data, these websites are expected to deliver precise and timely information. However, the vast and often complex nature of government data makes effective search a significant challenge. This is where enterprise solutions come into play, offering sophisticated tools to maximise discoverability and streamline user experiences.

Advanced search technologies, particularly semantic search, combined with intuitive user interfaces and artificial intelligence, can transform government websites into highly efficient and accessible platforms. Whether you are a government IT professional, a policy maker, or a citizen trying to navigate public services, understanding these solutions is essential for anyone working to close the gap between government information and the people who need it.

## The Power of Semantic Search for Government Websites

Implementing semantic site search on government websites significantly enhances user experience and efficiency in accessing information. Traditional keyword-based search methods often fall short in understanding the actual queries posed by users, leading to irrelevant or incomplete results. Semantic search, by contrast, interprets the intent and context behind search queries, ensuring that users receive more accurate and relevant information.

This is particularly vital for government websites, which house a vast array of data and services. By utilising natural language processing and entity recognition, semantic search can discern the specific needs of users, whether they are looking for public records, policy documents, or service applications. A citizen asking 'how do I appeal a parking fine' receives direct results even if the relevant page is titled 'Infringement Notice Review Process' and contains no instance of the word 'fine'.

> The vocabulary gap between how citizens ask questions and how government agencies name their services is one of the most underappreciated barriers to public information access. Semantic search closes that gap automatically.

> — Keyspider Public Sector Practice, 2024

## Does Enterprise Search Impact Government Websites?

Enterprise search has a significant impact on the functionality and effectiveness of government websites by offering robust, scalable solutions for managing and retrieving information. Unlike basic search tools, enterprise search systems integrate advanced algorithms and machine learning to deliver highly relevant results from vast and diverse datasets. This capability is particularly crucial for public sector agencies, which manage a plethora of documents, records, and multimedia content.

Enterprise search supports the unique needs of public sector websites by ensuring data security and compliance with regulatory standards. Government agencies often handle sensitive information that requires strict access controls and privacy protections. Advanced enterprise search solutions come with built-in features for secure indexing and retrieval, ensuring that only authorised users can access certain information, while making appropriate content readily accessible to the public.

- Enables citizens to find services, forms, and policy documents without prior knowledge of departmental naming conventions
- Reduces contact centre call volume by improving self-service success rates on government websites
- Supports regulatory compliance through permission-aware indexing and audit logging
- Provides analytics on what citizens are searching for, informing content and service improvements
- Scales to cover multiple agency websites, intranets, and document repositories from a single deployment

## Reducing Cost with Self-Serve Solutions

Support search solutions for the public and government sectors are instrumental in reducing costs and minimising dependency on call centres and support tickets. Advanced search technologies promote self-service, enabling citizens to find answers to their queries quickly and independently through intuitive and effective search functionality. By providing immediate access to a comprehensive knowledge base, FAQs, and relevant documents, these solutions significantly decrease the volume of inquiries directed to support staff.

This reduction in support requests leads to considerable cost savings for government agencies, as fewer resources are required to manage and respond to individual inquiries. The improved allocation of resources allows support teams to focus on more complex and high-priority issues, rather than handling repetitive and routine questions. Citizens benefit too, with faster resolutions to common queries without the need to wait on hold or schedule a visit to a service centre.

40%

of contact centre calls are for information already on the government website

60%

of citizens prefer self-service for routine enquiries when it is reliable

35%

average reduction in support enquiries after deploying effective AI search

72%

of users abandon a government website if they cannot find information in three attempts

## Enabling Employee Productivity through Discoverability

Within government organisations, workplace search solutions are transforming productivity by enabling employees to access critical information swiftly and efficiently. These solutions use advanced search capabilities across various data sources, providing a unified search experience that quickly retrieves relevant documents, records, and communications, even for complex datasets and queries.

By eliminating the time-consuming task of manually sifting through disparate databases and filing systems, employees can focus more on their core responsibilities. Caseworkers can locate policy precedents in seconds rather than minutes. HR teams can find enterprise agreement provisions without navigating multiple filing systems. Policy officers can search across legislation, guidance documents, and internal memos from a single interface.

Internal vs. external search

Many government agencies deploy enterprise search in two configurations: a public-facing search for citizens on the external website, and a staff-facing workplace search on the intranet. Both can be deployed from a single platform, with role-based access controls ensuring staff-only content remains internal. The analytics from both deployments together provide a comprehensive picture of information needs across all stakeholders.

## Why Keyspider's Search Solutions Work for Government

Keyspider is built specifically to address the search challenges of public sector and government websites. Its semantic search engine boosts discoverability by understanding the meaning and context of search queries, rather than relying solely on keyword matching. This ensures that citizens receive relevant results even when their language differs from the official terminology in policy documents.

Keyspider's cloud-based architecture means no on-premises infrastructure, no lengthy implementation projects, and no requirement to modify existing content management systems. It deploys in days, not months, and integrates with existing content management workflows so that content updates are reflected in search results in near real time.

For government agencies with compliance requirements, Keyspider provides the data sovereignty, access control, and audit logging capabilities required by public sector procurement standards. All data remains within the required jurisdiction, conversation and search logs are retained and exportable, and role-based access controls operate at the index level, not through post-retrieval filtering.

## Implementation Considerations for Government Agencies

1. 1 Audit your current search performance first: analyse no-results rates, most common queries, and abandonment rates to understand where search is currently failing citizens
2. 2 Identify content gaps: zero-results queries often reveal services and information that are missing, buried, or using terminology citizens do not recognise
3. 3 Define your access control requirements: which content is public, which is staff-only, and which requires authenticated citizen access
4. 4 Establish a content update process: AI search is only as current as your content, so ensure policy changes are published and indexed quickly
5. 5 Plan for WCAG compliance: require documented accessibility testing as part of any search procurement, including keyboard navigation and screen reader support
6. 6 Set baseline metrics before deployment: contact centre volumes, search abandonment rates, and task completion rates, so you can measure impact after go-live

Explore further

AI Search for Government and Public Sector How state and local government agencies are using AI search to serve citizens better.
Workplace Search for Government How internal workplace search is transforming productivity in government agencies.
AI Search vs. Keyword Search Why keyword search is failing government websites and what AI search does differently.
WCAG 2.1, AI Search, and the Law Accessibility requirements for search on government and education websites.

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