Homepage changes to Mass.gov

The logic behind the homepage content

Changes to content on the Mass.gov homepage are made by the Mass Digital team that manages and supports the website. We track website analytics to adjust the list under the search box based on the latest data, ensure that the News & Updates section is current, and keep an overall balance of subject matter across the page.

Various agencies make requests for content to be included in the Featured and News & Updates sections. Mass Digital reviews requests with the Governor’s office when we receive competing requests or requests to add links to content that is not the most popular content on the site.

While the Mass.gov homepage has a high level of visibility, only 10% of visitors actually see it. About a third of people coming to the home page use the search bar, and well over half of home page visitors click on something at the search bar level or higher on the page. Keeping the search feature as the most prominent call to action is important for this page.

Given the vast number of services offered by state government, it’s impossible to highlight more than a small number directly on the home page without it becoming an unusably long list.

There is a small subset of visitors that want to browse from the home page rather than search. The sitewide navigation bar brings these Mass.gov visitors to broad topic pages across the site. The navigation bar is displayed horizontally only on the home page in a desktop layout and is condensed on mobile and on all other pages. Because of the size of the site, browsing using the sitewide navigation is usually not the easiest way to find content on Mass.gov.

About 11% of the clicks people make on the homepage are to the sitewide navigation links. We rarely change the contents of this navigation bar. Authors can modify the links on the topic pages that are linked from the sitewide navigation. If you have suggestions to change the sitewide navigation, please make a ServiceNow request.

The Popular Searches section largely consists of the most visited Mass.gov content as tracked in Google Analytics. Some adjustments are made to highlight other important or timely content.

Changes are made whenever we see significant upticks in content pageviews.

News & Updates

Found at the bottom of the homepage, News & Updates consists of 3 links with images to timely content on Mass.gov, such as the latest on the Governor’s State of the Commonwealth address. Because of the space limitations, Mass Digital will often consult with the Governor’s office on the News and Updates to include at any given time.

Agencies should send requests for updates via a ServiceNow request.

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