Manage existing GOV.UK content
Find relevant content
You can do a content audit to find out what content:
- is tagged to your organisation
- covers topics related to your own work
Use Govsearch to search for content that:
- is tagged to organisations and topics
- has specific words or links in it
Govsearch will not show content that’s published using non-GOV.UK tools, including:
- blog sites
- campaign sites
- service domains
- some ‘mainstream’ smart answers that are published using Github, like ‘Check benefits and financial support you can get’
[Ask the Government Digital Service (GDS)](link tbc) if you would like help with searching this other content.
If you’re only interested in Whitehall Publisher
You can use the Whitehall Publisher search tool to look through content on Whitehall Publisher.
This will give you details you cannot get through Govsearch, such as:
- when the content was last updated
- whether the content is overdue for a review, based on the review date that someone set when they last updated the content
Check your content is working for users
Monitor your content regularly to check if it’s useful for users and they can find it.
You can use the guidance on tools and resources to help track this.
You might decide to:
- make changes to the content
- retire the content because it’s outdated
Make changes to your content
You might want to make changes to:
- fix issues, like broken links, typos or factual errors
- update information
- improve the content, based on issues you’ve identified by checking your content is working for users
- make users aware of future changes to a policy – read our guidance on how to help users prepare for change
Your organisation will usually need to be tagged to a page to make changes to it.
If the page is also tagged to other organisations, you should contact their content teams. You can decide together how to work on the changes.
If the page is tagged to other organisations and not yours, contact their contact teams and ask them to work on the changes.
[Ask GDS](link tbc) if you need contact information for other content teams.
If your content is on a ‘mainstream’ page
Mainstream pages will not have ‘government’ or ‘guidance’ in the URL. They are maintained by the content team at GDS, with changes usually based on tickets raised by the organisations tagged to the page.
You will not be able to see which organisations are tagged to a mainstream page, but you can ask GDS to make changes if you think it should be tagged to your organisation.
If your organisation is not tagged, they can direct you to the tagged organisations’ content teams. You can ask them to raise a ticket.
[Raise a ticket with the content team at GDS](link tbc) to request changes.
If your content is on any other type of page
Your content team can update the content without GDS help. Read our guidance on how to update content on GOV.UK.
You will not be able to update content if it’s in ‘history mode’. If it’s in history mode, you’ll see a banner explaining that the content was published under a previous government.
If you want to update content in history mode, [raise a ticket to get history mode removed](link tbc).
Retire outdated content
You can either:
- withdraw the content - this keeps the content on the site, but it does not appear in internal search results and there’ll be a banner to it to explain that the content is no longer current
- unpublish the content – this removes the content from the site completely and lets you set up a redirect to current content
Some content can be ‘retired’ automatically. This is called ‘history mode’, which can be applied to certain content if the government changes. This:
- puts a banner on the content to explain that it was published under a previous government
- makes the content appear less prominently in internal search results
If you want to retire mainstream content, you can only unpublish it. [Raise a ticket with the content team at GDS](link tbc) to discuss this.
When you can withdraw content
Guidance should usually be updated rather than withdrawn. However, you can withdraw and create a new content item if there’s a new and distinct user need.
Other content can be withdrawn if it’s no longer current. For example:
- news articles and press releases that are over a year old
- details about expired schemes and services
- policy papers that are not current or relevant
A broad test to keep in mind when deciding to withdraw a content item is, ‘will leaving it as it is get in the way of a non-specialist user?’ For example, an old policy announcement about a benefit that’s appearing in the search results above the guide on how to claim that benefit.
You can edit content after you withdraw it. You can also ‘unwithdraw’ it later if you change your mind.
If you withdraw content, it will not appear on:
- internal site search results
- document collections
- the list of announcements on a person’s profile page
- topic pages
It will still appear in:
- Google search results
- featured link slots on organisation pages if you’ve featured it - you’ll have to un-feature the content separately
The guidance on how to update content on GOV.UK explains how to withdraw content.
When you can unpublish content
Content should not normally be unpublished from the GOV.UK website.
However, you can unpublish a page when:
- the content has been included in another page
- the user need is better met elsewhere on GOV.UK
- you published it in error, or before you were meant to
- someone has exercised their right to erasure (right to be forgotten)
- it contains someone’s personal details
- it contains details of a spent conviction
- it’s out of proposition for GOV.UK
- it infringes copyright
- it’s defamatory or obscene
You can republish content later if you change your mind.
The guidance on how to update content on GOV.UK explains how to unpublish content.
When history mode gets applied
History mode is applied to content when:
- the government changes following a general election
- the ‘first published’ date of the content or the ‘delivered on’ date for a speech is during a previous government
- it was published through Whitehall Publisher or Content Publisher
- it was tagged to an organisation that is associated with government policy when it was first published (for example, ministerial departments)
- the ‘political’ box has been ticked (see more details about this box in our guidance on how to update content on GOV.UK)
History mode applies to these content types automatically:
- consultations
- calls for evidence
- corporate or annual reports
- government responses
- impact assessments
- news stories
- policy papers
- press releases
- speeches
It can also apply to document collections if the ‘political’ box has been ticked.
It applies to these content types if they were associated with a minister when they were first published:
- case studies
- correspondence
- decision
- forms
- FOI releases
- guidance
- independent reports
- international treaties
- maps
- notices
- promotional material
- regulations
- statutory guidance
- transparency data
It cannot be applied to:
- accredited official statistics
- detailed guides
- fatality notices
- manuals
- ‘mainstream’ content
- official statistics
Before a general election, affected organisations will be asked by GDS to do a history mode audit of their content. If you’re part of that audit, you’ll be able to:
- see what content will go into history mode if the government changes
- prevent content from going into history mode if you think there is a problem
If you think content should be removed from history mode after it’s been applied, [raise a ticket to get history mode removed](link tbc).