Plan new GOV.UK content
Decide whether to publish on GOV.UK
GOV.UK content should serve one of these user groups:
- UK citizens and residents who need information or a service to complete a task
- UK businesses that need to comply with their responsibilities
- anyone who wants to visit, live in, or do business with, the UK
It must have a user need backed up with evidence, and help users do one of the following:
- use a government service
- understand policy for a specific sector
- find out about a government policy
- understand the government’s response to a major event
- follow the law
- apply for a government support scheme
- find out what business opportunities are available
- understand the government’s priorities through a campaign
However, content cannot go on GOV.UK if it:
- is from an organisation that is not part of central government
- advertises or gives commercial advantage to an organisation
- gives advice that a non-governmental organisation is better placed to do
- is party political content
- is for internal work management or better placed on departmental intranets
- is only relevant to devolved governments – these are the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive, who have their own websites
- duplicates other content or services on GOV.UK (you can review existing content if you’re not sure)
There’s more details about these rules in the GOV.UK proposition.
If you cannot publish content on GOV.UK
You may want to publish the content on a different government website or public-facing domain.
If your organisation does not already have an appropriate non-GOV.UK website, you may want to create one.
[Ask for approval from the Government Digital Service (GDS)](link tbc) before you do that. You need approval even if you want to use a non-government domain (like .org.uk, .co.uk or .com).
Decide where to publish content on GOV.UK
If your content can be published on GOV.UK, you’ll need to decide where it should go on the site.
That will depend on whether you’re publishing:
- guidance to help users complete a transaction with the government
- information to help users understand what the government is doing
If you’re publishing guidance to help users
Decide whether your users are:
- members of the general public or small businesses without a detailed understanding of the topic (‘mainstream’ users)
- experienced users who already have an understanding of the topic (‘specialists’)
If it’s for mainstream users, this should be published as mainstream guidance.
This guidance is written and maintained by the content team at GDS. You’ll need to raise a ticket with them to add your content to GOV.UK.
[Find out how to raise a ticket with the content team at GDS](link tbc).
If it’s for specialists, this can be published by your own content team. You’ll need to choose an appropriate content type.
Guidance might be split between mainstream users and specialists where there’s a common scenario that affects most users and a separate process for ‘edge cases’.
For example, how much National Insurance to pay is mainstream guidance as it’s for the general public and small businesses.
However, National Insurance for share fishermen is specialist guidance as it’s only useful for experienced users.
If you’re publishing information about what the government is doing
Your own content team can publish this. You’ll need to choose an appropriate content type.
Create new content
Read the tone of voice guidance. This will explain the main principles of writing GOV.UK content.
You can also check the style guide A to Z for the rules about spelling and formatting certain words.
If you’re creating guidance to help users prepare for an upcoming change, read our guidance on helping users prepare for a change.
Depending on what’s in your content, you should also read guidance on:
- formatting text, including adding headings, bullet points and addresses
- adding attachments
- adding tables
- adding images
- adding videos
All this guidance will tell you how to make your content accessible.
Depending on the content type, you might also be able to create and add translations for different languages.
Publish new content
Read our guidance on how to publish content on GOV.UK.
Help users find the content
Think about how users will find your content.
Some users might be subscribed to email updates for any content published by your organisation or tagged to a specific topic. Many users will not know about this functionality though.
In some cases, you might want to work with your communications team to raise awareness or directly contact users.
You might want to [ask for a short URL](link tbc) if you need a link to the content in physical places, like adverts and letters. Short URLs:
- are easier for users to type into their browser
- can be tracked in Google Analytics so you can see how many people are using them
Organise and group your content
You can group your content together with similar content. This can help users explore particular topics and tasks, and make it easier to find your content.
You’ll have to tag your content to at least one topic before publishing it. This will make it show up on a topic page.
After publishing, you can then:
- consider updating your tags so your content will appear on other topic pages
- create or update a document collection
Read our guidance on organising and grouping content for more information.
Raise awareness of content
Ask your communications team to raise awareness through channels outside of GOV.UK.
This could include campaign sites, social media, paid advertising and third parties
As a content designer, you should work with your communications team to make sure there’s a clear and consistent user journey across GOV.UK and campaign channels.
You should make sure:
- the user need is met in one place only on GOV.UK – do not publish additional guidance that acts as a separate landing page for communications activity
- campaign platform sites do not include any task-focused guidance – campaign sites should focus on attitude, perception or behaviour change, not on what users must do
In the case of major national emergencies such as coronavirus (COVID-19), there might also be limited campaign activity directly on GOV.UK. This must not, however, compete with or duplicate existing guidance content.
Contact affected users directly
Ask your communications or policy teams if they have a direct way to contact users, for example by email, post or a third party like a trade organisation.
They should consider using this channel to update users about the change, if they have not already.
You should work with your communications teams to write the email or letter, or review it before it’s sent. The email or letter should:
- link to the guidance content you have created or updated about the change, and not to another page on GOV.UK
- use language consistent with the GOV.UK guidance
- focus on what users need to do and when - evidence shows that people can feel overwhelmed if there’s too much information