SIGNATURE INITIATIVE: SBA DIRECT 2.0

Provide customized search results for users.

Other Information:

Overview: SBA Direct (www.sba.gov/direct) provides customized search results for users through three simple questions – “where are you?”, “what are you looking for?” and “who are you?” These three simple questions make it much simpler for users to find the answers and information they are looking for quickly. SBA Direct was launched in December, 2010 as the cornerstone of the agency’s new web site and includes information about everything from licenses and permits to financial assistance and even how to start and manage a business. The next generation of SBA Direct will attract more users, provide more types of content to users, and allow greater customization based on individual users. Additional Information: * While approximately 750,000 users visit www.SBA.gov each month – only approximately 10% of current users utilize SBA Direct. * Overall customer satisfaction with www.sba.gov measures 69 – but among users utilizing SBA Direct satisfaction stands at 83. * SBA Direct satisfaction underscores the ease of use and availability of relevant information for users, emphasizing the importance of increasing use of this signature tool. Continually refining and improving taxonomy and search results to ensure accurate, timely, and relevant information for small businesses can be found is essential to maintaining and improving satisfaction with SBA Direct. To that end, SBA Direct 2.0 will feature next generation taxonomy consistent with standards currently being developed on a interagency basis. This consistency across federal agency web sites will allow agencies to leverage SBA Direct and more efficiently share content across federal web sites – ensuring that there is “no wrong door” small business owners can choose when turning to the federal government for assistance. Development and distribution of SBA Direct widgets will increase the points of entry into the successful SBA Direct environment. SBA intends to make these widgets available to federal government partners, as well as third party, non-governmental web sites utilized by small business owners and entrepreneurs to encourage use of SBA Direct. The SBA Community, an online, user-focused community of over 25,000 individuals hosts a wealth of information for small business owners outside the traditional focus on government programs prevalent on most government agency web sites. Integrating SBA Community content into SBA Direct search results will greatly expand the types of information available to small business owners and invite greater collaboration from users.

Objective(s):

SI 1: Search Results and Taxonomy

SI 2: SBA Direct Widgets

SI 3: SBA Community Content

Content