The White House and other federal agencies have recommended CIOs from public and private sectors update their webpages with new standard tags to ensure critical COVID-19 information surfaces across online search engine results.
Officials are working with Schema.org, a collaborative community activity founded by technology companies, to create standard tags that can be added to website codes. Schema.org has released new tags for websites with COVID-19 information, including prevention measures, disease spread statistics, quarantine rules, travel guidance and testing instructions.
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Office of Management and Budget have instructed federal CIOs to adopt the new tags into all federally mandated webpages related to COVID-19. Private sector CIOs as well as state and local governments and academic communities are also encouraged to adopt these tags.
"We call on chief information officers to update their websites with these new Schema tags, which will help Americans find the latest official public health announcements and information through their search engine queries," said the White House in a statement. "At the same time, local pharmacies, clinics and businesses hosting COVID-19 testing facilities can utilize the new tags to help Americans search for location sites and hours of operations right in their communities. Local and state organizations can also tag their webpages to provide new guidelines and notices, such as closures, revised hours or changes in restrictions."
For instructions on adopting the new tags, click here.