Content on nsw.gov.au is arranged by customer-centric topics, rather than grouped by agency and department. This allows users to search or navigate to the content they need, with other relevant content available in the same place.
Topic pillars
The 20 main topics on nsw.gov.au are:
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About NSW Key facts about NSW including information about the state flag, emblems, premiers and Aboriginal culture and heritage. |
Arts and culture Information about galleries, museums, libraries, performing arts and culture in NSW. |
Business and economy Information for small businesses, industry licences and permits and mental health at work. |
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Community services Information about aged care, services for people with disability, carers and refugees. |
Driving, boating and transport Information about driving and boating in NSW including licenses, registration, public transport, walking and cycling. |
Education and training Services and information to support people on their journey from childcare to preschool to further education. |
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Emergencies Information about disasters, disaster recovery, grants and funding and emergency services. |
Employment Step-by-step guides on getting your first job, starting a new career and finding a new job. |
Energy Information on energy saving, clean and renewable energy, hydro and solar energy. |
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Environment, land and water Information about NSW national parks, wildlife, coasts and waterways, air quality and climate change. |
Family and relationships Information on births, deaths and marriages including certificates and family history search. |
Grants and funding Search and apply for grants and funding information from across NSW Government. |
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Health Information about health and wellbeing including hospitals, local health districts, mental health and active lifestyle. |
Housing and construction Information about renting, strata rules and regulations, rent assistance, social and affordable housing, crisis and emergency accommodation, buying and selling property, and home safety. |
Money and taxes Information about finance, concessions and rebates, voucher and support, and grants and funding. |
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NSW Government Information about the structure of government, how government works, the Premier and Cabinet. |
Legal and justice Information about fines and penalties, going to court, legal assistance and youth justice. |
Regional NSW Information about Regional NSW - home to more than one-third of the NSW population. |
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Sport and recreation Information about sport and recreation in NSW including safety on waterways, recreational fishing and staying active and healthy. |
Visas and migration Information for business and investor migrants, and highly skilled migrants, to apply for nomination to live and work in NSW. |
Visiting and exploring NSW Information about visiting Sydney, Regional NSW, and national parks in NSW. |
Topic landing pages to support rapid wayfinding
Each topic has a landing page that showcases the main sub-topics, latest updates, grants and funding information, resources, events and consultations related to that topic.
The NSW Government Digital Channels Content Team maintain the topic landing pages. Agency partners can request to promote certain content on a topic landing page by submitting a request through Content request form.
Tagging content to improve search and filtering
All content should be tagged with as many relevant tags as possible. Tags include Agency, Topic, Audience, Region and Industry. Tagging assists users to find relevant content via search and filters.
The mega menus for the ‘Living in NSW’ and ‘Working and business’ navigation items assist in surfacing the 20 main topics on nsw.gov.au as we continue to enhance the world’s most customer-centric government website.
As of Release R1.151.0 – November 15, 2022, topic pages can now be added as related content to any content type. This is done through the 'Related Information' section of the Connections tab, and searching for the topic page.
Content levels
Content authors can create new pages up to 5 levels deep. That is, home > level 1 > level 2 > ... level 5. The CMS prevents authors from creating content deeper than level 5.
The home +5 rule is a considered response to the challenges of a large, multi-agency platform. It’s intended to support:
- good UX for our audiences
- good content authoring and management experiences for agency stakeholders.
Challenges it responds to
The limit helps support consistency and scalability across the many agencies and topics on the site – keeping the IA and content tight, structured and purposeful for our audiences.
Having more levels generally makes for a more difficult user experience – whether they’re navigating through the levels and having to do more decision-making to find the right information, or using search – where deeper level information is less likely to be surfaced.
It also makes content governance easier for content owners and authors, giving them better visibility of content and helping them ensure page content and page titles are unique. (The deeper we go, the harder it is to give pages a unique and meaningful title that’s also brief – which is important for SEO, and for ease of content management.)
Exceptions to the home +5 rule
Sometimes adding a 6th level may be the best approach for a specific piece of content. When there’s good supporting evidence for this, it can be done by putting in a case for the content operations team to assess and action.
Need any more help?
If you have any questions, or require assistance with anything mentioned on this article, submit a request via the webform.