Making services easier for Californians to find

Nov 12, 2026

Californians go to CA.gov to look  for the government services they need. There are over 260 state services listed on CA.gov. From food stamps to learning about applying to college to getting a horse-racing license, it’s all in one place.

The impact for Californians is huge. In 2025, CA.gov had 8.1 million active users and 16.7 million views. 27.4% (4.6 million) of those views were for services.

A person using the CA.gov website on their mobile phone.

The goal

Californians should be able to come to a service page on CA.gov and find all the important information they need quickly, easily, and without a lot of digging or confusion.

That’s why we are rewriting and standardizing all service descriptions. Currently, service pages only have a short description and FAQs. We are expanding them to give people more of the information they need on one digestible and easy to scan page.

What makes a good service description

All service pages will have essential information in a consistent structure. That way users know exactly what to expect when they get to a service page on CA.gov.

  • Short description – 2-3 sentence summary of the service
  • What this service provides – short description of the service, the benefits, and what is provided
  • Who this is for or Eligibility – information about eligibility requirements or who can benefit from the service
  • What you need – a heads up about information and documents people need to provide so they can gather it ahead of time
  • How to get it – the steps that need to be completed to use the service
  • Timeframes – the turnaround time to get what the service provides and other useful time frames go here
  • Cost – general cost information (fee or no cost) goes here
  • Check status – information about how to check the status of an application, service request, or processing after all necessary steps have been taken to get the service
  • Get help – contact information for help with the service, like email addresses, phone numbers or in-person help

We need your help

This will be a collaborative effort – we can’t do this without the help of the departments and agencies.

Here are some things you can do to prepare for this effort:

  • Register: Make sure the right people have access to your account in the State Entity Profile. You’ll want people who can review content for accuracy. Departments can have multiple users.
  • Updates: Make sure the content on your website is up-to-date. We use your web content to help with this effort.

CDT will be reaching out to state departments to review the descriptions for accuracy and to provide input. In the next few months, we’ll send out an email to all people registered in the State Entity Profile to review their content.

Reminder: All agencies and state entities that use the CA.gov domain are required to annually verify the accuracy of their state entity profile through the CDT State Entity Profile application. You can also learn more information about the CA.gov domain policy.