GPA does not review the content of U.S. Mission Website pages; this is the responsibility of the individual web managers who create and publish them. However, the content of any U.S. Mission’s website page contributes toward the perception of the Department of State. For this reason, we provide the following guidelines:
- All embedded content must be secure (HTTPS) or it will not display. HTTP and other unsecure embedded content will be blocked for security purposes.
- Information published should be as accurate and up-to-date as possible.
- Missions should only publish materials that they have the capacity to maintain. Maintenance includes keeping the information on each web page up to date and archiving or purging out of date content.
- Each Mission should have a clearly understood process where designated individuals periodically review, maintain and update the content of the website.
- Each mission website should have a contact to whom visitors can send content corrections, updates, or questions.
- Content for the web can be greatly improved through appropriate writing style and formatting. Basic recommendations include:
a. Content that visitors are expected to read online should be divided into short sections and provided with headings that allow a document to be scanned easily.
b. Content should contain extensive cross-referenced links to make it easy to find related information.
c. Text formatting such as bold or italics should be used sparingly to highlight key words or phrases, making them easier to find.
