There are a number of factors that go into ensuring your website meets general digital government standards and provides a great user experience for the communities you serve.
If you are unfamiliar with foundational standards, there are a few tools you can use to test whether your website meets these or needs upgrading.
Core areas
There are core areas that are key indicators of how “healthy” a government website is when it comes to digital best practices.
These key areas include:
- Accessibility
- Mobility
- Security
Test your website
Accessibility
Web accessibility is more complex than simply running a single test — as some errors and alerts are weighted more than others — but there are several tools that will help you evaluate specific page issues to get a temperature reading of how accessible your website is. The most widely referenced public tool is WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool), powered by WebAIM, and it gives you a breakdown of areas for improvement.
Mobility
As mobile visits to government websites increase, especially during disasters, a responsive, mobile-friendly site is essential. Mobile-Friendly Test, powered by Google, is a simple tool that will tell you if your website is mobile-friendly.
Security
Government website encryption is important for protecting user privacy as well as showing your community you truly care about its security. SSL Checker, powered by SSL Shopper, is a simple tool that will tell you if your website is effectively encrypted.
Questions?
Contact us if you have questions about the health of your government website.
ProudCity is a digital government platform that makes it easy and cost-effective to launch and manage all aspects of digital government services, including websites, meetings, online forms and payments.
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