U.S.-based government organizations should get official .gov domains. Here’s why and how.

It should be easy to identify governments on the internet and — as the U.S. federal government says on many of its websites like usa.gov — “the .gov means it’s official.”

For this reason alone, ProudCity recommends all U.S.-based government organizations adopt the .gov domain, especially as there is an increasing need for the public to trust reliable information and its source.

From the General Services Administration — whose Office of Information Integrity and Access manages the top-level .gov domain registry — other reasons why government organizations should obtain a .gov domain:

.gov is Secure.

• The General Services Administration (GSA) oversees the security of the .gov infrastructure and facilitates reporting of potential security incidents to your domain points of contact
• Unlike any other top-level domain (TLD), we conduct HSTS preloading, ensuring use of HTTPS servers, reducing your chances of being phished or routed through a foreign website

.gov is Trusted.

• We manage the .gov TLD, which is exclusive to U.S. government organizations
• We support all official U.S. government organizations, including federal, state, city, and county governments, native sovereign nations (NSN), and interstate and independent intrastate government organizations
• A .gov domain name lends legitimacy to your websites and online tools, and helps your customers trust that your content is official

.gov is Authoritative.

• We host the .gov domain registry and registrar, where .gov domains are housed & managed
• We serve as the policy authority for .gov, overseeing the issuance of .gov domain names, i.e., evaluating each registrant’s authority over, and eligibility for, a given domain name
• We arbitrate name exception requests, set requirements for a domain name’s continued use, and facilitate name transfers

If you are a U.S.-based government organization, get your .gov domain today.