An Introduction to Content (Digital.gov)
A practitioner overview of digital-content best practices for government sites. No publish date is shown on the page; year above reflects the access date, not a stated publication year.
License: Public domain — U.S. federal government work (17 U.S.C. § 105)
Key points
Six ways to create useful, relevant content:
- Default to HTML — eliminate PDFs and publish as Web pages to improve usability and accessibility; digitize forms and services rather than scanning paper ones.
- Use Plain Language — tailor content to audience needs, write conversationally, avoid unnecessary complexity, and test content with real users; follow the Federal Plain Language Guidelines.
- Optimize for search — publish structured content with metadata/tags so search engines can index and display it correctly.
- Keep content current — review regularly for accuracy, mark when something was last updated, give campaigns a defined timeframe, and promptly remove outdated or rarely-used material.
- Demonstrate authoritativeness — include all legally/organizationally required content and links, and clearly distinguish official governmental sources from non-governmental ones using consistent design-system components.
- Provide appropriate access — offer content in other languages based on actual audience need, and have a person validate machine translations before publishing them.
Recommends conducting a full content audit at least once a year; cites the USDA’s four-step audit process (set goals, establish scope, build a data-collection spreadsheet, then run the audit).