Column: Make Your Websites Government Friendly

      Given your interest in government work, it is essential to have a “government friendly” website.

      Research by Forrester shows 85% of global senior executives, including government employees, prefer to gather information for a buying decision, and to find out about companies, products and services, via the Internet.

      When buyers are researching your company looking for the products or services you provide, the first or second place they look is your Website.

      The other is either the System for Award Management Website (http://SAM.gov) or the Small Business Administration’s Dynamic Small Business Search Website (http://dsbs.sba.gov).

      If what they are looking for isn’t easily found, they are gone, perhaps never to return again.

Government-friendly requirements

      Let’s look at a few characteristics your website needs in order to be Government friendly.

• Key Design Elements

      Make sure you design it with your target agencies or customers in mind, with simple navigation. The content must be easy for anyone to understand and digest.

      When a buyer lands on your Web page, they want to quickly get to the information they need for an informed decision. If the visitor has to hunt for this information, they may assume you’re hiding something and may leave for your competitor’s Website.

• Ability to load quickly

      Three to five seconds is ideal. No opening splash, no flash, no annoying voice-over or video.

      The average visitor spends about 7 seconds looking at a Web page. If it takes too long to load, visitors might not even see your content.

• Easy to read

      You know what’s easy to read? Black text on a white background. It doesn’t have to be black on white, but the words need to be dark and the background needs to be light. Also, cut out the cutesy fonts. Make sure a print-out is readable.

• Mobile friendly

      More and more people are using smart phones to access data these days. Ninety-six percent of Americans own a smartphone and over 43% of ALL Internet searches are done using a mobile device. So you must consider the look and feel using a mobile device.

• No more than 7 tabs

      Too many tabs makes a Website difficult to navigate.

• Phone number

      Place your phone number at the top of every page in readable font.

Page by Page Website Tips

• Home page.

      Do not post fancy pictures or graphics or vague statements about what you do. Cover the three to five core capabilities and services you provide. Also cover what sets you apart from everyone else – your key differentiators. All of this should track to your Capability Statement.

• “About” Page

      A mission statement and vision are not necessary, while facts about your company are. Include professional head shots of management, business development and customer service staff.

• Capabilities Statement

      Create a separate tab that says “Capability Statement” since that is one of the main items that government buyers want to see. Use a format that is easily read and understood; adopt the format that your target agencies want to see. Make sure it is kept up-to-date and is easily downloadable as a 1-page PDF.

• Contracts

      Include information on each of your available term ID/IQ contracts. Link to applicable Websites if available. Make sure you list the contact information (name, phone number and email address) of your manager for each contract.

• Services

      State the true core capabilities that you provide, not everything that you might want to do. Make sure it tracks to the copy on your home page, your Capability Statement and your published NAICS codes.

• Past Performance

      List a sample of projects you have worked on as a prime contractor. Be brief and use bullet points to describe them. These should also track to the Capability Statement. (If you use agency logos on your Website, be sure you have permission. Many agencies frown on the use of their logos as they can be misconstrued as a recommendation of your company.)

• Contact

      Provide easy ways for users to contact you. If you don’t have a straightforward way for buyers to contact you, you risk losing their trust. The more ways you enable a user to contact you, the better. I strongly recommend physical address, phone number and an email address for a real person; don’t use a nebulous address like “info@company” or “contact@company.”

Conclusion

      Having a good, easy to navigate Website with the information the buyer is searching for will go a long way toward increasing your credibility. Take the time to do it right and it will pay dividends down the road.

Set-Aside Alert will present its popular webinar covering government-friendly websites and capability statements on Feb. 16. For more info and to join the webinar, register at: https://conta.cc/3r3Gofx

Walt Wise is a Federal Business Development Specialist at the BPI Strategy Group and helps small businesses build a robust Federal Business Development system. He can be reached at wpwise@bpistrategy.com.

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Column: Make Your Websites Government Friendly

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