U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Communication Standards and Guidelines
Web Content Guidelines
Top Five Standards Every EERE Content Writer Should Know
These are the top five content standards that every EERE Content Writer should know and apply in their work on the EERE Web site.
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Check all of your work against the EERE Content QA Checklist. This will assure that your content meets EERE's content requirements and will help you optimize your content for search.
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Every page should have a unique header and 1-2 lines of intro text that describes what content can be found on the page. Both the header and the intro text should be easy to understand even if reader finds the page through a search engine.
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Content on the Internet must be short, concise, and easy to scan. Use subheaders to break up your content, write short paragraphs, and use lists to break up text when possible.
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Descriptive alt text is a 508 Accessibility requirement, and is required by law for government sites.
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Links should be short, and should clearly tell visitors the name of the page they are going to. If a link goes off the EERE Web site, it should explicitly tell the reader which Web site it leads to.
As the amount of content across EERE Web sites continues to grow, standards and guidelines for content become more important. Adherence to these content guidelines will help ensure that content is consistent across EERE sites and the quality remains high.
Before starting a project, please see the Web Project Management Guidelines, including instructions for charters and maintenance plans. Both of these documents should be submitted to the EERE Web Manager for any Web site project.
Also refer to the EERE Style Guide and Web Content Checklist to ensure that your content adheres to EERE standards and style.
The Web Content Guidelines cover the following topics:
Covers 508 standards and writing accessible content.
Describes the requirements for contact information on EERE sites.
Provides content developers with a checklist to ensure that content adheres to EERE standards.
Describes requirements for obtaining permission to use copyrighted material.
Requirements and best practices for writing good internal and external links.
Information on updating existing content and removing out-of-date content.
Covers the navigation structure and naming conventions used on EERE Web sites.
Covers requirements and best practices for writing headers, subheaders, introductory text, the body of content, and graphics and photos.
Covers requirements and best practices for optimizing page content for search.
Covers requirements and best practices for writing home pages, section landing pages, and content pages.
Describes EERE efforts to implement wikis and blogs.
Information on planning a page, evaluating your approach while you're writing, and reviewing your draft.
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