Link to Appropriate Cross-Agency Portals

What It Is

Link to appropriate cross-agency portals when applicable, to guide the public to additional resources that exist across the U.S. government. This is a best practice for managing your agency’s website.

Why It's Important

Links to cross-agency websites (portals) can supplement or eliminate the need to create (or recreate) information on your website. Links to other government sites can guide visitors to additional resources they might not otherwise find. This is especially important for federal public websites since many visitors do not know the organizational structure of the government and may need help to find information and services. Links to portals also help visitors get to the most authoritative, current source for the information. It's much more efficient for you to link to information that someone else is keeping current than to have to recreate that information and keep it up-to-date yourself.

OMB Policies for Federal Public Websites require agencies to (#1A) “disseminate information to the public in a timely, equitable, efficient and appropriate manner” and (#2A) “maximize the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information and services provided to the public,” and (#3F) “must identify mandatory links and post (or link to) the following information on their principal website and any known major entry points to their sites ... 8) other cross-government portals or links required by law or policy.” By linking to cross-agency portals, instead of recreating information yourself, you will make your website more efficient and useful.

How to Implement

• If there is an appropriate, useful government-wide portal on a particular topic or for a particular audience, link to that government-wide portal from your page(s) on that topic. USA.gov has a list of recognized cross-agency portals.
• As with all links, review your links to cross-agency portals routinely, to ensure they are current and accurate.
• When providing organizational information to visitors (for example, a list of all cabinet-level agencies or independent agencies), link to USA.gov's Government Departments and Agencies page.
• If a cross-agency portal doesn't closely relate to your information, don't link to it. It can confuse the audience. Link only if the portal content adds additional information or is a natural “next step” for your audience.

Examples

• The Treasury Department links to related financial portal sites
• The State Department Business Center links to federal business-related portals

Many agencies follow this best practice, which is part of the guidelines and best practices published by the Interagency Committee on Government Information to aid agencies' implementation of OMB's Policies for Federal Public Websites.