Contact Information
Here you'll find the requirements and best practices for listing contact information on the EERE Web site. Contact information identifies the owners of a site and provides users with a way to provide feedback and seek additional information. All sites on EERE are required to provide contact information to its readers in the form of a "Contacts" page and a Webmaster.
Including contact information is an Office of Management and Budget policy for all federal agency public Web sites. For more information about this requirement, see the contact information page of the Federal Web Content Managers Toolkit.
Requirements
All Web sites must follow these requirements.
Contacts Pages
Every EERE Web site must include a "Contacts" page.
- For sites with horizontal navigation, is usually placed in the "About" section and listed in the left navigation.
- For sites with no horizontal navigation, "Contacts" is required in the left navigation.
The contacts page should include the organization mailing address and phone number(s) as well as an e-mail address.
Webmasters
Every EERE Web page must include a link to the webmaster in the footer. This link may connect to a Webmaster Inquiry Form, explained below, or go directly to an email address.
Every site needs a webmaster. This person should be familiar with the content of the site and able to answer basic questions about the content.
Privacy Policy
Every EERE Web site must link to EERE's e-mail policy and privacy statement in the footer of every EERE Web page. This is included as part of the security and privacy notices, which is a standard part of the footer template.
Records Management
All webmaster inquiries and responses should be archived and kept for 3 years. Inquiries are classified as program "correspondence" for records management purposes.
Best Practices
These guidelines are recommended to make it easier for you and your users to handle email inquiries more easily.
Webmaster Inquiry Forms
Protect your privacy and yourself from spam e-mail and viruses. Instead of posting e-mail addresses directly online, you can use an inquiry form letter, such as the one on the Communications Standards Webmaster form, to hide your e-mail address. Contact Shauna Fjeld to get the code for this form.
Use Interim Menu Pages for Webmasters
If your site has multiple Webmasters that deal with different sites and topics, you may want to set up an interim menu page. Instead of giving readers one Webmaster address to contact, this menu page directs users to specific sites or people. For an example, see EERE's Webmaster page.
Post Contact Information in Targeted Areas
Contact information changes often and is a large maintenance task. To make it easier to keep your pages up to date, you should minimize the number of locations where contact information is located. Be sure the information is easy to find.
