A government content management system sits at the heart of the public digital experience. The job is not just publishing pages. It is creating a reliable, compliant way to deliver information and services at scale.

• Accessibility by default: Templates, components, and content workflows should help teams meet WCAG 2.1 AA, support semantic HTML, ARIA where appropriate, color contrast checks, and media captioning. Accessibility checks should be embedded into authoring.
• Information architecture that works: Navigation, taxonomy, search, and metadata need to reflect how residents and staff look for information. Content types, tags, and schema should make pages easy to find on the site and in search engines.
• Seamless authoring for non‑technical staff: WYSIWYG where it helps, structured fields where it matters. Inline guidance, page status, and reusable components reduce errors and speed updates.
• Performance and mobile responsiveness: Built‑in image optimization, asset caching, and responsive components keep pages fast on any device and connection.
• Service integrations: Support for forms, payments, calendaring, alerts, CRM or case management, and analytics. Open standards and APIs keep vendor lock‑in low.
• Versioning and workflow: Drafts, reviews, approvals, scheduled publish/unpublish, and audit trails let teams move quickly without losing control.
• Localization: Multilingual content models, translation workflows, and locale routing so every resident can access information in their language.

Use a clear set of criteria and a practical rollout plan. The goal is a CMS that is easy to run, easy to govern, and easy to evolve.

• Selection criteria:
  • Fit for purpose: Support for structured content, forms, search, and service integrations you actually need.
  • Accessibility maturity: Proof of compliance features, pattern libraries, and automated checks.
  • Security posture: Role‑based access, SSO, MFA, audit logging, patch cadence, and third‑party security attestations.
  • Cloud and scalability: Managed hosting, autoscaling, CDN, backup/restore, disaster recovery objectives.
  • Authoring experience: Usability for content owners, component reuse, and guardrails that protect the brand and UX.
  • Total cost of ownership: Licensing or subscription, hosting, implementation, training, and ongoing support.
  • Extensibility: APIs, webhooks, and plugin ecosystem for future services.
• Implementation roadmap:
  • Content audit and IA: Inventory pages, map user tasks, define content types, and rationalize navigation.
  • Design system: Build an accessible component library with tokens for typography, color, spacing, and states.
  • Governed workflows: Define roles, approvals, SLAs, and publishing calendars. Document what "good" looks like.
  • Migration and redirects: Script structured migrations, clean URLs, and 301 maps to preserve SEO and bookmarks.
  • Analytics and search: Configure site search, events, goals, and dashboards tied to service outcomes.
  • Pilot, then scale: Launch a high‑impact section first, capture feedback, refine patterns, roll out in waves.
  • Training and change management: Train authors, provide playbooks, and set up office hours. Measure adoption.

Policy requirements are only useful if they are built into daily work. The CMS should make the right thing the easy thing.

• Roles and least privilege: Granular permissions for authors, editors, approvers, and admins, with SSO and MFA. Separate staging and production access.
• Content lifecycle: Review dates, ownership fields, and automated reminders prevent stale information. Sunset policies clear outdated pages.
• Security controls: Regular patching, WAF, DDoS protection, input validation, and secure media handling. Clear incident response paths.
• Compliance logging: Immutable audit trails for edits, approvals, and deployments. Exportable logs for reviews.
• Data protection: Retention rules, encryption in transit and at rest, and privacy impact assessments for new integrations.
• Quality gates: Pre‑publish checks for broken links, reading level, accessibility, and metadata completeness.
• Business continuity: Backups, restore tests, and documented RTO/RPO so critical pages can be recovered quickly.