An official website of the United States government
Here’s how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock
( )
or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
Do not use a hyphen for commonly recognized terms such as governmentwide and agencywide. At GSA, we have an exception where there is a hyphen in Office of Government-wide Policy.
Use Merriam-Webster’s guidance. In general, we do not hyphenate.
An abbreviation is any shortened form, like St. for Street, or MD for Maryland. You can use accepted abbreviations in lengthy navigation titles, forms, charts, and tables.
Avoid using them where you can, including Latin abbreviations and in headlines (unless your audience will know it). If you must use them, define them and follow the guidelines that make copy easier to read.
Use abbreviations with full names, dates and numbers and with numbered addresses.
An acronym is a word formed from the first letter or letters of a series of words: MAS stands for Multiple Award Schedule.
Since you cannot assume users have seen other pages on our site, spell out the acronym the first time you use it in body copy on the page. Then use the acronym in all other references that follow. Using acronyms in page titles or headings is OK, but try to rephrase them soon in the body copy.
Remember:
Also, avoid spelling out U.S. General Services Administration or using third-person language, except in products like news items that are designed to be reused outside our site where first person language would not be effective. See GSA, U.S. General Services Administration entry.
Use the abbreviations Ave., Blvd., and St. with a numbered address. Spell them out and capitalize when part of a formal street name without a number.
Always spell out the others (drive, road, terrace, highway, etc.).
Spell out and capitalize First through Ninth when used as street names; use figures for 10th and above.
In a list or table, follow what Google displays (do not add periods, abbreviate all street types).
Do not use ZIP 4 Codes in web content.
Treat them as headings — use sentence case (capitalize first letter and proper nouns only).
For page titles and headings (using HTML tags h2, h3, h4) use sentence case, which means to capitalize only the first word, proper nouns and the first word following a colon. Do not use ending punctuation in headlines, headings or page titles, unless required for abbreviation or clarity.
In body copy, only capitalize the first word after a colon if it is a proper noun or would be a complete sentence.
Do not capitalize acronyms or initialisms when they are spelled out, unless it is a proper noun.
Capitalize all acronyms and initialisms on subsequent references, but do not put the acronym directly after the first reference with parenthesis or comma.
See our glossary for more capitalization examples.
When you need to include a contact, use a single generic contact (phone number, email or both) that feeds into a group inbox or customer relationship management system. Avoid putting the contact information on the right rail; put it in the body of the page instead.
If you must use more than one contact, clarify the specific purpose for each contact. Avoid using contact information that names individuals. This means you might need to establish a Google Group to have a generic email address with members that can be switched out.
Use contractions where they sound natural, but spell out the words for emphasis. Avoid negative contractions (can’t, won’t, don’t) because English language learners and people with learning disabilities can have trouble understanding the sentence without “not.”
Use “create account” to describe getting started on a digital service that requires an account. Do not use “register” to describe creating an account.
See also sign in, sign out and sign up or register.
Abbreviate months with more than five letters when using the month and day or month, day, and year. Do not abbreviate any months if the day is not included.
Use commas to separate the day and year, or to set off the year in a sentence.
Always use Arabic figures, without st, nd, rd or th.
If you use numbered dates such as 02/16/2022 in a table, consider formatting as YYYY/MM/DD if the table is sortable or exportable.
If you use dates with the month as a word in a table, use the first three letters of the word without periods.
Use Washington, D.C., with the added abbreviation only if the city might be confused with the state.
Remove the periods when including a ZIP code. Do not use D.C. standing alone other than in quotations.
When publishing digital content, use HTML whenever possible. Burying key information inside documents, such as PDFs and Microsoft or Google products, makes it hard for users to find information or complete a task. Do not force users to browse documents online. Instead, pull out important information and place it directly on the webpage.
Avoid publishing the following types of content on public-facing sites:
Avoid FAQs, and instead incorporate answers to common questions within context for readers. Include important information, like which services are available and how people can get them, into page content where it makes the most sense for readers and helps them answer their own questions.
Consider using a question format only if:
Limit the number of FAQs to only what is truly required. Divide long lists into sublists with user-centered subheadings.
If your content meets the above criteria, use a heading style to display the question and normal style for the answer. See an example on the federal ID card contact page.
Only use a capital letter when referring to the architectural style and proper nouns (names). Lowercase federal in all other instances.
See also the capitalization entry.
Less means not as much. Use less when referring to things that you cannot count. Fewer means not as many. Use fewer when referring to things you can count.
On first reference, use fiscal year 2023 (as an example). On subsequent references, use FY 2023. Use Q1, Q2, etc., in headings if it would be clear to your audience.
When writing about forms, match the form name as the agency that owns the form has it. If the form has the word form in its proper name, capitalize it. If you are talking about the form in your content, but not calling it by its proper name, do not capitalize the word form.
For example, referring to Standard Form 91 is correct, as is writing about the SF-91 form.
Acceptable in all references to a global positioning system. If a descriptive word is used after GPS, lowercase it.
On GSA sites, users understand the context to be all things GSA by default. Most of the time, you do not need to specify GSA as the agency that owns the program, product, service, policy, and so on. On most pages we should talk to our audience rather than about our agency.
When we need to talk about the agency, simply use GSA. If the full agency name appears in the global header, consider it to be the first reference on every page. In news releases, speeches and biographies spell out the full agency name on first reference, since they may be consumed outside GSA.gov.
To write with a more conversational style, use pronouns “we,” “us,” and “our.”
Avoid making GSA possessive. AP style considers the agency name an adjunct noun modifier acting as a descriptive, rather than a possessive, so you do not need an apostrophe.
Do not add “the” before GSA, because there are General Services Administrations in some states. Also “GSA” is more concise than “the GSA” is more concise without losing clarity. You can use “the GSA” as a modifier.
When discussing GSA in the context of divisions, where the first person is unclear, you can reference the division as us or we and reference GSA as our agency. Agency should be lowercase.
In instances where you reference multiple organizations or agencies, you can replace mentions of GSA with our agency and mentions of a single other agency as your agency. If you reference multiple agencies, you can still reference GSA as our agency and reference other agencies by their name.
Visit the glossary on GSA.gov to find the right style for GSA-specific terms.
A heading is the title or topic of a content item such as a page, document, article, chapter or section.
Use sentence case (capitalize first letter and proper nouns only), not title case. Do not put periods or other punctuation, such as a colon, at the end. You can put a question mark if the heading is a question.
Headings communicate the organization of the content on the page. They must follow a logical order to be compliant with web accessibility requirements. There are six different levels of headings: H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6. A heading 1, or H1, is the largest and most important heading. An H6 is the smallest and least important heading. When creating pages, you must properly rank headings to structure the page so that web browsers, plug-ins, and assistive technologies can use them to provide in-page navigation.
When transferring content from a word processing program to the web, your CMS likely relies on starting with plain text. You may need to reapply your heading styles again.
In a Microsoft Word or Google document, do not introduce Heading 1 style before Title style — if your document has a Title style which is usually reserved for separate title pages.
See also the titles entry.
Use life cycle as two words, even when referring to information technology.
Use short, clear, and descriptive link language so readers understand what they’ll get if they click, and people who use assistive technology can better scan and use the information.
Link noun phrases (without the article) instead of verbs.
Avoid duplicating content. Link to content in its original location.
Do not:
When transferring content from a word processing program to the web, your CMS likely relies on starting with plain text. You may need to rebuild your links again.
Do not add “non-government site” for external website links. The GSA.gov CMS automatically displays an external link icon for links you designate as external. For other sites, follow USWDS style or local style for designating external links.
GSA.gov
The GSA.gov CMS automatically displays the document type and size alongside links you designate as internal documents.
If you add a link to a document on an external site, you will need to manually add the document type inside the link like this: [PDF].
Non-GSA.gov sites
Functionality varies depending on the CMS you use. Use whatever means are appropriate to your CMS to ensure the type and size is annotated for internal documents and the type is annotated for external documents.
See also navigation instructions.
We do not follow AP style for lists, which uses dashes instead of bullets in front of list items.
Format list items (using the bulleted list tool provided in your CMS editor) as follows:
See also Numbers.
Over is acceptable in all uses to indicate greater numerical value. You can also use more than if you prefer it and have space.
Do not burden users by forcing them to mentally process instructions about where to go to click on something. Just provide the link in the proper context to make it easy for users.
Spell out numbers one through nine, and use figures for 10 or above.
Exceptions when you use figures for 0-9 are:
Use numbered lists only for steps or counting. Otherwise choose bulleted lists. Do not use parentheses.
Numbers used to indicate order (first, second, 10th, 25th, etc.) are called ordinal numbers. Spell out first through ninth (fourth grade, first base) and use figures starting with 10th. If in a series, consider recasting to be tighter.
Use the % sign when paired with a number, with no space, in most cases (an AP change in 2019). Also use figures, even under 10.
Do not put “coming soon” or “under construction” pages on live sites. Publishing pages that are empty creates credibility issues. Just wait until the new content is complete, and post it then.
There are also SEO repercussions to posting “coming soon.” Publishing pages that are empty can also affect an established page’s ranking in search engines. When search crawlers discover that a page with previously rich content is now blank, it can drop it at the bottom of its search engine results ranking or exclude it altogether. Without the ranking, a site could lose organic traffic.
Plain language law requires that anyone who needs our web content can find, understand, and use it the first time. Plain language also helps us reach more people with our missions, messages, products, and services. When creating information for web distribution:
Just because information is out there does not mean your intended audiences can find it.
Readability
There is not a standard readability level your content must meet. Where possible, try to incrementally lower it from where it started. Email us at webstyleguide@gsa.gov if you need access to Siteimprove, a tool for quality assurance.
Identify your audience and address them directly. Use pronouns such as “you” or ”your” to refer to the reader and use “we” or “our” when referring to GSA or our organization. Using pronouns makes the actor clear and makes the tone more conversational.
When the use of FAQs is warranted, use:
Use GSA when:
Use the ampersand when it is part of an organization’s formal name or composition title: American Bar Association Debarment & Suspension.
Do not use it in place of the word “and” except in accepted abbreviations.
Use an apostrophe to create possessives, plural nouns, omitted letters (contractions), and omitted figures. Use only an apostrophe (without s) when making a possessive out of a singular proper name, such as PBS or FAS.
Use an apostrophe (not an open single quote) when omitting characters. Type the apostrophe key twice and delete the first entry to get an apostrophe, or type Alt 0146 for a closing single quote).
If a comma does not help clarify what is being said, it should not be there. If omitting a comma could lead to confusion or misinterpretation, then use the comma.
We do not follow AP Style so we use a comma before “and” or “or” in a series of three or more items — unless it’s a very simple series and a comma would not provide clarity.
Colons may be used for emphasis, lists, dialogue, Q and A, and with quotes. Capitalize the first word after a colon only if it is a proper noun or the start of a complete sentence. If you apply bold to the word or phrase before the colon, make the colon bold too.
Do not use colons when you have a heading style.
Do not put a space before the colon, but put one space after the colon.
Use em dashes (the width of the letter M):
In lists (on GSA.gov and InSite), we use bullets; not dashes.
Put a space on both sides of an em dash in all uses.
AP does not use en dashes (the width of the letter N).
Use hyphens as joiners, such as for compound modifiers and ranges. To decide whether or which words to hyphenate in compound modifiers, first look up the phrase in Merriam-Webster’s.
Here are general guidelines for hyphens:
Do not hyphenate compound modifiers that end in -ly.
There should be no spaces surrounding a hyphen.
Use them in the following situations:
Use single quotes if quoting within a quote or a headline.
Do not put quotes in Q-and-A dialogue.
Use them in the following situations:
When they are used with quotation marks, place them outside the quote mark.
Avoid them. If you must use one, there is no space on either side.
Note: a slash or forward slash (/) is different from a backslash (\).
Use curly (also known as smart) quotes and apostrophes instead of straight. If the font uses straight quotes, use the table below to manually adjust them to curly.
| Special character | Windows | Mac | HTML |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening single quote (‘) | alt 0145 | option + ] | ‘ |
| Closing single quote (’) | alt 0146 | option, shift + ] | ’ |
| Opening double quotes (“) | alt 0147 | option + [ | “ |
| Closing double quotes (”) | alt 0148 | option, shift + [ | ” |
Also called a pipe, this symbol was used in math, computing and physics. You can use it to separate content where appropriate. Put a space on either side.
Use register when it’s part of a proper noun or to describe enrolling in training or tracking vehicles. Do not use register to describe creating an account.
Use one space between sentences.
Use “must,” not “shall” or “should,” to impart an obligation or requirement.
Use sign in or sign out to describe starting or ending a digital session that requires a username and password.
Do not use other variations like log in, login, log into, log on, logon, log onto, log off, log out, logout, sign into, sign-in, signoff, sign off or sign on unless these terms appear in the user interface (and you’re writing instructions).
See also Create an account.
Use “sign up” as a verb to describe adding oneself to a mailing list.
Use “register” when describing the act of enrolling (such as in training), according to Merriam-Webster.
The names of the 50 U.S. states should be spelled out. Communication specialists who create news products follow AP’s guidance on datelines.
Use postal code abbreviations in tables, lists, or with complete addresses with ZIP codes.
Use figures and hyphens (not parentheses or dots).
The form for toll-free numbers is the same.
If extension numbers are needed, use a comma to separate the main number from the extension: 212-621-1500, ext. 2.
In general, avoid adding text styling, such as bold, italics, color, font, or size. Your website’s content management and design systems are automatically programmed to provide a consistent style and user experience.
When transferring content from a word processing program to the web, your CMS likely relies on starting with plain text. If you had bold or italics in your word processing version, you will need to reapply it in the CMS.
In the rare cases where you need to manually add bold or italics in the source code, make sure the HTML uses <strong> and <em> (not <b> or <i>). In Microsoft Word, use the Styles pane “Strong” and “Emphasis,” rather than using the Bold or Italic buttons in the Font pane. These are better for accessibility.
AP style does not use italics. As with all style guidance, the author can choose to use italics as appropriate.
Do not underline any words or phrases that are not links. Use the links guidance when creating links.
If you need to change text color, ensure minimum color contrast for accessibility.
Use figures except for noon and midnight. Use a colon to separate hours from minutes only when displaying a time other than the beginning of the hour (do not use a colon or following 00 with a time at the beginning of an hour). Also use a hyphen with no spaces before and after for time ranges.
Capitalize the full name of the time in force within a particular zone. Lowercase all but the region in short forms.
The abbreviations EST, CDT, etc., are acceptable on first reference for zones used within the continental United States, Canada and Mexico only if the abbreviation is linked with a clock reading.
Only capitalize when they directly precede someone’s name. Do not capitalize titles that:
This style allows screen readers to distinctly pronounce every word in the address (as they do in hashtags) instead of reading it as one long jumbled word. This pattern helps visually impaired screen reader users, as well as someone with dyslexia or an intellectual disability.
The abbreviation is acceptable as a noun or adjective for United States. In body copy you can write U.S. (with periods) or United States. In headlines, refer to proper nouns as they are named. Even though AP Stylebook guidance is to remove periods from “U.S.” in headlines, we keep them in.
Do not use welcome messages on web pages. They were common in the 1990s but are no longer necessary. Today’s web users expect actionable content.
You can use “welcome” in an interaction design, such as an app where a user must sign in, because it is a natural response to a successful sign-in.
Error, The Per Diem API is not responding. Please try again later.
No results could be found for the location you've entered.
Rates for Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. territories and possessions are set by the Department of Defense.
Rates for foreign countries are set by the Department of State.
Rates are available between 10/1/2022 and 09/30/2025.
The End Date of your trip can not occur before the Start Date.
Traveler reimbursement is based on the location of the work activities and not the accommodations, unless lodging is not available at the work activity, then the agency may authorize the rate where lodging is obtained.
Unless otherwise specified, the per diem locality is defined as "all locations within, or entirely surrounded by, the corporate limits of the key city, including independent entities located within those boundaries."
Per diem localities with county definitions shall include"all locations within, or entirely surrounded by, the corporate limits of the key city as well as the boundaries of the listed counties, including independent entities located within the boundaries of the key city and the listed counties (unless otherwise listed separately)."
When a military installation or Government - related facility(whether or not specifically named) is located partially within more than one city or county boundary, the applicable per diem rate for the entire installation or facility is the higher of the rates which apply to the cities and / or counties, even though part(s) of such activities may be located outside the defined per diem locality.
U.S. General Services Administration