• Basic Quality Standards
• Web Header Banner

• Browser Compatibility
• Accessibility

As of May 2010, all websites created for Grand Valley State University academic and administrative units must be hosted on GVSU servers (gvsu.edu) and must use the GVSU content management system (CMS).

Any use of the Internet resources of GVSU for revenue-generating advertising, promotion of businesses not related to GVSU, or personal sales is not allowed. For more information, please read Information Technology's policies and procedures.

All GVSU websites are responsible for adhering to GVSU web standards.

Contact the GVSU web team for assistance in meeting the minimum design standards or to request official GVSU graphics that meet your design needs.

1. Current – Page content and resources must be current. This is particularly important when including lists of events, opportunities, faculty, etc. Publish dates on pages should not exceed six months from the current date.
2. Audience-oriented – Every page and section within the website should be composed with key audiences in mind. Wording, images, and other resources should be appropriate for the target audiences.
3. Goal Oriented – Content must support documented unit objectives. If it is no longer relevant to these objectives, it should be archived offline or deleted.
4. Accurate – Page content and resources (links, pdf's, embedded videos, etc.) must provide correct information. This is closely related to item 2. Contact the web team for quality assurance tools. 
5. Complete – Pages and resources should be completed before publishing. Partial pages and "under construction" references are not acceptable.
6. Aligned – Content must support and reflect our mission, vision, and values.
7. Legal – Content must adhere to federal and state laws and regulations. Note that this clearly applies to trademarks and copyrights.
8. Policy compliant – Content must comply with university and GVSU policies.
9. Brand compliant – Content must comply with GVSU Identity Guidelines as presented throughout this website. Contact University Marketing with questions at [email protected] or (616) 331-2525.

Although the following piece of code may be inserted anywhere into your website's HTML, we suggest placing it at the very bottom right before the end body tag. This way, if our code ever has an error, it will not prevent your website from loading.

<!-- GVSU Web Header Banner - Version 1.2, June 2018 -->
<script>
    var search = true; // If set to "true", the search field will be displayed
    (function(g,v,s,u){s=g.createElement('script');s.async=true;
    s.src='https://www.gvsu.edu/includes/topbanner/external.js?search='+(v===true?'1':'0');
    u=g.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];u.parentNode.insertBefore(s,u)})(document,search);
</script>

<!--- Optionally, include a DIV with an ID of "gvsu-topbanner" if you need to specify where the GVSU topbanner is located: --->
<!-- <div id="gvsu-topbanner"></div> -->

All sites must properly load and function in the two latest versions, not including beta releases, of the following Internet browsers:

• Microsoft Edge
• Mozilla Firefox
• Google Chrome
• Apple Safari

Bear in mind that a growing number of visitors to GVSU sites are using mobile devices. Please ensure that your content is accessible to this audience.

Grand Valley State University strives to be an inclusive environment. As such, it is GVSU's policy to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Please see Grand Valley's ADA philosophy statement for more information.

To comply with the ADA, documents posted online, including, but not limited to, Adobe PDF files, Microsoft Word documents, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, and online flipbooks, must be screen-reader friendly. Screen-reader software is a form of assistive technology that reads a screen's display aloud to the user. Learn about Making Documents Accessible.

Additionally:

• The use of framesets is discouraged.
• The use of alt tags on images is required.
• A text-only version or site map of the homepage and its subordinate pages is encouraged.

For more information on web accessibility, carefully review the W3C Web Accessibility Initiatives guidelines.