The Commonwealth Branding Bar
Agencies should use the Commonwealth Branding Bar to identify their site as an official website of Virginia state government.
The Commonwealth Branding Bar helps citizens identify official websites of government organizations in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It also helps visitors understand that the site they are on is official and secure. Further, the new branding bar allows visitors to navigate across government agencies and search for information Commonwealth-wide, without having to navigate back to Virginia.gov.
This branding bar is mandatory to use for all state agencies and is the enterprise way for visitors to identify that they’re connected to an official Virginia state government website.
This clickable branding bar dropdown (Here’s how you know) explains how to identify an official virginia.gov or related domain, and that these sites have secure HTTPS connections.
Identifying an official virginia.gov or related domain
This clickable branding bar dropdown (Here’s how you know) explains how to identify an official virginia.gov or related domain, and that these sites have secure HTTPS connections.
Find a Commonwealth Resource
The branding bar also features a Find a Commonwealth Resource dropdown menu that allows visitors to navigate to different agencies, and search for information across the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Search a Commonwealth Service or Resource
By searching for a term in the “Search a Commonwealth Service or Resource” field, visitors will be given a list of suggestions based on most frequently used Commonwealth resources.
When to use the Commonwealth Branding Bar
The branding bar should be used by all Virginia agency public websites, on every page, and on any related government website that needs to denote itself as an official website of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
The following entities are considered to be exempt:
- The Virginia Tourism Corporation
- The Library of Virginia
- Museums
- Institutions of Higher Education
- Virginia Economic Development Partnership
- Port Authority of Virginia
When not to use the Commonwealth Branding Bar
Do not use the branding bar when doing so could be misleading or confusing to visitors, such as on sites which are not part of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s state government.
Do not use the Commonwealth Branding Bar if your website is not secure and not using a valid HTTPS certificate.
Usability Guidance
Do not alter the branding bar in any way
The branding bar wording, logo, services menu, and search function must remain intact. Its enterprise use is an aid to citizens and must be the same on all sites. A light theme banner is available to download on developer.virginia.gov.
Keep the banner up to date
Developer.virginia.gov makes it easy for you to keep the Commonwealth Branding Bar up to date. Simply follow the installation instructions for the script provided on the page. If the code is updated and you’ve followed the installation procedure, your branding bar content will update automatically.
The branding bar must be at the top of your website, before any other content of any kind begins.