How to shortlist a municipal website design provider
By Geek Heros
Published
Updated
A municipal website redesign is a service-delivery project as well as a design project. Residents need usable information and working routes to services. Staff need a practical way to publish, review, correct, and maintain that information.
The short answer: shortlist a municipal website provider using evidence of the work your agency needs: content management, migration, accessibility testing, integrations, account control, and support. Ask every candidate to respond to the same tasks and requirements. Evaluate the proposed delivery team and contract, not only a portfolio of homepages.
This guide is a planning aid for municipal managers, clerks, communications teams, IT, and procurement staff. Use it within your agency's purchasing rules. It does not replace an issued solicitation, approved evaluation criteria, or professional legal and accessibility review.
Confirm the purchasing route before contacting vendors
Start with procurement. Identify who can communicate with prospective providers, what information may be shared, and whether the project is in market research, an authorized demonstration stage, or a formal competition.
If an RFP is already open, follow its communication instructions and published evaluation process. Do not introduce a new private scoring system or invite a side conversation that conflicts with the solicitation.
Before an RFP is issued, this guide can help your team turn broad goals into requirements. Record any mandatory qualifications, submission requirements, required contract terms, and conditions that would make a vendor ineligible. A strong design presentation cannot substitute for a required qualification.
Define resident tasks and staff tasks together
Choose several real journeys that represent the project. Use approved, non-sensitive sample content rather than personal resident records.
| Resident needs to... | Staff need to... |
|---|---|
| Find the next public meeting and its available materials. | Publish the meeting information and maintain the correct document versions. |
| Find a permit or service application and understand the next step. | Update instructions, maintain the link or integration, and identify the responsible department. |
| Report a problem through the appropriate channel. | Confirm how a request reaches the right team and who owns follow-up. |
| Find an urgent notice on a phone. | Publish an approved notice and remove or revise it when appropriate. |
These are example tasks, not a claim that every agency needs the same system. Choose tasks from your own service responsibilities. Public libraries, park districts, and tourism organizations may have different legal structures, users, and requirements; do not assume they are interchangeable with a municipality.
For each task, record the content owner, reviewing authority, source system, and acceptance evidence. This becomes the foundation for both demonstrations and scope.
Use a shortlist rubric built around evidence
Adapt this rubric before a competition, or use the applicable portions within already approved criteria. Record not addressed, described, demonstrated, or contractually committed, and cite the supporting document or demonstration. These labels describe evidence maturity; they are not universal procurement scores.
| Evaluation area | Evidence to request |
|---|---|
| CMS and publishing | A department editor completing your sample task, including permissions, preview, approval, and correction. |
| Content and migration | An inventory method, migration assumptions, document treatment, URL mapping, and assigned review responsibilities. |
| Accessibility | The target standard, testing scope and methods, evaluator responsibilities, findings format, remediation, and retesting. |
| Integrations | A named inventory showing links, embeds, data connections, third-party dependencies, fees, and failure handling. |
| Ownership and portability | Domain and account control, content and data rights, export formats, license restrictions, and exit assistance. |
| Hosting and operations | Service responsibilities, backup and restoration arrangements, maintenance, incident escalation, and support coverage. |
| Implementation | The proposed delivery team, milestones, dependencies, training, acceptance criteria, and change-control process. |
| Relevant evidence | Live work with the provider's role identified, comparable workflows, reference availability, and candid capability gaps. |
Ask candidates to distinguish standard functionality, configuration, custom development, third-party services, and items excluded from their response. "Available" can mean very different things in a proposal.
Evaluate accessibility as a delivery responsibility
The Department of Justice's Title II web rule uses WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the technical standard for covered state and local government web content and mobile apps. Your agency should confirm its applicable obligations, timing, exceptions, and any additional requirements with qualified advisors. Do not let a vendor's broad "ADA compliant" label replace that review. DOJ web-accessibility rule fact sheet
Ask the provider to identify which templates, pages, documents, forms, and third-party journeys are in the testing scope. Request examples of the findings you would receive and how fixes would be retested before acceptance.
An automated scan is useful evidence, but not a complete determination. W3C explains that knowledgeable human evaluation is needed; no tool alone can establish that a site meets accessibility standards. Ask how manual review fits into the delivery plan. W3C accessibility evaluation overview
Clarify responsibility after launch, too. Who checks a new PDF, a changed form, or an updated component? What training do department editors receive? What happens when staff discover a barrier? These responsibilities belong in scope and ongoing care, with qualified review where needed.
Inspect migration assumptions before comparing prices
Two proposals can use the same page count and cover very different work. One may transfer current pages as they are. Another may include rewriting, reorganizing, document remediation, metadata, and department review.
Ask for separate assumptions for pages, files, repeated records, forms, and externally hosted services. Identify who decides whether content is kept, revised, archived, or retired. Preserve material according to your agency's records and retention requirements; website cleanup is not blanket permission to delete records.
For changed URLs, request a mapping and a test plan for important inbound links. Google's migration guidance includes URL planning, redirects, and post-move monitoring. Ask who owns those tasks rather than treating search continuity as an unexplained promise. Google's site-move guidance
Also ask about the transition itself: content freeze or synchronization, staff approvals, DNS responsibilities, launch support, and what happens if an acceptance test fails. Resolve these dependencies before they become a deadline problem.
Make each integration specific
For permits, payments, agendas, maps, reservations, or service requests, ask the vendor to complete this sentence:
The website will connect to [named system] by [link, embed, or data exchange], using [approved access], with [named owner] responsible for ongoing support.
Then ask who pays third-party charges, who can authorize a connection, and what users see when that service is unavailable. Confirm accessibility and privacy review responsibilities for the complete journey, including the handoff to another system.
Do not assume that a redesign includes replacing every existing platform. Keeping a useful system and improving the path to it may be more appropriate than adding another migration.
Verify references and the proposed operating model
Ask references about work comparable to your requirements: department editing, document volume, migration, training, support, and accessibility remediation. Confirm what the vendor actually delivered and when. A subcontracted design contribution and end-to-end operation of a public website are different experience.
Useful reference questions include:
- Could staff complete routine updates after training?
- Which migration assumptions changed, and how were changes handled?
- What remained unresolved at launch, and who addressed it?
- How did support handle a significant issue?
- What would the agency clarify in the contract if starting again?
Finally, compare the full operating arrangement: recurring licenses, hosting, maintenance, support limits, optional work, renewal terms, and exit obligations. Ask for an export demonstration when portability is important. A promise that "you own your data" needs a usable way to retrieve it.
Frequently asked questions
Must we choose a specialized government CMS?
Start with required workflows, permissions, integrations, support, and evidence. A product's category does not prove it fits your agency. Ask candidates to demonstrate your tasks and identify contractual or licensing limitations before selecting a platform.
Is an accessibility score enough to compare vendors?
No. Ask what was tested, how it was tested, which barriers remain, and who will fix and retest them. A score without scope and methods is incomplete evidence. Your agency's accessibility and legal reviewers should help define acceptance requirements.
Can we use this checklist as our RFP scoring sheet?
Use it to prepare questions and requirements with procurement staff. An issued solicitation's approved criteria and process govern the actual evaluation. This article does not authorize changing them or bypassing competition.
Turn your shortlist into a clearer scope
Bring your current website, priority resident tasks, known content and system dependencies, and the permitted purchasing steps. The Geek Heros municipal website service overview explains our approach to scoping that conversation.
If your procurement process permits it, request a free Website & Digital HQ Assessment. The form requests email follow-up to arrange a conversation, not an immediate booking, purchase commitment, or assurance that Geek Heros meets an unseen RFP. For a formal procurement, use the authorized communication channel and share only material you are permitted to disclose.