Features
Every feature a village website needs
GovSites comes with everything a village, town or township website needs, already built and connected. Here’s what’s included in every plan.
Meetings, agendas and minutes
The heart of a village website. Every meeting keeps its documents together, and the portal keeps your posting deadlines in view.
- Agenda, packet, minutes and video link on one meeting record
- Boards and commissions with their members, seats and regular schedules
- Clear status for residents: scheduled, rescheduled, cancelled or held
- Reminders when an agenda is due 48 hours before a meeting, or approved minutes are due within 10 days, under the Illinois Open Meetings Act
- Upcoming meetings on your home page and a complete history on the meetings page
Alerts and notices
When something affects residents, it goes at the top of every page.
- Three levels: information, advisory (road closures, boil orders) and emergency
- Set a start and end time, and the alert comes down on its own
- Link an alert to a page or news post with the details
Documents and records
Ordinances, budgets, audits, reports and forms, organized so residents can find them.
- Categories, departments, document dates and descriptions
- A separate archive for older records, clearly labeled
- An accessibility status on every document, so you know which PDFs need attention
- Documents appear in site search alongside everything else
Community calendar
Board meetings, holidays, pickups and community events in one place.
- All-day or timed events with locations and categories
- Feature an event on your home page
- Link an event to a registration page or partner website
Departments, boards and staff
Keep contact information in one place, and every page that shows it stays current.
- A page for each department with hours, phone, email, address and department head
- A directory of staff and elected officials with titles, photos and terms
- Your village’s own titles: Village President or Mayor, Board of Trustees or Council
- An ADA coordinator and FOIA officer listed where residents expect them
Services and online forms
Answer “How do I…?” questions and take requests online.
- Service pages with steps, links and the department that handles them
- Your most-used services as quick links on the home page
- Forms for contact, records requests and service requests, sent to the right staff
- Spam protection built in, without puzzles for residents to solve
News and pages
Share updates and build the rest of your site from ready-made sections.
- News posts with summaries and images that also appear on your home page
- Pages built from text, calls to action, forms and media
- Search engine titles and descriptions for every page
- Redirects from your old website’s addresses, so links keep working
Site search
One search box for everything on your site.
- Searches services, pages, news, departments, staff, documents and meetings
- Results grouped so residents can tell a meeting from a document at a glance
Your look, without the risk
Make the site unmistakably yours while keeping it accessible.
- Five color palettes, each checked for contrast: Heritage navy and gold, Prairie green, Lakeshore blue, Main Street brick and Civic slate
- Your seal, a hero photo, your address and office hours
- Menus and footer links you control
Domains, hosting and security
The technical side, handled for you.
- Your own domain, including a free .gov address through get.gov
- Secure HTTPS certificates, hosting and software updates included
- Databases in the United States with point-in-time recovery
- An authenticator app for every staff sign-in, and lockouts after repeated failed attempts
Accessibility built in
Built to WCAG 2.1 AA, the standard in the Department of Justice’s ADA Title II rule.
- Templates tested with automated accessibility checks on every release
- Keyboard access, skip links, visible focus and a clear heading structure on every page
- Forms with proper labels and error messages
- An accessibility statement on every site
- No accessibility overlay widgets, ever
A portal your staff will actually use
Organized around what a village posts, not around how websites are built.
- Sections for Meetings, Alerts, Documents, News, Events and Pages
- Drafts, and posts scheduled to publish on their own
- Village admins manage settings and forms; editors manage content
- Staff who serve more than one government can switch between them
Coming soon
On the way, and included in your plan
These features are in development. When they launch, they’re included in your plan at no extra cost, except the add-ons listed on our pricing page.
Visual page designer and templates
Click to edit, drag sections into place and preview on a phone, with accessible building blocks.
AI writing help
Turn rough notes into a formatted notice, summarize long documents and suggest plain-language rewrites. A person approves every draft.
Email and text alerts
Send alerts, agendas and news to subscribers by email, and urgent notices by text.
Resident AI assistant
Answers questions like “When is leaf pickup?” from your own site’s content.
Translation
Spanish and one more language, drafted by AI and reviewed by your staff.
Accessibility monitoring
Regular scans of your whole site and checks on every PDF you upload.
Department approvals and Microsoft 365 sign-in
Route posts for approval by department, and let staff sign in with their work accounts.
See your new website before you decide
Start a free 30-day trial and we’ll set up a preview of your village’s new site. Or tell us what you need and get a priced proposal to share with your board.