Are you registered to bid on government contracts?

Yes. We hold procurement requirements reviewed per engagement — the identifiers required for US federal and Canadian federal procurement. We can also operate as a sub-contractor under prime contractors who hold additional certifications (SOC 2, FedRAMP). We are not currently certified at FedRAMP Moderate or higher; for projects that require that level we partner with prime contractors who are.

What accessibility standard do you build to?

WCAG 2.2 AA at minimum, with WCAG 2.1 AAA-level effort on key flows. EN 301 549 for EU public-sector sites. Section 508 for US federal. AODA for Ontario. We audit with both automated tools (axe-core, Pa11y) and manual screen-reader testing (NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver).

Do you handle multilingual government sites?

Yes. We've built sites in EN/FR for Canadian federal-adjacent contexts, FR/EN/AR for French municipalities with significant North African populations, DE/EN/TR for German municipal services. Proper hreflang, locale-specific content (not auto-translated for legal text), and language-aware service flows.

What about Open Data and FOI publication?

We integrate with open-data portals (CKAN, Socrata, custom) and we build FOI / FOIA / Access-to-Information request workflows. We've shipped sites with public dataset catalogues, transparency dashboards, and council-meeting publication pipelines.

How long does a government website take?

16–28 weeks for a typical municipal site. 28–52 weeks for federal agency sites or sites with deep service-portal integration. Government procurement and review cycles add real time — we plan for them, we don't pretend they don't exist.

Government website development

Why government websites are their own thing

Government websites carry constraints that consumer or B2B sites don't. They must be accessible to every citizen including those with disabilities. They must be multilingual where the jurisdiction requires it. They must be permanent in a way commercial sites aren't — URLs from a decade ago must still resolve. They must be auditable, secure, and procurement-defensible. And they must serve users who are often anxious, often time-constrained, and often interacting with the site during a moment of crisis.

Marketing MIX, an international marketing studio headquartered in Ottawa, has shipped government and government-adjacent websites across Canada, Ukraine, and the EU. We hold the procurement identifiers required for federal contracting and we work to the accessibility and security standards that real audits enforce.

What every government website we ship includes

Accessibility built in, not bolted on

WCAG 2.2 AA across all content from day one.
Manual screen-reader testing with NVDA, JAWS, and VoiceOver.
Keyboard navigation working on every interactive element.
Color contrast meeting AAA where feasible without sacrificing readability.
Plain-language editorial standards (recommended Hemingway/Grade-8 reading level for service pages).
Captions on all video, transcripts for all audio.
Alt text reviewed for accuracy, not just presence.

Multilingual where required

Proper hreflang and dual-canonical handling.
Locale-specific content production (not machine translation for legal or service text).
Language-aware service flows.
Right-to-left support where applicable (Arabic, Hebrew).

Service-oriented navigation

"What service do you need?" as the top-level navigation, not "What department are you visiting?"
Service pages structured around what the citizen wants to accomplish.
Cross-references to related services.
Mobile-first design — service interactions are increasingly mobile-only for many demographics.

Forms and service requests

Multi-step forms with save-and-resume.
Document upload with virus scanning and accessibility-aware upload interfaces.
Identity integration with government SSO (GCKey, Login.gov, France Connect, BankID) where available.
Confirmation, tracking, and follow-up communication.

Open data and transparency

Integration with open-data portals (CKAN, Socrata, custom).
Council-meeting publication, agendas, minutes, and recordings.
Budget transparency dashboards.
FOI / Access-to-Information request workflows.

Security baseline

WAF, rate limiting, DDoS protection.
Encrypted transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest.
Audit logging with retention per jurisdictional requirement.
Regular dependency and vulnerability scanning.
Disaster-recovery runbook with tested restore procedures.
Access controls and quarterly access review.

Procurement-friendly architecture

Open-source stack (Next.js, React, PostgreSQL) — auditable and free of vendor lock-in.
Hosted on infrastructure approved by your procurement (AWS GovCloud, Azure Government, Cloudflare for Government, or on-premises where required).
Documentation that supports knowledge transfer to in-house teams.

Types of government sites we've shipped

Municipal services portals. Public health information sites. Cultural and heritage agency sites. Transparency and open-data portals. Election commission sites. Tourism boards. Public consultation platforms. Government-supported business assistance programs. Charity and grant-distribution platforms operated by or on behalf of government.

For deeper certification work (FedRAMP, ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II) we partner with prime contractors who hold those certifications and operate as the design and development sub-contractor.

Pricing

A clearly scoped audit starts at €1,800. Ongoing retainers start at €2,400 per month. Larger projects are quoted after scope is agreed.

What we don't do

Build sites on proprietary CMSes that lock the agency into a specific vendor for life.
Compromise on accessibility to hit a deadline. We delay launches rather than ship inaccessible sites.
Bid on projects that require FedRAMP High or above without partnering with a prime contractor who already holds it.

For non-government regulated-industry sites with similar compliance shape: /development-of-the-medical-center-website and /development-of-a-website-for-a-law-firm. For the broader infrastructure work that often accompanies government builds: /construction-of-it-infrastructure-turnkey.

Written by the Marketing MIX public-sector team. Last reviewed: 2026-05-13. procurement requirements reviewed per engagement.

Government websites that pass accessibility audits and procurement reviews