Purpose of the DGA Guidelines

These guidelines are meant to offer a stipulation-supported course of action on the making up, control, and supply of material to all of the available websites in the government. It provides essential expectations with reference to KSA DGA privacy regulations to secure other regular and lawful digital interactions with the citizens and stakeholders.

Who Should Follow These Standards

Ministries and government entities
Public agencies and departments
Contractors handling public websites or platforms
IT, development, and content teams within the government
Regulatory bodies monitor compliance with the Saudi data protection law and DGA guidelines

Key Objectives of DGA Guidelines

The Key Objectives of DGA Guidelines is shaped with the view to assist the government agencies in Saudi Arabia to provide consistent, secure, accessible, and citizen-centric digital services. These principles make provision for digital alignment with the national priorities, and they facilitate best practice in e-governance.

Improve Accessibility and Usability

One of the principal objectives of the DGA framework is to make sure that the digital platforms are accessible and can be used by all people, including those with disabilities.

Websites must be WCAG accessibility compliant.
Texts need to be readable, mobile-adaptive, as well as cross-device.
Such features as compatibility with screen readers, keyboard interaction and language settings must be offered.
Outdated, broken, or non-functional services must be regularly updated or removed.

Promote Transparency and Trust

Digital services should reflect integrity and openness by offering accurate and clearly communicated information.

All content must be truthful, regularly updated, and verified.
Contact details and service explanations should be easily accessible.
Policies, terms of service, and FAQs must be clearly stated.
Government portals should include channels for feedback, complaints, or public queries.

Align with Saudi Vision 2030

Public sector websites must directly contribute to the Kingdom’s strategic goal of a fully digital, diversified, and efficient society.

Who Should Follow These Standards

Enable more e-services to reduce in-person administrative burdens.
Promote citizen participation in national development.
Encourage private sector collaboration through open data and transparency.
Enhance global digital competitiveness by modernizing government interfaces.

Enforce Security Standards

Safeguarding users’ data and protecting platforms from cyber threats is a critical requirement.

Use hard encryption and data storage.
Conduct frequent security tests and compliance reviews.
Secure systems against unauthorized access by people and data.
Adhere to the data privacy laws of the country as promulgated by the DGA KSA.

Standardize Across Ministries

Creating a consistent look and experience across all government websites helps users engage confidently with multiple agencies.

Follow a unified design system (typography, layout, navigation).
Maintain consistent language and terminology across services.
Use standardized data formats and metadata tagging.
Adhere to centralized guidelines issued by DGA Saudi Arabia.

Foundational Principles

User-Centric Design

The entire design of all governmental websites must have the end user in focus. This comes in the form of simplified navigation, responsive designs and rational structures of content offices reflecting the requirements of DGA-compliant Saudi Arabia.

Content Accessibility

Websites should observe the current accessibility requirements like WCAG 2.1 (Level A/AA) to allow individuals with disabilities to use them. It is a compulsory stipulation in the DGA guidelines of Saudi Arabia in the private sector.

Mobile-First Responsiveness

A mobile-first approach would be disastrous in Saudi Arabia due to the country's massive smartphone population. The platforms should be able to operate on all screens without any issue to guarantee them full compliance with the DGA guidelines on data storage in Saudi Arabia.

Security and Privacy Compliance

Strict privacy policies and data encryption practices must be implemented in line with DGA privacy regulations KSA, and the Saudi Arabia DGA data breach protocol. This ensures government websites offer safe and secure user experiences.

Content Structure Requirements

A properly developed and organized digital platform is a key to a better user experience, better terms of accessing the services, or the ability of information to be represented in a clear, efficient, and user-friendly way. The following Content Structure Requirements should be considered essential for public sector websites in Saudi Arabia.

These strategies are developed in alignment with both the DGA guidelines for the public sector Saudi Arabia and the DGA risk assessment framework Saudi Arabia.

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Clear Hierarchy of Information

Texts should be well structured and organized by following logical order and consistency, displayed in headings and subheadings (H1, H2, H3).

H1 (Main Page Title): Only grammatically employed to give a definition to what the page is about.
H2 (Main Section Headings): For major categories or topics under the H1.
H3 (Subsections): Used for breaking down complex topics under each H2.

A well-structured page:

Helps users scan and find information quickly.
Enables search engines to better index content.
Improves accessibility, especially for assistive technologies.

Use of Simple and Standard Language

Communication should be in simple, few words, as well as standard and acceptable language to all kinds of users, regardless of whether they are digitally literate or not, depending on their education levels.

It should be aimed at avoiding jargon and extremely technical terms.
Use simple wordings in place of difficult wordings.
Apply active voice and Action words.
Use simple sentences and do not get into protracted explanations.

This approach:

Reduces confusion.
Ensures clarity for all user groups.
Speeds up comprehension, especially on mobile devices.

Multilingual Support (Arabic First)

Given the national language and user base, Arabic should be the default language on all government digital platforms. However, content must be multilingual where necessary to accommodate diverse residents and visitors.

Prioritize Arabic for all primary content, navigation, and forms.
Provide English or other language translations only where relevant.
Ensure language switch options are easily accessible on every page.
Translations must maintain accuracy, tone, and formatting.

Multilingual support:

Enhances inclusivity.
Reflects cultural respect.
Meets the national identity requirements of Saudi Arabia and DGA guidelines..

A Bullet Point, Headings, and Short Paragraphs Usage

In order to make this easy to read and to scan the content, websites should have bullet points, small paragraphs and a clear heading at each part of the website.

Divide long work into easy-to-handle chunks.
Bullets used in lists for steps and key points.
Keep the paragraphs to 2-4 sentences.
Avoid screen clutter with efficient white space usage.

This format:

Helps users absorb information quickly.
Improves mobile usability.
Keeps pages visually clean and accessible.

A Bullet Point, Headings, and Short Paragraphs Usage

Proper Call-to-Action Buttons and Guidelines

All pages related to the service should have clear call-to-action (CTA) buttons and usage instructions that would guide the user or allow the accomplishment of steps without any effort.

Examples of CTAs:

“Apply Now”
“Download Form”
“Book Appointment”
“Submit Feedback”

Guidelines should:

Be placed near each CTA to explain its purpose.
Be written in a clear, user-friendly tone.
Include icons or symbols for easier recognition.

Benefits of proper CTAs and guidelines:

Drive user engagement.
Reduce abandonment of processes.
Ensure compliance with DGA user experience standards.

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Accessibility Guidelines

To ensure accessibility, the following must be present:

Requirement	Purpose
WCAG 2.1 Compliance	Borderless universally acceptable minimum standards (Level A/AA)
Alt Text for Images	Supports visually impaired users using screen readers
Keyboard Navigation	Enables complete site usage without a mouse
High Contrast and Fonts	Made it easier for people with limited vision to read

These principles must be followed, especially on portals governed by DGA guidelines for healthcare in Saudi Arabia and DGA requirements for financial institutions. The DGA mandates that the things they are to be used for should be culturally and socially significant and that they should also engage various people groups in a meaningful way.

Visual and Multimedia Content

Multimedia and visual features are significant in boosting user experience, better understanding, and inclusive digital content.

Guidelines for Image Placement and Quality

Apply good quality and suitable images which relate well to the neighbouring text.
Images are to be put near the text they are referring to in order to see them better together.
Every image should be optimized to avoid a slow load while maintaining the original quality.
Add Arabic and English alt text that will aid in screen readers and enhance seo.

Video Content with Captions

The written content should not be sacrificed by the videos but supplemented.
Every video material will require correct captions (Arabic and English).
To make streaming easy, videos should be mobile-friendly and light.
Captions enhance accessibility to the hearing impaired and provide a multilingual experience.

Use of Icons and Infographics

The symbols that are opted for should be culturally matching and also easily understood.
Visualize complicated numbers or step-by-step corporate procedures with infographics.
The use of visual aids in decision-making is one of the effective and fast methods to gather data and remember it at the time of need.
Make sure the graphics are color contrasted and text legible and usable by every user.

Website Navigation and UX

In order to have a smooth and inclusive digital experience, the Website Navigation and UX of public sector websites should pay the closest attention to the DGA compliance requirements Saudi Arabia. An effective user interface can not only enhance the degree of usability, but also the quality of transparency, accessibility, and efficiency of services, especially important in such streams as healthcare and the financial sector.

Logical Menu Structures

A navigation menu must be user-friendly and easy to navigate, with the user making the minimum clicks to get to their desired content.

All services offered by the group should be categorised into distinct short names.
Do not over clutter the menu.
Apply multi-level navigation to use drop-downs or sidebars.

This assists the users, particularly new visitors, in locating services or information in a short span of time without getting frustrated.

Search Functionality

An efficient search function is essential for users to access services directly, particularly on large government portals.

Include keyword suggestions and auto-complete features.
You must provide options that aid users in refining their search.
Ensure the search supports both Arabic and English.

Breadcrumbs and Back Buttons

There should always be a certain degree of knowing where one is on the site and how to turn back without getting a loss.

Path indicators are a very effective means of highlighting and tracing a website's structural layout through the presentation of the active page's URL.
Users can easily revert with the help of the back button to the previous steps.

These aspects facilitate easy navigation, particularly to apps that include appointment booking, application submission or a document request.

Responsive Layout Across Devices

The desktop, tablet and mobile screens should have a fully responsive site.

Components that are responsive to adaptive design, which adapt to screen sizes.
Make sure that text, buttons and forms are usable across devices.
Do not make parts of your screen horizontal to scroll and create distorted impressions on the pictures.

Since most people currently use services through mobile and some in distant or remote locations to access these services, a responsive design is critical in being DGA compliant.

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Content Management and Review

Effective content governance is key to public sector website excellence. As per the DGA data stewardship model, agencies must manage content systematically setting review cycles, fixing issues, and ensuring compliance with national data policies. This maintains public trust and supports Saudi Arabia’s digital transformation.

Content Ownership Roles

Each web page or digital asset must have a designated content owner responsible for its accuracy, quality, and compliance. These custodians ensure timely updates as policies or services change, streamlining content review and retirement. This practice is key to the DGA content governance plan, especially for ministries and departments.

Review and Update Frequency

Updating the content after every 3-6 months is an effective method of consolidating digital data. Periodic revisions allow the detection of material that is no longer suitable, not performing well for removal, and at the same time, they introduce new policies. These stages are the ones that are supported by the DGA risk assessment framework, which also helps to ensure that the processes are less risk-oriented and more user-friendly.

Content Archiving Protocols

Under DGA guidelines in Saudi Arabia, obsolete or duplicate content must be archived—not deleted—to ensure traceability, legal compliance, and knowledge preservation. Archiving should include version control and secure workflows to manage transitions, protect data, and support future audits or research.

Legal and Privacy Considerations

All of the Saudi government websites need to comply with the DGA privacy rules KSA and national data protection laws to retain the faith of people and keep the websites within the law. These policies protect the personal data, maintain the transparency of the data, and enhance the ethical management of digital space. The most important legal and privacy requirements are presented below.

Display of Terms and Conditions

Every public sector website must clearly present Terms and Conditions that outline:

The permitted use of the site and its services.
User responsibilities and access limitations.
Intellectual property rights and the disclaimer provisions.

These terms are preferably located in the footer and read in both English and Arabic to be more inclusive and transparent.

Not sophisticated or complex or high-tech.
Clear description of data about the users, their use, storage and sharing.
According to the Saudi data protection law and DGA guidelines.

This ensures users are informed and can verify how their personal information is handled a requirement under the DGA privacy framework.

Secure Contact Forms

On its website, the government should offer safe user authentication and encrypted forms of accessing the user or submitting a form, which include:

Apply CAPTCHA and SSL/TLS certificates.
Do not collect all possible information.

These forms should be checked to determine the vulnerabilities, and they should follow the Saudi Arabia DGA data breach procedure, where they should also be very prompt in case of a breach.

Performance and SEO Optimization

To ensure a smooth digital experience, public sector websites must prioritise performance and SEO. While NDMO policies focus on data governance, DGA cloud data policies in Saudi Arabia emphasise website speed, discoverability, and user engagement, aligning with modern best practices for digital excellence.

Fast Loading Times

Image Compression: Compress the file size of the image, keeping the quality intact, to enhance the loading speed.
Browser Caching: Caching can save the store the static files, such as the logo and script, locally on the user's machine so that subsequent visits are faster.
Minified CSS, JavaScript, and HTML: Eliminate code that is not required, increase speed.
Lazy Loading: Scrolling to a media loads it to ensure that the page is not slow.

Such methods that are designed to make the site easy to visit, even when the user is on a slow connection, will be indispensable in making the site compliant with the performance requirements of the DGA.

Performance and SEO Optimization

Fast Loading Times

Image Compression: Compress the file size of the image, keeping the quality intact, to enhance the loading speed.
Browser Caching: Caching can save the store the static files, such as the logo and script, locally on the user's machine so that subsequent visits are faster.
Minified CSS, JavaScript, and HTML: Eliminate code that is not required, increase speed.
Lazy Loading: Scrolling to a media loads it to ensure that the page is not slow.

Clean Code and Structured Data

Clean and properly structured code makes browser tasks run without problems and improves the search engine's ability to index them.

Guidelines for Image Placement and Quality

Write semantic HTML5 and CSS3: Align with the common tags and structures to enhance cross-browser compatibility and ease of access.
Never use inline scripts or too much styling, which can slow pages or make pages hard to maintain.
Use schema markup (structured data): Makes search engines comprehend the content more, leading to rich snippets (e.g., frequently asked questions, ratings) of the search result.
The voice search as an extension of structured data is becoming more and more relevant even in the Arabic-speaking quarters.

With the DGA cloud data policies in Saudi Arabia, the ministries are sure that their websites are technically correct and are usable and discoverable.

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Meta Tags and Accessibility Tags

Correct metadata utilization and accessibility features enhance SEO and add to inclusive design.

Meta Titles and Descriptions: The meta tags should be different and appropriate on every page to enhance the click-through rates at the search engines.
Alt Attributes: All visuals need to have descriptive alt text to ensure that screen readers work and can enhance image SEO.
ARIA Labels and Roles: Make users with disabilities have a more positive experience using navigation and interaction hints.
SEO-friendly URLs: SUtilize keyword-friendly, readable, and easily understandable URLs (it is better to use Arabic and English when needed).

Apart from meeting the current best practices on SEO, they also adhere to DGA accessibility and usability guidelines that would create digital inclusion among user groups of varied capabilities.

Monitoring and Continuous Improvement

The DGA in Saudi Arabia can never be fully secured unless it is monitored 24/7. Agencies are required to monitor, evaluate, and improve the usability, security, and performance of their digital platforms on an ongoing basis. The Saudi Arabia DGA risk assessment framework lays down four dominating ways that ensure constant innovation of the whole process.

Regular Content Audits

Government sites should also go through regular content audits to be able to refresh all their information so that it is accurate, consistent and pursues to meet the needs of users.

Broken links, irrelevant content and duplicate pages should be rectified or eliminated.
Make sure that the changes in law and regulation (e.g., in the policy, terms of service) are visible at once.
The language reviews are to be carried out to ensure the avoidance of ambiguity and consistency between both Arabic and English versions.
Test multimedia content (e.g., videos, infographics) on accessibility, loading behaviour, and relevance in context.

Frequent audits would aid in the sustainability of credibility, lower informational misinformation and secure compliance with the principles of data governance of DGA.

User Feedback Collection

Websites that are publicly facing should also generate an avenue of direct feedback so as to know how the users are communicating with the platform and what areas require improvement.

Use one-question surveys, feedback forms or polls on service and information pages.
Analyse patterns in suggestions or complaints submitted via customer support channels.
Convert major response areas to meaningful design and content correction.

By gathering the input of the user, the services would be responsive, inclusive, and citizen centred as proposed in the DGA guidelines of the Saudi Arabian public sector.

Conclusion

Adherence to the DGA framework does not just imply a regulatory commitment; it is an investment strategy in digital services that become more inclusive, safer, and friendlier to all citizens. Regulations like the DGA privacy, Saudi Arabia data governance best practices, DGA guidelines for data storage Saudi Arabia, KSA policies, and other governance frameworks have been introduced to streamline the operation and interaction of websites created by the public sector by ranking the manner in which they are governed. These standards allow ministries and public organizations to address contemporary digital requirements and follow the objectives of Vision 2030.

Summary of Key Benefits

Adherence to DGA regulations thus provides government digital platforms not only with better usability, accessibility, and navigation but also guarantees there will be data integrity, data security, multilingualism, and mobile readiness. The positive feedback from the users shows an increase in user engagement in business and thus improves the digital ecosystem's overall service quality and trustworthiness.

Importance of Adopting DGA Standards

Implementing DGA standards requires adherence to the frameworks that are the main ones, like DGA privacy KSA, Ministry data compliance DGA Saudi Arabia, and DGA risk assessment framework. In healthcare and finance, these areas ensure the confidentiality, authentication, and user confidence of the data. At the same time, they are key in the cross-ministry field, maturity of digital services, and also in achieving the objectives of e-governance and digital excellence on a broad scale.

Encouraging Government Entities to Act Now

Being a digital-first department, the government units need to expediently adhere to the DGA policies through the assessment of their existing resources, the rejuvenation of the old systems, auditing, and the utilization of user feedback. That is not just a job for today only but a persistent improvement journey. The use of digital technology will give people what they expect, still be legal, and be in line with the changes in technology.

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