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Official Website

of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

    The .gov means its official.

    Local, state, and federal government websites often end in .gov. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania government websites and email systems use "pennsylvania.gov" or "pa.gov" at the end of the address. Before sharing sensitive or personal information, make sure you're on an official state website. 

    Audience Types

    Business Audience

    There are two types of business professionals visiting pa.gov:

    • Professionals who represent businesses based in the Commonwealth
    • Professionals who do business with customers (individuals, businesses, or other entities) in the Commonwealth 

    With that said, a business audience is a human audience—people who are in a business frame of mind when they are visiting pa.gov.

    Government Audience

    Government audiences may be site visitors from:

    • The Federal Government
    • The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 
    • Other state governments, outside of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

    If the content of your page is aimed at government employees, it’s safe to assume they have some understanding of how government works. Therefore, you may not need to over-explain since they probably already have an overview-level understanding of the subject.

    Five primary audience types will be visiting pa.gov:

    1. Residents
    2. Businesses
    3. Governments
    4. Non-Profits
    5. Media

    A Hybrid Audience

    In some instances, it’s possible that you may be addressing a few, related audiences. If you need to create multiple pages to cover the information from different angles, for multiple audiences, that’s a better choice than generalizing the content, or trying to put all the information on one page.

    What is a hybrid audience?

    A page about restaurant liquor licensing may attract restaurateurs, alcohol sales reps, and lawyers. If this page is written for a mixed audience of concerned parents, restaurateurs, and government officials who process those license applications, that page may not provide the information any of them need without significant searching.