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Link Shortening & Subdomains

Link Shortening

The go.nd.edu link shortener is a tool to create and track Notre Dame–branded short URLs. URLs are in the format of “go.nd.edu/random-text” or “go.nd.edu/custom-text.”

This service is available for a fee as it requires outside support. The cost per team is $800/year. If you would like more information, please contact us.

Subdomains

University subdomains (vanity URLs) are URLs in the format “example.nd.edu.” They are offered to the campus community free of charge. They are to be used only for official University sites in conjunction with the expectations, guidelines, and conventions below.

Subdomains are intended as the primary address for permanent websites. The go.nd.edu link shortener should be used for instances of temporary or shortened links. Approvals typically take 3-5 days, so please plan ahead.

Quality Expectations

Websites with University-approved subdomains are considered official University communications, and consistent excellence is important to our brand. With that in mind, only websites that meet the following criteria will be approved for a University subdomain:

  • Branded
  • Secure
  • Fast
  • Easy to use
  • Mobile friendly

Advice: It’s recommended that campus units work with a professional web agency (the ND Web Team or an external agency) to develop new websites. Quality standards are strictly enforced, and personal projects, faculty/student projects, and freelance projects often fail to reflect the professionalism necessary for approval. In addition, do-it-yourself website solutions such as Wix, Weebly, or Squarespace are difficult to adjust to Notre Dame’s web brand standards and are no longer eligible for approval. Communicators should review web brand standards prior to committing to a vendor or platform.

Guidelines

  1. Limit to one level—e.g.: “ur.nd.edu” is acceptable, “web.opac.nd.edu” is not.
  2. Limit one subdomain per business unit/organization/site/individual.
  3. Reasonably reflect the name of the business unit/organization/site.
  4. Reflect a legitimate business need of a recognized University school, college, department, division, institute, center, program, project, group, unit, or individual.
  5. Have a clear and meaningful connection to the business purpose of the site.
  6. Have a clear connection to the identity or information of the site.
  7. Web property must be in compliance with University brand standards for web.
  8. Be immediately recognizable to the visitor.
  9. Avoid use of acronyms or ambiguous sets of characters, unless it’s an already recognizable part of your identity.
  10. Be unique to prevent confusion with other subdomains.
  11. May NOT be used to redirect to subpages within other sites. Instead, please consider using a sub-page redirect. E.g.: mysite.nd.edu/thing/ redirects to mysite.nd.edu/several/pages/down/thing/.
  12. Students are not eligible for personal subdomains. If you are a student and need a subdomain for a project or initiative, you will need a faculty or staff sponsor to submit on your behalf.
  13. Subdomains are no longer approved for “test” or “development” servers.
  14. Subdomains are no longer approved as redirects to external services. If you need a short nd.edu URL to serve as a redirect, contact us regarding “go.nd.edu” custom URLs.
  15. If the subdomain is related to Mendoza or business, extra approval is required. See below for more information.

Naming Conventions

  1. Must be at least two characters.
  2. Must consist of only lowercase letters, numbers, and the hyphen (-) character.
  3. Must begin and end with a letter or number.
  4. Should not begin or end with “nd,” except in cases where it’s vital to branding.
  5. Should not be a generic term or word.
  6. Subdomains consisting of only a surname are no longer allowed.
  7. Personal/faculty domains must follow one of the below formats:
    • First initial + surname: jsmith.nd.edu
    • First name + surname: johnsmith.nd.edu
    • Middle initials are allowed when necessary: jwsmith.nd.edu or johnwsmith.nd.edu
  8. Labs must contain the word “lab” in the URL. Example: memorylab.nd.edu
  9. Student clubs must contain the word “club” or “student” in the URL. Examples: wallstreetclub.nd.edu and mathclub.nd.edu
  10. Residence halls must contain the word “hall” in the URL. Examples: pangbornhall.nd.edu and flahertyhall.nd.edu
  11. Conferences must contain the word “conference” in the URL. Examples: quranconference.nd.edu and accstudentleadershipconference.nd.edu
  12. Courses must contain the word “course” in the URL. Examples: computerhackerscourse.nd.edu

Hosting

Subdomains will only be granted for sites/applications that are hosted on University-approved vendors and meet University brand standards. We recommend you contact the ND Web team to discuss requirements prior to starting an externally hosted project.

Recommended vendors:

Other approved vendors:

For more information on approved hosting vendors, see the Knowledge Base article.

Requesting a subdomain

To request a subdomain, please use the form below. You will hear from a subdomain representative within five business days of your request as to the approval and status of your request. When making the request, be sure to indicate the business case for the subdomain and where the subdomain should resolve (usually a domain or IP address). The request must be submitted by Notre Dame faculty or staff. If you are a student requesting a domain, you will need a faculty or staff sponsor for the domain to be approved.

Retiring a subdomain

If you are the owner of a subdomain and no longer need it, please contact webgroup@nd.edu.

In the event that a website a subdomain belongs to is retired or changed, the domain may remain in place for up to one year to allow for links and printed material to be updated. After one year, the domain will be removed.

Please Note

NEVER advertise a subdomain either in print or elsewhere until it has been officially approved through this process. There are no guarantees that the subdomain you request will be granted. Using an unapproved subdomain in a print piece could end up being a costly mistake.

Mendoza policy regarding the creation of Mendoza/business websites

Any party requesting a new URL on behalf of Mendoza will need to follow these guidelines:

  1. Requester must draft a detailed proposal that lists the proposed name of the site and explains the purpose of the site, the intended audience, sample content, and who will be developing the site and making updates.
  2. Contact Nicole Velasquez, who will also be given admin rights to all new sites, regarding your proposal.
  3. Based on the proposal, Mendoza MarComm may accept the request, reject the request, or propose an alternative solution.
  4. Mendoza MarComm retains the right to take the site down if the content is not maintained properly, if any offensive or inappropriate content is posted, or for any reason that Mendoza MarComm believes warrants it.
  5. Send your questions to Nicole Velasquez.