The University has created a process for requesting UChicago domain names to assist website owners seeking a new website URL or inquiring about a reserved domain. This process is designed to insure that everyone has choices for domain names and a seamless way to reserve them.

Best Practices for Choosing a Domain Name

When choosing a domain name that best represents a unit or group website, there are recommendations to help aid the decision. To fit best practices and achieve optimal search engine results, a proposed domain name should meet one of the following conditions:

  • Reflects the name of a University organizational unit (e.g., division, college, or department) or a consortium of many different organizations from inside or outside the university (e.g. law.uchicago.edu)
  • Serves as a University-wide resource that is not clearly associated with any single department or unit (e.g. sustainability.uchicago.edu)
  • Serves as a resource to people or groups from outside the University that are not familiar with the University’s internal organizational structure (e.g. humanresources.uchicago.edu)
  • Originates from an academic or administrative unit of the University including
    • Schools
    • Departments
    • Divisions
    • Institutions or administrative organizational units

In addition to the general guidance, there are other recommendations when choosing a website name. An ideal domain name:

  • Closely conforms to your entity’s name to enhance search engine performance.
  • Is not a generic word that would easily apply to multiple areas within the University. (e.g. education.uchicago.edu)
  • Is between five and 20 characters long.
  • Does not begin, end, or use any special characters. (e.g. communication-.uchicago.edu)
  • Does not contain trademarked or copyrighted names owned by non-University entities. (e.g. pepsi.uchicago.edu)
  • Does not reflect obscene, offensive, misrepresent their purpose or detrimental to the University's reputation. (e.g. stupid.uchicago.edu)
  • Is a specific, descriptive word that doesn’t apply to multiple areas within the University.

Request a UChicago Domain Name

To secure a custom website URL within the uchicago.edu domain, submit a Web Domain Request.

Redirects and Domain Name Mapping

In addition to creating a new domain for a new website, website owners may want to point an existing domain to a self-service Voices website. There are two ways to accomplish this:

  1. Redirect: A redirect is when a reserved domain name redirects a website visitor to a website existing under another URL. For example, when a website visitor goes to the reserved domain mysite.uchicago.edu it may redirect to a website built in the self-service Voices platform and located at voices.uchicago.edu/mysite. The URL in the browser will display as voices.uchicago.edu/mysite
  2. Domain mapping: A website URL shows the content of a website that exists in the self-service Voices platform, but the Voices website native URL is not exposed.
    Using the same domains from the redirect example: when a website visitor goes to mysite.uchicago.edu, all of the content from voices.uchicago.edu/mysite appears, but the URL in the browser still displays as mysite.uchicago.edu.

If either of these options are needed, submit a Web Domain Request.