What are the guidelines for naming websites?
Healthcare entities are encouraged to follow the Department of Health Guidelines. It is advised that your main domain name is recognisable nationally. While the guidelines are not as strict as for email addressing, generic names (e.g. localhealthcampaign.nhs.uk) are not advisable unless it is aimed nationally. It is advised that after obtaining your main domain name (yourorg.nhs.uk,) any future requests to add host names, applications or services should create and apply for a sub-domain (child domain) below the main domain name. • e.g. nww.department.yourorg.nhs.uk • or www.localhealthcampaign.yourorg.nhs.uk • or www.application.yourorg.nhs.uk This is so as to improve performance of the NHS DNS servers and to maintain a hierarchical naming structure within the NHS as a whole. If there are extenuating reasons for your site to be named differently, please e-mail dnsteam@nhs.net for guidance.
