Domain name policy

www.salford.gov.uk is the principal internet website domain for Salford City Council.

Our domain name policy:

This policy was re-affirmed by the chief executive on 22 May 2006.

All Salford City Council divisions, directorates, business units and collaborative projects where Salford City Council is the majority funder or partner are required to publish their web content solely on the www.salford.gov.uk domain.

Exceptions (see below) may be permitted at the discretion of the council's web development manager, acting on behalf of the chief executive of Salford City Council.

The problem with multiple websites

Multiple websites weaken the potential power of the overall organization on the web. Each new website dissipates that power, as the web sees a range of websites, each with a relatively small set of links.

If the organisation behaved as a single website (as, for example, the BBC, Microsoft and Apple generally do), then all incoming links would converge under a single website address, thus making the organisation more powerful, visible and credible.

Salford City Council tries to operate a single domain name policy in line with central government guidance:

"It will not help users find the information or services they need if authorities generate a number of sites, all with different names, each one relating to a different initiative or department. The more names an authority invents for its websites, the less its sites will be trusted; citizens will be less and less confident that the information they are getting is genuinely from a local government organisation.

"The public should not have to wade through a number of different domains to find the information that they want. If the local authority has decided to have more than one website or provide different types of services on a .com, .org.uk or another namespace other than .gov, then, on the front page of each of its websites, the authority should place a clear link to a page that explains its domain name policy.

"This policy should be enforced consistently across the authority’s websites."

Authorised Salford City Council domains

For a number of reasons (for example established use or perhaps participation in a national strategy that requires the setting up of a separate, standalone website), a number of specialist website domains exist for Salford City Council online content in addition to www.salford.gov.uk.

These are:

Have we got too many websites?

Yes. A renowned writer on internet issues, Gerry McGovern, wrote on this very subject in 2005.

Purchasing new internet domain names

From time to time it may be appropriate for new internet domain names to be set up in order to promote specific initiatives or individual services of the council. A central record of Salford City Council internet domain names is maintained by the council's Marketing and Communications division.

Any officer seeking to acquire a new internet domain name must arrange the purchase through the council's Web Development Manager (webmaster@salford.gov.uk) rather than acting independently.

This page was last updated on 27 September 2011

See also

Web standards

RSS feeds

Salford City Council, Salford Civic Centre, Chorley Road, Swinton, Salford M27 5AW

0161 794 4711