State Domain Services

Web Address (State Government)

Any state entity on the IN.gov network can request specialty URLs via this form, including .com, .net, .org, etc. All vanity URL (non-IN.gov) domains are subject to a third-party domain registration fee and must be kept indefinitely once purchased.

There is no fee for IN.gov web addresses. All domains requested are subject to review and approval.

Requesting a Third-Level Domain

The IN.gov Management Team routinely reviews and approves fourth-level domain requests (fourth-level.AgencyName.IN.gov). These are commonly used for applications or marketing and are seldom denied, due to the agency's name being present at the third-level.

Third-level domain requests do not come from state agencies often; however, with the local government initiative, IN.gov receives requests from local agencies wanting to move away from a .com or .org and to an IN.gov domain (LocalAgency@IN.gov). A naming convention policy has now been developed and approved to establish a standard.

Since State Agencies already have their third-level domains established (example: IOT.IN.gov), usually a third-level domain request is due to a special program or event. In the past, these were approved without question and that led to an eventual mess years down the line when hundreds of orphaned third-level domains had to be cleaned up.

Now, a third-level domain request by a state agency must meet one of the following criteria to be considered:

It is a Governor's Office initiative or;
It is a multi-state agency initiative or;
Acronyms for programs should be avoided to prevent misinterpretation

Case by case exceptions may be granted. A state agency's third-level domain request not meeting the criteria will not be considered; however, meeting the criteria does not guarantee approval.

Other options to consider are to take advantage of page names via CMS or use the link shortener (https://www.in.gov/inwp/linkshortener/).

Questions? Please email INgovManagement@iot.IN.gov