Part 1: Plan a Scalable Domain Strategy
Establishing a clear domain strategy is essential before you start adjusting custom domain and DNS settings. Having a good strategy in place ensures scalability, simplifies maintenance, and creates a seamless user experience across your ArcGIS Hub ecosystem - regardless of the number or scope of your sites.
Start with Your Organization’s Goals
Before choosing a domain structure, ask yourself:
- Are different teams or departments managing their own Hub sites?
- Do we need to support both internal and external audiences?
- Should we prioritize branding consistency across sites?
- Are we planning to launch more Hub sites in the future?
Having definitive answers can guide your decisions and help prevent complexity and confusion as your Hub content grows.
3 Common Domain Structures (Pros & Cons)
1. Subdomains Under a Single Root
Examples:
- data.county.gov
- publicsafety.county.gov
- health.county.gov
Pros:
- Reinforces a unified brand identity
- Clearly ties departments to the primary organization
Cons:
- Requires cross-team collaboration for naming and consistency
- Some legacy systems may struggle with subdomain routing
2. Completely Separate Domains
Examples:
- cityengagement.org
- environmentaldatahub.net
Pros:
- Supports distinct branding and governance
- Ideal for sites targeting very different audiences (e.g., internal vs. public)
- Allows flexibility in hosting or organizational policies
Cons:
- Requires individual DNS setup
- Harder to maintain a consistent user experience across domains
3. Hybrid Approach
A hybrid setup often works best for large organizations. Core sites live under subdomains (`data.city.gov`), while flagship initiatives or high-profile campaigns use distinct domains to support unique branding (`greenfuturehub.org`).
Set Domain Naming Conventions Early
Avoid issues later by precisely defining naming rules from the beginning:
- Keep names short, descriptive, and consistent
- Good: transport.city.gov
- Difficult to read/remember: transportation-division.city.gov
- Avoid cryptic abbreviations unless they’re widely recognized
- Use lowercase only; it is cleaner and easier to manage
Create a Lightweight Governance Plan
Even with a winning strategy, domain sprawl can happen fast. Stay ahead of it with a few simple practices:
- Establish an approval process for new domains or subdomains
- Review and audit sites regularly (e.g., quarterly)
- Maintain shared documentation for IT and content creators
Prioritize the User Experience
Your domain strategy impacts how users find and trust your content:
- Apply consistent branding and visual themes across Hub sites
- Use intuitive navigation and shared headers/footers to connect related sites
- Set up redirects thoughtfully - especially during rebrands or consolidations - to avoid broken links
What’s Next? A Roadmap of the Series
In Part 2 of our series, we’ll dive into Configuring Custom Domains in ArcGIS Hub - a critical step to ensure that your domains are set up securely and efficiently. We’ll walk through the configuration process, including SSL certificate management, and offer advice on keeping everything running smoothly.
Finally, in Part 3, we’ll turn our attention to SEO & Discoverability Across Multiple Domains. Having a scalable domain strategy isn't just about architecture, it’s about making sure your Hub sites are discovered, indexed, and ranked correctly.
Roadmap to Success
Here’s a quick look at what to expect in the coming posts:
- Part 2: Configuring Custom Domains & Managing SSL Certificates
- Part 3: Ensuring SEO & Discoverability Across Multiple Domains
Conclusion: Planning for the Future
Your domain strategy isn’t just a technical decision - it’s integral to your branding, governance, and user experience. By creating a solid strategy now, you’ll set your organization up for success down the road. We hope this first blog post helps you get started on the right foot. Stay tuned for the next post, where we’ll cover configuring custom domains and SSL management to ensure security and reliability across your sites.
