Website guidelines and resources

New websites and web projects

USC Annenberg departments must notify the Office of Communication and Marketing (Marcom) by emailing ascweb@usc.edu should the need arise for a new website or the redesign or back end migration of an existing website.

Website maintenance, feature additions and design updates for departmental websites outside of annenberg.usc.edu are the responsibility of the department who owns the website.

The office of Communication and Marketing provides all current faculty, staff and related school centers, complementary consulting on website projects related to the school. Contact us by email for guidance on website branding, design, technical issues and vendor selection.

The Office of Communication and Marketing is responsible for ensuring all of the school’s web properties adhere to the University’s website branding guidelines. When designing a new website or redesigning an existing website, departments must submit their designs to the Office of Communication and Marketing before the project goes into build/development for a USC branding review and sign-off.

Website platforms

When creating a new website or moving a website to a new platform, all USC Annenberg departments must use one of the following platforms (below). Contact Marcom for more information.

  • Sites at USC (service provided by USC ITS)
  • Squarespace (service provided by Marcom)
  • WordPress (hosting provided by Marcom)
  • Drupal (hosting provided by Marcom)

Using other platforms, custom built solutions or proprietary platforms are prohibited without approval from the Office of Communication and Marketing.

Domain names

The Office of Communication and Marketing (Marcom) oversees USC Annenberg’s domain registrar account which houses all non-usc.edu domain names owned by the school. All new domain names should be registered by the school’s domain registrar account or coordinated with Marcom for domains ending in usc.edu. Domain names registered outside of the school’s domain registrar account are the sole responsibility of the person and department registering them. This includes DNS configuration and domain renewals. Please email ascweb@usc.edu if you have any questions.

Requesting a new domain name

If you’d like to request a new domain name, please email ascweb@usc.edu with the following:

  • The domain name you’d like to reserve.
  • Contact information for the person responsible for the domain.
  • Brief description of what the domain will be used for.
  • Alternative domain names if the primary name isn’t available.