Information Centre

In the domain name industry lexicon is the term "domain parking" - what does it mean and should you care about it?

When people first register a domain name, they often don't have a site ready to go. Subsequently, the name may not point (be delegated) to any particular web host for a while. In some cases, typing that web address into a browser results in the generation of an error message along the lines of "server not found", which isn't really a problem.

However, what some registrars do in this scenario by default is point it to a placeholder page that is controlled by the registrar. That page may have wording such as "the future home of <domain>" and/or display advertising either promoting other services (which the registrar receives money for) or for their own service. This is called domain parking.

It's a pretty sweet deal for registrars, particularly for larger companies - but it's not so great for the average registrant; and here's why. 

First, the registrant doesn't get a share of any ad revenue. Even if that was provided, it would amount to very little in most cases. The registrar can make a few bucks through the practice purely based on volume, i.e. the number of parked domain names it is managing. 

Second, a page with no information and/or loaded with ads doesn't exactly inspire confidence in a visitor. 

Finally, Google's not a fan of domain parking, as these pages provide little value to searchers.

Google has a "parked domain detector", part of its algorithm that recognises such pages and keeps them from displaying in searches. Once a website address is classified by Google as being parked, it may take some time after the name is being used with a real site before Google no longer considers it to be a parked domain.

If your registrar uses parked domain pages (our registration service doesn't), Google's advice in the past has been to instead set up a page for the name with a few paragraphs on it explaining what the site will be about when it is officially launched. 

Another option is to password protect the domain, or to block Google from it until it is ready - but blocking Google may also mean a little longer wait once you have removed the block before your site will appear in search results. Some registrars may also offer the ability to switch off the parked page feature, in which case nothing further really needs to be done.