--- id: "parking" kind: "glossary-term" title: "parking" language: "en" category: "Aftermarket and investing" updated: "2026-10-10T10:28:55Z" canonical: "https://tldlog.com/glossary/parking/" translations: es: "https://tldlog.com/es/glosario/parking-dominios/" de: "https://tldlog.com/de/glossar/domain-parking/" fr: "https://tldlog.com/fr/glossaire/parking/" it: "https://tldlog.com/it/glossario/parking/" pt-BR: "https://tldlog.com/pt/glossario/estacionamento-dominios/" ru: "https://tldlog.com/ru/glossariy/parkovka-domenov/" zh-Hans: "https://tldlog.com/zh/cihui/yuming-tingfang/" --- # parking Pointing a domain name to a simple page with ads or a 'for sale' notice instead of a real website. The owner may earn money when visitors click the ads. If a registrar parks an expired gTLD name, ICANN rules require the page to show how to renew it. Domain parking means pointing a registered domain name at a simple page with ads, a "for sale" notice or both, instead of a real website. Owners park names they are not using yet, and some earn money when visitors click the ads. Parking is not wrong in itself, but ads that trade on someone else's trademark can cost the owner the name. ## What domain parking is A parked domain is registered and works, but shows a placeholder page rather than a site of its own. Names are parked by registrants (a domain investor holding a portfolio, or a business keeping names for later projects) and by registrars, on new or expired names. Registries may not do this for unregistered gTLD names (see below). Unlike passive holding, a parked page shows content, and that content can matter in a dispute. ## How parked domains earn money The classic model is PPC. The parking company fills the page with ads or "related search" links that match the words in the name. When a visitor clicks, the advertiser pays, and the owner receives a share through the parking company. Owners compare names using revenue per mille (RPM): the estimated income per thousand visits. It is an average used for comparison, not a payment for each visit. The second income path is a sale. Many parked pages carry a for-sale notice, so the page also works as a sales lead in the aftermarket. As the WIPO Overview notes, UDRP panels have found that registering names to resell them, even at a profit, is not bad faith by itself. What counts is targeting a particular trademark. PPC parking once moved a lot of money. In 2007, ICANN's GNSO described domain tasting: registering names, placing PPC ads on them for five days or less, and keeping only those whose ads looked likely to earn more than the annual cost. The rest were deleted free of charge within the five-day add grace period. Two ICANN measures cut add grace period deletions by 99.7% between June 2008 and April 2009. As of October 2026, the model is changing. According to industry press, Google wound down AdSense for Domains, for years the main ad source for parked pages, and parking companies moved to other ad feeds and to "zero-click" parking, where the visitor skips the ad page and is sent straight to an advertiser's site. ## Type-in traffic and why it matters Type-in traffic, also called direct navigation, comes from people who type a name straight into the browser's address bar instead of using a search engine or a link. A name made of common words can receive such visits without any promotion. Parking turns those visits into ad clicks, so the income of a parked name depends on how many people arrive this way and what they are looking for. ## Parking risks: trademarks, malware ads and policy ### Trademarks Under the UDRP, a parked page can count against its owner. The WIPO Overview summarizes how panels have reasoned: - PPC links that compete with or capitalize on the reputation of the complainant's mark, or otherwise mislead users, are not a genuine ("bona fide") offering of goods or services. They give the owner no legitimate interest and can support bad faith under paragraph 4(b)(iv) of the UDRP: attracting users for commercial gain by creating confusion with a mark. - The owner is responsible for what the page shows. That the links were generated automatically, placed by a registrar or an auction platform, or earned the owner nothing can be weighed, but does not by itself prevent a finding of bad faith. - Efforts to block ads related to the mark, for example with "negative keywords" (terms the owner tells the ad system to exclude), can count in the owner's favour. - PPC links can be a legitimate use as long as they do not trade off the complainant's or a competitor's mark. Links related to the ordinary meaning of the words help show the owner was not targeting it. Whether a particular page crosses the line depends on the facts. Owners and brand holders should check with a lawyer. ### Malware and misleading ads Panels have held that using a domain for illegal activity, such as distributing malware or phishing, can never give the owner a legitimate interest. Industry press has reported research finding that much traffic to parked domains ends at scams or malware. ### ICANN rules on parked pages As of October 2026: - **Registries.** The base gTLD Registry Agreement (version of 21 January 2024) forbids registries to use wildcards, synthesized answers or redirection for names that are not registered or not published in the DNS. Those names must return NXDOMAIN, the answer meaning the name does not exist. - **Registrars and expired names.** Under the ERRP, if a registrar points an expired gTLD name to a web page while the registrant at expiration can still renew it, the page must say clearly that the registration has expired and give renewal instructions. - **Registrars and abuse.** The RAA has no clause on parked pages, but since 5 April 2024 it requires a registrar with actionable evidence that a name is used for DNS abuse, which includes malware, to act promptly to stop or disrupt it. ### A worked example A company holds example.com for a project that has not launched, and its registrar shows a parked page with ads. If the company forgets to renew, the registrar may keep showing a page while the name can still be renewed, but the page must state that the registration has expired and explain how to renew; a link to the right place on the registrar's website is enough. If the company renews, the registrar must restore its settings. ## Alternatives to parking - Build a website on the name. - Redirect the name to an existing site. - Lease it, or sell it through lease-to-own. - List it for sale on an aftermarket marketplace. - Leave it without any content, which is passive holding and has its own risks under the UDRP. The choice depends on the name's traffic, its value and the owner's plans. ## Sources - [WIPO Overview 3.1](https://www.wipo.int/en/web/amc/domain-name-disputes/overview/index) - [Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy](https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/policy-2024-02-21-en) - [Expired Registration Recovery Policy (updated 21 February 2024)](https://www.icann.org/en/contracted-parties/consensus-policies/expired-registration-recovery-policy/expired-registration-recovery-policy-21-02-2024-en) - [Base gTLD Registry Agreement (updated 21 January 2024)](https://itp.cdn.icann.org/en/files/registry-agreements/base-registry-agreement-21-01-2024-en.html) - [Issues: Domain name tasting (GNSO)](https://gnso.icann.org/en/node/17655) - [The End of Domain Tasting](https://www.icann.org/en/contracted-parties/consensus-policies/add-grace-period-limits-policy/the-end-of-domain-tasting-status-report-on-agp-measures-12-08-2009-en) ## related terms - [monetization](https://tldlog.com/glossary/monetization/) - [domainer](https://tldlog.com/glossary/domainer/) - [expiration](https://tldlog.com/glossary/expiration/) - [aftermarket](https://tldlog.com/glossary/aftermarket/)