Domain parking is an advertising practice used primarily by domain name registrars and internet advertising publishers to monetize type-in traffic visiting an under-developed domain name. The domain name will usually resolve to a page containing relevant advertising listings and links. These links will be targeted to the predicted interests of the visitor and may change dynamically based on the results that visitors click on. Usually the domain owner is paid based on how many links have been visited (e.g. pay per click) and on how beneficial those visits have been. The keywords in any given domain name provide clues as to the intent of the visitor before arriving.

Another use of domain parking is to be a placeholder of an existing web site. A company might choose to use this method to redirect its web site traffic to another web site it owns.