efficient way to check parked domains?

Question

I am writing a script that checks if given domain is parked or not. so far, I have this solution:

• add couple of characters at the end of the url.
• if url redirects to another page and
  • returns 302 http status code then it is parked domain.
  • returns other than 302 then it is normal domain.
• but some normal domains also return 302.

so any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

It's not as simple as that. A 302 response just means content is temporarily at a different location. This can happen on a normal website and it doesn't always happen on a parked site.

I worked at an ISP with over 20,000 parked domains and we didn't use 302's on any of them.

I don't think you'll find a 100% solution for this. Even if you checked the page for phrases such as "Buy This Domain" and "This Domain May Be For Sale" you won't know for sure.