What is a Parked Domain?
This seems to be a confusing issue for many people because of the widespread use of domain parking. It also confused with Addon domains.
A domain can be parked on top of another domain or it can be parked at a domain parking site.
When a domain is parked on top of an existing domain you simply use your control panel to point it to your primary domain. You can not point it at any specific page or directory. Then you change the DNS servers at your registrar's site to point it to the correct name server. Your hosting company will provide the name server information.
Let's look at an example. You own mysite.com and mysite.net. Your primary site is mysite.com. You park mysite.net on top of mysite.com. Once the DNS has resolved whenever anyone types in mysite.net they will be taken to your existing site but the address in the browser window will be displayed as mysite.net. It is the same site with two different URL's. Of course the graphics say one thing and browser window says something else.
There has been much discussion about whether or not this might actually hurt your search engine ratings as it appears to be a duplicate site. The duplicate content penalty is in my opinion a much over-rated myth, but if you want to be 100% safe, park the second domain on the primary domain and then provide a permanent 301 redirect to the primary site. When you do it this the name of the primary site will show in the browser window no matter which name is typed into the browser address bar. We happen to own both the .com and .net version so you can take that for a test spin by entering my-e-space.net into the address bar.
Parking at a domain parking site is an entirely different concept. When you park there you simply change the DNS at your registrar to point to the parking company's name servers and they provide the content. That content can be a coming soon or a series of PPC ads.
This article was revised 11-17-2008