Domain Grades is a system developed by Profound to provide an A-F score for the Domain Classification of website domains. The Domain Classification is a categorization process that analyzes the textual content of a website to determine its type. The classification is assigned based on various criteria, such as the presence of certain keywords or indicators on the website.
The following classifications are currently provided by Profound:
- Business: This classification is given to websites that likely belong to organizational entities such as businesses, corporations, non-profits, schools, government agencies, etc.
- Non-Business Other: This classification is for websites that are not related to business activities, such as personal blogs, photo galleries, games, apps, music sites, etc.
- Non-Business Under Construction: Websites that are still under development and not fully functional fall under this classification.
- Non-Business Login: This classification is given to websites that require a username and login to access and have minimal content other than that.
- Non-Business xxx: Websites that contain adult content are classified as “Non-Business xxx”.
- NS Only: This classification is for domains that have a name server but no web server or content associated with it.
- Non-Business Error: Websites that return web server errors, such as404 or Unauthorized Access, are classified as “Non-Business Error”.
- Unregistered: This classification is assigned to domains that have the form of a domain but are not registered. These domains will always return an error.
- Non-Business Ads: Websites that serve as advertisement portals with only banner ads are classified as “Non-Business Ads”. This category often includes parked domains.
- Internal Error: This classification is given to websites that have a web server available but return an “Internal error” due to server misconfiguration.
- ISP - Free Email: This classification is for popular ISP and free email domains such as hotmail.com, gmail.com, yahoo.com, etc. It helps differentiate between business email domains and ISP or free email domains.
- Bogus Domain: Non-standard domains that do not follow the format of a valid domain and always return an error are classified as “Bogus Domain”.
- Blank: If there is not enough data collected to determine a classification, the website is classified as “Blank”.
In addition to the Domain Classification, Profound provides a Domain Classification Score that measures the confidence level of the classification. The score is calculated based on various criteria, such as the presence of a Contact_Us link with a postal address, a copyright notice with business indicators at the bottom of the homepage, and an About_Us page with a list of personnel indicating organizational structure.
The Domain Classification Score ranges from less than 2 to 8 or higher, with different levels of confidence associated with each range. A score of less than 2 indicates low confidence in the classification, while a score of 2 to 5 signifies medium confidence. Scores of 5 to 8 are associated with high confidence, and scores of 8 or higher indicate very high confidence in the classification.
Overall, Domain Grades, based on Profound’s Domain Classification score, provides a standardized and concise way to assess and categorize domains based on their business or non-business nature, as well as the level of confidence in the classification. This information can be valuable for various purposes, such as market research, data analysis, and domain management.
With these Domain Grades, a Report Card can be generated and analyzed to measure the quality of internal and third-party data sets, and to track improvements over time. Below is Profound’s report card for all 300+ million domains Profound compiles:
TAM = Total Addressable Market