Data decays. Companies shut down, get acquired, or rebrand. If your CRM or prospect list sits untouched for months, it rots. Most of these lists live in simple CSV or Excel files that no one reviews anymore.
You send emails that bounce. You call numbers that don't exist. You waste time on organizations that closed their doors.
Checking if a website is active is the fastest proxy to verify a company's existence. A live website usually means an active business. A parked domain or a 404 error signals a problem.
We will verify a list of companies using the "Website Status & Parked Domain Checker". This tool tests each URL and tells you exactly what happened to it.
What The Tool Does
The Website Status checker analyzes every URL in your list. It visits the page and returns actionable data:
- Online: The site works perfectly.
- Redirected: The company changed its domain (e.g., they rebranded).
- Parked: The domain is expired or for sale. The company is likely gone.
- Unreachable: The server is down or the domain doesn't exist.
It also provides the HTTP Status Code (like 404 or 503), the redirected URL, and the Page Title, which helps identify placeholder pages.
Step-by-Step Guide to Check Website Status
Step 1: Load Your Data
Open Datablist and create a new collection. Import your CSV or Excel file containing the list of companies. Datablist works natively with both formats.
If your companies live in a CRM, export them first as a CSV or Excel file. Keep the internal CRM IDs so you can reimport the enriched data later without losing the link.
You only need one column with the website URLs. If you have other data like company names or emails, keep them. The tool processes the whole row.
Step 2: Open the Status Checker
Click the "Enrich" button. Search for "Website Status & Parked Domain Checker" in the library.
This enrichment connects to the internet to ping each site live.
Step 3: Configure settings and map website input
First, review the configuration options. You will see a Proxy setting. By default, it is set to "Retry with proxy on protected status".
Keep this enabled. It is a lifesaver for checking modern company websites. If a site blocks the initial check (returning a 403 Forbidden error), the tool automatically retries using a premium proxy to bypass the protection and get the real status.
Next, map your data. Select the column from your CSV or Excel file that contains the website URLs.
If your URLs are messy (missing "http" or "www"), the tool handles them. It attempts to connect regardless of the format.
Step 4: Choose Your Outputs
Decide what data you want to save. We recommend adding all outputs because each one brings additional value.
- The Website Status is the primary column.
- Final URL gives the redirection URLs.
- Error Message and HTTP Status Code give you context to debug unreachable sites.
Step 5: Open Instant Run
You don't need to process the whole file blindly. Use the "Instant Run" feature to test the settings.
Step 6: Test on a Sample
Run the check on the first 10 items. This saves credits and ensures your data maps correctly.
Important
Enable the "Run in Async" setting if you are checking more than a few hundred websites.
The tool processes the rows in real-time.
Step 7: Review and Scale
Check the results in your data table. Look at the "Website Status" column.
If you see "Online", the company is active. If you see "Redirected", the company has moved to a new domain. If you see "Parked" or "Unreachable", you identified a dead lead.
Once satisfied, click "Run on remaining items" to process your entire database.
Interpreting the Results
Dealing with Redirects
Companies often rebrand. If a URL redirects, the Final URL column shows the new address. Update your CRM with this new domain. This simple step often lowers bounce rates because old email domains stop working after a rebrand.
Identifying Parked Domains
A "Parked" status is a strong indicator the business ceased operations. The owner stopped paying for hosting, and the registrar replaced the site with ads. Remove these entries from your outreach lists immediately.
Handling Unreachable Sites
"Unreachable" means the connection failed. This might be temporary, or the server is dead. If you clean scraped data, you will find many of these.
Conclusion
Checking website status is the quickest way to validate a company list stored in a CSV or Excel file. You remove dead weight, find rebranded opportunities, and focus your energy on businesses that actually exist.
Use Cases
CRM Hygiene
Run your entire customer base through this check quarterly. Flag accounts with dead websites for your account management team. They can investigate if the client went out of business or just forgot to pay their hosting bill.
Cleaning Prospect Lists
Before loading a list into your sales engagement tool, verify the websites. Removing dead companies saves your domain reputation. You avoid sending emails to non-existent servers. For more on this, read our guide on data cleaning.
Rebranding Detection
Use the Redirected status to find companies that changed names. If company-a.com now goes to holding-group-b.com, you gained valuable intelligence. You can reference the acquisition or rebrand in your cold outreach.
FAQ
Does this visit the website?
Yes. The tool performs a real HTTP request to the URL to verify its response and analyze the page content.
Can it detect parked domains?
Yes. It detects common parking pages from registrars like GoDaddy or Namecheap by analyzing DNS records and page titles.
What if the website blocks bots?
The tool handles this automatically. The "Retry with proxy" setting ensures that if a website blocks the initial check (usually returning a 403 error), the system retries using a residential proxy. This allows you to verify active websites that typically block automated scrapers.