Website to Industry: Industry Classification for Company Domains
Company records often arrive with a website and nothing else. A categorized domain database turns that website into an industry label you can segment, route and report on.
a company domain
IAB v3 tiers and filtering labels
your own industry list
What website to industry classification means
Industry classification assigns a company to a sector such as healthcare, retail or software. Doing it from the website means reading what the company says it does, which is often more current than a registry entry filed years ago.
What the website reveals
- Products and services on offer
- Who the company sells to
- Regulated activities such as gambling or alcohol
- Whether the business is still active
What it does not reveal
- The legal entity behind the domain
- Revenue split across divisions
- Official registry codes
- Holding and parent structures
Why buyers still use it
- Works for any company with a site
- Covers private firms missing from registries
- Refreshes as companies change
- One method for every country
Industry mix of categorized domains
The table counts domains by their IAB v3 Tier 1 category in the current release. It is the starting point for any industry mapping, because it shows how much of the web each top level subject covers.
| IAB v3 Tier 1 | Domains | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Business and Finance | 24,605,321 | 23.8% |
| Technology & Computing | 19,176,472 | 18.6% |
| Home & Garden | 5,504,481 | 5.3% |
| Entertainment | 4,609,019 | 4.5% |
| Shopping | 4,439,752 | 4.3% |
| Hobbies & Interests | 3,578,451 | 3.5% |
| Medical Health | 3,425,783 | 3.3% |
| Style & Fashion | 3,145,985 | 3.0% |
| Attractions | 3,014,933 | 2.9% |
| Healthy Living | 2,993,231 | 2.9% |
| Food & Drink | 2,949,449 | 2.9% |
| Fine Art | 2,844,999 | 2.8% |
| Sports | 2,565,405 | 2.5% |
| Travel | 2,399,861 | 2.3% |
| Automotive | 2,170,741 | 2.1% |
| Education | 2,131,766 | 2.1% |
| Real Estate | 1,924,432 | 1.9% |
| Personal Finance | 1,842,387 | 1.8% |
| Books and Literature | 1,564,788 | 1.5% |
| Religion & Spirituality | 1,122,224 | 1.1% |
| Family and Relationships | 1,002,873 | 1.0% |
| Sensitive Topics | 976,924 | 0.9% |
| Pets | 716,146 | 0.7% |
| Careers | 648,351 | 0.6% |
Business and Finance and Technology & Computing together cover over 42% of all domains. That share is the reason industry work rarely stops at Tier 1: most company sites sit in those two subjects, and only the deeper tiers separate a law firm from a logistics company.
Tier 1 subjects are broad. The next section shows how deeper tiers turn them into industry labels a sales or research team can use.
Mapping categories to industries
Each row below shows an industry from our industry lists, the categories that feed it, and how strongly the category alone points to that industry.
| Industry | IAB v3 categories that feed it | Web filtering labels | Example size in this release | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Healthcare | Medical Health (all Tier 2), Healthy Living > Wellness, Industries > Healthcare Industry | Health & Medicine | 2,482,438 in Diseases and Conditions | High |
| Software and SaaS | Technology & Computing > Computing, Industries > Technology Industry | Computers & Technology, Web-based Applications | 17,348,837 in Computing | Medium |
| Artificial intelligence | Technology & Computing > Artificial Intelligence | AI / LLM Tools | 233,862 in Artificial Intelligence | High |
| Retail and ecommerce | Shopping (all Tier 2), Industries > Retail Industry | Shopping, Marketplaces / Classifieds / Auctions | 656,450 in Household Supplies | Medium |
| Finance and banking | Personal Finance, Industries > Financial Industry | Financial Services, Online Banking | 477,180 in Personal Investing | High |
| Insurance | Personal Finance > Insurance, Automotive > Auto Insurance | Financial Services | 475,487 in Insurance | High |
| Real estate | Real Estate (all Tier 2), Industries > Real Estate Industry | Real Estate | 638,308 in Real Estate Buying and Selling | High |
| Construction and trades | Home & Garden > Remodeling & Construction, Industries > Construction Industry | Home & Garden, Business | 249,168 in Remodeling & Construction | Medium |
| Automotive | Automotive > Auto Repair, Auto Parts, Auto Buying and Selling | Automotive & Transportation | 495,025 in Auto Repair | High |
| Travel and hospitality | Travel (all Tier 2), Industries > Hospitality Industry | Travel | 1,736,648 in Travel Type | High |
| Restaurants and food service | Food & Drink > Dining Out, Attractions > Bars & Restaurants | Restaurants & Dining | 1,184,177 in Dining Out | High |
| Education | Education > College, Online, Secondary, Primary Education | Education/Reference, Webinars/E-learning | 598,424 in College Education | High |
| Legal services | Industries > Legal Services Industry | Government & Legal, Business | Tier 3 label | Medium |
| Logistics and transport | Industries > Logistics and Transportation Industry | Automotive & Transportation, Business | Tier 3 label | Medium |
| Manufacturing | Industries > Manufacturing Industry, Metals Industry | Business | Tier 3 label | Low |
| Media and publishing | Industries > Media Industry, Publishing Industry, News | News/Media | Tier 3 label | Medium |
| Gambling and gaming | Attractions > Casinos & Gambling, Video Gaming | Gambling, Gaming | 1,887,248 in Casinos & Gambling | High |
| Fashion and beauty | Style & Fashion > Women's Fashion, Beauty, Men's Fashion | Shopping | 1,346,741 in Women's Fashion | Medium |
| Non-profit and religion | Industries > Non-Profit Organizations, Religion & Spirituality | Religion & Spirituality, Community Sites | 538,383 in Spirituality | Medium |
| Pets and veterinary | Pets > Pet Supplies, Veterinary Medicine | Pets & Animals | 253,063 in Pet Supplies | High |
The example sizes are Tier 2 counts from the current release. Rows marked "Tier 3 label" are fed by the Industries branch of the taxonomy, described further down this page, which names the industry directly.
Using your own industry list
Few companies use a public industry list as is. Most sales and marketing teams have their own list of target industries, and the categories become the bridge from the web to that list.
List your industries
Write down the 10 to 60 industries your team targets, each with a one line definition.
Pick feeding categories
For each industry, choose the IAB v3 tiers and filtering labels that describe it. Our taxonomy page lists every option.
Set priorities
Where a domain matches two industries, decide which wins. The first ranked category is usually the tie breaker.
Test on known accounts
Run the mapping on a few hundred customers you already know and compare the results. Adjust any rows that misfire before you roll the mapping out.
Apply to everything
Join the full category file and label every account, lead and prospect in one pass. Store the mapping version next to each label so a later change can be rerun cleanly.
B2B or B2C? Reading the persona field
The same category can hide very different businesses. A software company may sell to developers or to families. The persona field shows who a site is for, which separates business sellers from consumer brands.
Signals of a B2B company
Signals of a B2C company
These persona names are among the most common in the current release. Combine them with the category: Technology & Computing plus developer personas is a strong sign of a business software vendor.
Enrichment use cases
Industry labels from websites appear wherever a company record needs a sector and nobody filled one in.
CRM hygiene
Fill empty industry fields on accounts and fix labels that no longer match the website.
Lead routing
Send sign-ups to the right vertical team the moment they arrive. See sales intelligence.
Account based marketing
Build target account lists by industry and country, then rank them by popularity band.
Merchant and partner checks
Check that a merchant or reseller website matches the business it declared at sign-up.
Market and investor research
Count companies per industry and track growth over monthly releases. See market research.
Advertising audiences
Turn industry segments into B2B audiences and contextual placements. See audience segmentation.
Supplier analytics
Group vendor lists by industry for spend analysis and risk reviews.
Data products
Data vendors add industry fields to their own files. See data enrichment services.
Worked examples: five well-known domains
These rows come from the current release. They show how the IAB subject and the filtering labels combine into an industry label, and where judgement is needed.
| Domain | IAB v3 Tier 1 > Tier 2 | Web filtering labels | Industry label | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| paypal.com | Personal Finance > Consumer Banking | Business, Financial Services, Online Banking, Shopping | Finance: payments | The banking labels outweigh Shopping, which only reflects where the service is used. |
| booking.com | Travel > Travel Type | Travel | Travel and hospitality | A single clear label: a direct, high fit mapping. |
| indeed.com | Careers > Job Search | Business, Job Search/Careers | HR and recruiting | The Careers subject points to recruiting services rather than to the employers listed on the site. |
| zillow.com | Real Estate > Real Estate Buying and Selling | Financial Services, Home & Garden, Marketplaces / Classifieds / Auctions, Real Estate | Real estate: property portals | Secondary labels show a marketplace with finance features, useful for sub-segments. |
| shopify.com | Business and Finance > Industries | Business, Email and Messaging, Shopping, Web-based Applications | Software and SaaS | An edge case: Shopping appears because the product serves shops, while Web-based Applications shows it is software. |
The IAB industry branch
The IAB v3 taxonomy has a branch for business sites: Business and Finance > Industries, which holds 16,370,911 domains in this release. Its Tier 3 labels read like an industry list already, and many teams start their mapping here.
Labels are shown in the order of how often they occur among the most popular domains. Retail and finance lead, followed by logistics, entertainment, education and manufacturing.
Measuring mapping quality
An industry mapping is only as good as its last check. Three simple measures tell you whether it is ready for production.
Agreement on known accounts
Compare mapped labels with accounts your team knows well. Aim for high agreement at sector level before going deeper.
Coverage
Count how many of your records receive a label. Missing labels usually point to parked, personal or infrastructure domains.
Stability
After each monthly refresh, count how many accounts changed industry. A small share is normal; a jump means a mapping row needs review.
Industry labels and official codes
Some systems need an official code rather than a label. The same categories can be mapped to NAICS sectors and SIC major groups, with confidence levels.
| Output | Best for | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Your own industry label | Sales territories, campaigns, dashboards | "Dental practices" |
| NAICS sector or subsector | Comparison with official statistics, public sector work | 62 Health Care and Social Assistance |
| SIC major group | Older CRMs, securities and compliance files | 80 Health Services |
| IAB category | Advertising systems and contextual targeting | Medical Health > Dental Health |
Our guide to SIC and NAICS codes by website covers code structures, crosswalk tables and how deep a website based code should go.
Edge cases and how to handle them
A few kinds of domains need rules of their own. Setting them once saves manual review later.
Conglomerates and multi-brand groups
A group site may describe banking, insurance and real estate at once. Use the first ranked category for the primary industry and keep the others as secondary tags.
Parked and for-sale domains
These carry the Parked / For-Sale Domains label. Exclude them from industry coding, and flag accounts whose website has become parked, since the company may have closed.
Hosting, CDN and infrastructure domains
Domains used for content delivery or hosting say little about a company. Map them to their owner's main domain where you can, or leave them unlabelled.
Agencies that talk about their clients
Marketing and design agencies often show client work from many industries. The persona field and the Advertising/Marketing label help keep them in the agency industry.
Personal sites of professionals
A consultant's personal site may read like a blog. Combine the Blogs/Personal Sites label with business categories to decide whether it is a sole trader.
Brands with several country domains
One brand may run a site per country. Roll them up to one company, and use the country field to keep regional reporting correct.
Browse industry and country lists
The same data is available as ready lists by industry and by country, which is the quickest way to see what a mapped segment contains.
Popular industry lists
Check one domain
Try any company website in the domain category checker to see the categories that would drive its industry label.
Frequently asked questions
How do you find the industry of a company from its website?
Look up the domain in a categorized website database, take its content categories, and map them to your industry list with a crosswalk. Categories that clearly describe a business, such as dental clinics or accounting, map directly, while broad ones need a second signal.
Can I use my own industry list?
Yes. Most teams map our IAB and web filtering categories to their own ideal customer profile list. Because the categories are fixed and documented, one mapping table covers every domain in the file.
How do you tell B2B from B2C companies?
Combine the category with the persona field. A software site with developer and IT personas reads as B2B, while a fashion site with shopper personas reads as B2C.
Does a website based industry label replace official registry data?
No. It complements it. Registry codes describe the legal entity, while the website shows what the company does today. Many teams keep both and use disagreements to find outdated records.
What about companies without a website?
They cannot be labelled from web content. In most B2B files the share is small, and those records can keep any label they already have.
Can one company get more than one industry?
Yes. Keep a primary industry from the first ranked category and secondary industries from the other labels. Diversified groups and platforms often need two or three.
How often do industry labels change?
Categories are refreshed monthly, and newly registered domains are added every day. Companies that pivot or rebrand are picked up at the next refresh.
Give every company domain an industry
License the categorized domain database and map over 120 million domains to the industry list your team already uses.
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