Domain Propagation - When Will My Website Be Online?
Posted on 7th March 2021
When you have worked hard on your website and you have bought your perfect domain name, quite rightly you can start to relax in terms of your 'new website' project and turn your attention to promoting it and getting the website seen. Excitedly, you start searching for your business online and yet no results come up in the first day or so. Why is that?
The answer is that the domain is propagating. Domain propagation, which can also be known as DNS propagation, means that the domain is transferring to a new owner. It can take up to 48 hours for your website to appear when you type in your new domain.
Every web server needs to be updated with the new information and as you can imagine, globally there are a fair few web servers! Domain propagation (AKA DNS propagation) is the name of the updating process. There are delays involved as when you register a change, it isn't always immediately updated on the server. Hence, the approximate 48 hour turnaround time for your website to be found online.
We mentioned servers above.... DNS servers work quickly and seamlessly and website visitors do not normally notice or come across them. They work in the background taking the numerical address (IP address) of your destination domain and then taking you there. You do not have much to do with DNS servers, unless you are making a change.
At first, it's a bit like looking through your file or pile of paperwork (sometimes it's that drawer, where you 'store' everything), and finding your car insurance document from 4 years ago, rather than the current one. So in website terms your device may have stored the old domain location. Therefore, it is important to make sure that you reload your page. You may also find that if you search for your domain from say your office address, it is pointing to the correct website, however from your home address, it is not. This is simply due to the lag on getting some servers updated. It is advisable to get on with something else and check back in a few days, as it will all get completed, it just takes some time.
We know that it can feel like a long time when you are waiting for something to happen but rest assured that the update will take place. There are tools that you can use to get a view of your website from around the world like Geo Peeker. These tools can give you a sanity check that your website really is live on your domain and that you can go ahead and start marketing your website like crazy.
Tagged as: Domain names, Web Design Ipswich
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