How do I Find my Website?

If you just registered your domain name, then your website will not be in the search engines. It can take up to 6 months or more for your website to be listed by Google, Yahoo, MSN, and so forth. Generally, sites are listed in the search within a few weeks. Please note that search engines are independent companies and we have no control over when or where your website is listed. (Read more about how the search engines work.)

Even if your website is listed in the search engines, you should never be searching for your website since you already know the address. You should be going directly to your website.

When you need to go to google.com do you first go to yahoo.com and search for google.com? When you need to go to yahoo.com do you first go to google.com and search for yahoo.com? Of course not.

Then do not go to google or yahoo or bing to try to get to yourwebsite.com. If you can get to google.com, then you can get to yourwebsite.com just as easily.

Your website url such as "yourwebsite.com" is like your phone number on the web. When you do a search using a search engine such as Yahoo or Google or Bing it only searches the sites they have listed in their directory. Searching for your website would be like picking up the yellow pages to look for a phone number when you already know the number. Just like you would dial a phone number directly, you should go to your website directly.

To go directly to your website, open up your web browser, go to your address bar, type in your website name, and press the Enter key on your keyboard (see below for instructions with pictures for Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari). If you are not sure what your web browser is or how to find it, click here.

Find the address bar at the top (see picture below). You will see text that begins with https://.... (e.g., https://yahoo.com or https://google.com). Delete that text and type in your website. You do not have to include the https:// or a www.

If you do not see the address bar, from the Toolbar, click on View --> Toolbar --> Navigation Toolbar.

Internet Explorer 8.0

Find the address bar at the top (see picture below). You will see text that begins with https://.... (e.g., https://yahoo.com or https://google.com). Delete that text and type in your website. You do not have to include the https:// or a www.

Other versions of Internet Explorer

Other versions of IE also have the address bar. See picture below (this is an example from IE 6.0).

But, in some versions of IE, the default setting is to search from the address bar. This means that when you type in your website url (e.g., mydomain.com), IE does a search rather than going directly to the website. This is equivalent to dialing a phone number and your phone service connecting you to the operator who then locates the phone number for you. You want to avoid this process so this means that you need to change this setting.

To change the Address Bar setting, click on the Tools link at the top --> Internet Options --> in the pop up window select the Advanced Tab --> Scroll down to Search from the Address Bar section and select Do Not Search from the Address Bar. Click Okay. Click Okay again to save your changes.

Find the address bar at the top (see picture below). You will see text that begins with https://.... (e.g., https://yahoo.com or https://google.com). Delete that text and type in your website. You do not have to include the https:// or a www.