## **🔍 Overview**

When you connect an existing GoDaddy domain to a new site in Website Studio, Search Atlas automatically provisions an SSL certificate and waits for your domain's DNS records to propagate across the internet. In most cases this completes within a few hours, but GoDaddy domains can legitimately take **24–48 hours** to fully propagate. Seeing a **Propagating** status after 20 hours is not unusual and does not always indicate an error.

## **⏱️ Typical Propagation Timeline**

- **0–6 hours:** DNS changes begin spreading to major resolvers worldwide.
- **6–24 hours:** Most regions resolve correctly; the status banner may still show *Propagating*.
- **24–48 hours:** Full global propagation completes. This is the normal outer limit for GoDaddy domains.
- **Beyond 48 hours:** If the domain is still not resolving, a configuration issue is likely. Follow the troubleshooting steps below.

## **✅ Step 1 — Verify Your DNS Records in GoDaddy**

Before waiting further, confirm that the correct records were saved in your GoDaddy account.

1. Log in to your GoDaddy account and open **My Products → Domains**.
2. Click **DNS** next to your domain.
3. Confirm the following records exist exactly as shown in Website Studio:

   - An **A record** pointing to the Search Atlas IP address provided during setup.
   - A **CNAME record** for **www** pointing to your Search Atlas site address.
4. If any record is missing or incorrect, update it and save. Propagation will restart from that point.

## **🔒 Step 2 — Manually Retry SSL Certificate Provisioning**

If your DNS records are correct but the domain has been stuck on **Propagating** for more than 24 hours, the SSL certificate provisioning process may need a manual nudge. Follow these steps inside Website Studio.

1. In the left sidebar, click **Website Studio** (URL: `/website-studio`).
2. Locate the site attached to your GoDaddy domain and open its **Settings**.
3. Navigate to the **Domain** tab.
4. Find your connected GoDaddy domain. If a **Retry SSL** or **Re-verify Domain** button is visible, click it.
5. Wait 5–10 minutes, then refresh the page to check whether the status has updated to **Active**.
6. If the button is not visible, **disconnect the domain** and then **reconnect it** using the same domain name. This resets the SSL provisioning job without changing your DNS records.

## **🛠️ Step 3 — Check for Common GoDaddy-Specific Issues**

GoDaddy accounts have a few settings that can silently block propagation. Review each item below.

- **Domain forwarding is enabled:** If GoDaddy is forwarding your domain to another URL, it will override your DNS records. Go to **DNS → Forwarding** and remove any active forwarding rules.
- **Domain Privacy & Protection is interfering:** In rare cases, GoDaddy's privacy features delay DNS updates. Temporarily disable domain privacy, save, and check propagation again.
- **TTL is set too high:** A very high TTL (e.g., 86400 seconds / 24 hours) on your old DNS records means resolvers cache the outdated values for longer. Lower the TTL to **600 seconds** on all relevant records and wait for the cache to clear before expecting the new records to take effect.
- **Multiple conflicting A records:** If GoDaddy shows more than one A record for the same hostname (e.g., two A records for `@`), delete the outdated one and keep only the Search Atlas IP.

## **🔎 Step 4 — Check Global Propagation Status**

Use a free DNS propagation checker (such as **whatsmydns.net** or **dnschecker.org**) to see which regions have already resolved your domain to the correct IP address. Enter your domain name, select **A record**, and look at the results.

- If most locations show the correct Search Atlas IP, propagation is nearly complete. Wait a few more hours and retry SSL as described in Step 2.
- If most locations still show the old IP or no record, your DNS records in GoDaddy may not have saved correctly. Repeat Step 1.

## **📋 When to Escalate**

Contact our support team if any of the following apply after completing all steps above:

- It has been more than **48 hours** since you last saved the correct DNS records and the domain is still not active.
- The **Retry SSL** button produces an error message.
- Disconnecting and reconnecting the domain does not reset the propagation status.
- The DNS checker shows the correct IP worldwide but Website Studio still shows **Propagating**.

If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type **human teammate** to be connected with a member of our team.