What is domain propagation?

Domain propagation is the process of updating the domain name system (DNS) records for a domain, so that changes to the domain become visible to users around the world.

When you make changes to the DNS records for your domain, such as updating the IP address for your website or changing the mail server for your email addresses, these changes need to be propagated to all DNS servers around the world. This is because DNS servers store a copy of the DNS records for your domain in a cache, which allows them to quickly respond to DNS queries for your domain without having to contact the authoritative DNS servers every time.

During the propagation process, the updated DNS records are distributed to all DNS servers around the world, replacing the old records in their cache. This can take some time, as different DNS servers may update at different rates, depending on factors such as the TTL (Time to Live) value for the DNS records and the caching policies of the DNS servers.

Once the DNS propagation process is complete, all DNS servers around the world will have the updated DNS records for your domain, and any changes you have made should be visible to users.

It's important to note that DNS propagation times can vary, and it can sometimes take several hours or even days for changes to propagate fully. If you have recently made changes to your DNS records and are waiting for the changes to propagate, you can use tools like DNS Checker to check the current DNS records for your domain from different locations around the world. This can help you to determine whether the changes have propagated fully or if there are still some DNS servers that have not yet updated their records.