How to Find a Website

Learn how to find a website quickly and easily

What to Know

  • Enter words related to the website into the navigation bar.
  • Use quotation marks around the specific words or phrases that you want to show up in your search results.
  • Or open a web directory > click through category headings to find useful websites.

This article explains how to find a website using either a search engine or web directory.

Use a Search Engine to Find a Website

Search engines make this very easy. In fact, most web browsers (like Chrome, Firefox, Edge, etc.) have a search box built in so that all you have to do is enter information about the website to find the site in question.

To try that, visit the navigation bar at the top of your browser and enter something about the site. Here's an example, where we're looking for Apple's website by typing apple iphone:

Chrome navigation bar

You can enter anything into this box: the website name if you know it, something about the site, or content you know is included on it. Any of those approaches will help.

Using a search engine's website to find other sites is really easy, too. Open any popular search engine, like Google, and use the text box on that page to run your search.

For example, if you open DuckDuckGo and type into the box lifewire, you'll find Lifewire.com within the results, and you can select the link to view the website.

DuckDuckGo search for Lifewire

Some search engines are even built to find similar websites. Say you really enjoy eBay, so you want to locate some of the other best auction sites on the web. One way to do that is by plugging eBay's site into a tool like SimilarSites. Doing that might yield results like Amazon, Wish, and Etsy.

Search Engine Options

Search engines might seem extremely simple at first glance, but most are actually capable of really advanced searches. You might need to employ some advanced search options if your initial query wasn't enough to find the site you're looking for.

For example, maybe you want to search only for websites that end in EDU, GOV, or some other top-level domain. You can do that on search engines like Google by using the site search command (e.g., site:edu).

Similarly, to search any website for a specific web page, you can run something like site:lifewire.com games, which would search lifewire.com for anything about games.

Something else we recommend is to use quotation marks in the search. This can help you find a website if you know some other details about it and you want those words to be interpreted by the search engine as a phrase.

Browse a Web Directory for Suggestions

If you need help finding a website because you don't know its name, or if you're trying to find the best content on any given subject, try a web directory.

These are websites that list other websites for you. They're similar to a search engine, but the results are hand-picked by real people and might offer an easier way for you to browse for a website.

If a search engine isn't helping, a web directory is your next best option. Most of them let you click through category headings to help you find useful websites that fall under any topic.

Best of the Web directory listing

For example, maybe you're looking for gaming sites, news sites, software sites, or websites that cover mathematics, computers systems, physics, cars, food, etc.

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