Each Web site on the Internet possesses at least one Internet Protocol (IP) address. Knowing a Web site IP address can be useful to determine its physical location, but this address is not automatically shown in Web browsers.
Each web
server has an IP. Some sites used name based hosting and share an IP as noted earlier. Others have proxy or load balancers ahead which are the announced IP, but use internal IP's on the actual web servers which can be routable or private. The WAN IP is based on a myriad of network setups and easily identifiable once someone knows the network setup.
So ask the webhost or ISP or "the dude who setup the web server" for the WAN IP or the IP to use to ssh or ftp. They might have a content server that propagates to the production site, or it might be a simple setup with one IP assigned to the server for ssh/ftp, but shared via name based virtual hosting.
And never rely on ping, most admins turns off IMCP for security and other concerns. If a person who knows the IP is not reachable, considering running a traceroute to the web site, it *might* reveal the IP as the last hop, but even this is not 100% reliable.