What does URL mean? Get an in-depth look here
You’ve probably seen and heard the letters U-R-L in context before. You may also have wondered what the three letters mean – and whether they have any meaning at all. And they do – of course. In fact, quite a logical meaning, once you understand the elements behind the three letters.
In this post, we give you an in-depth look at the meaning of URLs and how you can and should best act when working with the concept.
What does URL mean
URL is an abbreviation for Uniform Resource Location. And what does this mean in practice? Quite simply, it can be explained as the address of a specific resource located somewhere on the Internet.
A URL is thus the address of your website and the one that leads visitors to your website. URLs are closely related to IP addresses. In fact, Uniform Resource Location is most often referred to as a kind of proxy for IP addresses, which all computers have and which the computer uses to communicate to the server. IP addresses are long and often complicated numbers, often consisting of 4 sections with up to 3 numbers in each section.
An example of an IP address might be 145.564.356.213. Whereas an IP address is often difficult to remember – and also says nothing concrete about the website – a URL is more concrete and gives the user a real opportunity to understand what the website is about.
The elements of a URL
We now know what a URL means. But if you go deeper into the abbreviation, there are more elements behind it. A URL is characterised by being a series of different elements which, when put together, form the starting point for a specific website.
Together, these different elements provide the information necessary for the browser to find the page on the Internet. While some elements must be included for the page to work – other elements are optional. Let’s take the following as a starting point.
https://yourhomepage.com:433/what-is-an-url.html?key1=value1#anchor
As the above figure illustrates, the URL is made up of a number of different elements, which we will examine individually below, in order to provide a clearer answer to the question “what does the URL mean?”. Typically, only the protocol, the domain name and the page path need to be present in the URL for it to work, while the remaining elements may help to provide the browser with additional information that can be used to identify the resource.
Top domain
The top level domain is also referred to as the level 1 domain and can be found by looking at the far right of the domain name. In the example above, the top level domain is .com. You may have noticed this yourself – because often the top level domain is country specific. This is also called a ccTLD (country code top-level domain).
Each country has its own country code top level domain. However, there are also generic TLDs. These are called gTDL (Generic top-level domain) and can be used by all countries. These generic domains are often divided into categories. For example, commercial companies also have the .com TLD, while organisations have the .org TLD.
Domain name
The domain name is referred to as a level 2 domain. In the example above, the domain name is yourhomepage.com.
The domain name can also be considered as the more descriptive element and the one that gives the name to the website itself.
Other: various websites act as portals to other websites. For example, there are portals, such as a housing portal, which link to other estate agents who have homes for sale.
Subdomain
A subdomain. It can be used to describe searching for a website on the internet. However, it is not required to be included in the domain. The subdomain is advantageous to use if you have several categories on your website. For example, if you have different languages, the subdomain can indicate which language is being accessed. It will often be at the beginning of the domain as en. or de.
Port
Looking at the next part, the numbers that come after the domain can be characterized as the port of the URL. Like the protocol, the port helps determine how content on the web is transferred to the browser. If you use http (port 80) or https (port 443), the port will often be omitted altogether.
Page path
Depending on where you are on a website, the URL will consist of a page path in addition to the above. This path tells you where you are on the page. For example, if you go to a subpage about what a Uniform Resource Location is, it might look like the example above.
A subpage may have a subpage below it. Here you distinguish the subpages with a slash indicating a new subpage. The last subpage will also show the file type of the page. This is often terminated by the letters html.
Parameters
This element is used to provide additional information to the browser. In a URL, the parameter starts with a question mark. How the parameters are used depends on the individual website and the owner of the website.
Anchor
This element is used to provide additional information to the browser. In a URL, the parameter starts with a question mark. How the parameters are used depends on the individual website and the owner of the website.