URL: meaning explained simply and clearly

What is meant by the term “URL” is often only understood by technical experts. However, the meaning of the abbreviation can be quickly explained.

What is meant by the term “URL” – what you should know

A URL is a unique address on the internet that allows you to access certain resources such as websites, images or files. It is comparable to a street address in the real world and consists of several parts that together indicate the exact location of a resource on the internet.

• The term “URL” is an abbreviation that can also be used in everyday language. The expression is an abbreviation of the English term “Uniform Resource Locator”, which in turn can be translated as “uniform resource locator”.

• URLs are crucial for search engine optimization, as they help search engines to index and understand websites. They are also important for user experience, as they can describe the content of a page in advance. URLs are not the same as domains, but they do include the domain as part of the address.

• URLs are used primarily to access websites via a browser. However, they can also be used for other protocols such as FTP or Mailto. Entering a URL in the address bar of a browser allows you to access the corresponding resource.

This is how a URL is constructed

URLs are characterized by a unique structure. The URL consists of various main components that can only represent the individual URL in context.

• First of all, each URL has a protocol. The protocol defines the communication protocol. For example, the abbreviation “https” stands for a secure connection and represents a common protocol.

• In addition, a so-called subdomain can also be part of the URL. Subdomains such as “www”, “blog” or “shop” are often used for a URL.

• The domain name is particularly important for a URL. The domain name is the main address of the website. Only with the help of the domain name can a URL stand out from the already existing URLs.

• Finally, each URL also has a so-called path. This is a specific location of the file on a server. For example, “/path/file.html” is such a path.