Understanding URLs - What They Are and Why They Matter
Published Date: September 9, 2022
Updated Date: September 9, 2022
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator
When we access anything on our web browser over the internet, we use an address or URL (Uniform Resource Locator).
A URL is a unique address (an identifier) that can help you locate a resource on the internet.
When we type the URL in the web browser's address bar, we ask the web browser to take us to that location over the internet. The URL we use will exactly transition the name of the website and the relevant path to the resource or the web page that you are trying to access for that website. It is up to the website to serve the right content located at that address.
A URL usually contains five different parts. You can read about the different parts that constitute a URL.
A URL is probably the only important thing that drives users to a website, a business, or a resource on the internet. With the number of URLs, websites, domains as well as users online today, there is solid competition to rank higher on the search engines.
If you are trying to rank your website, domain, and particular pages higher on a search engine, you need to focus on creating a user-friendly, content-driven URL.
For example, on this webpage, you are just viewing.
https://toolsconverters.xyz/blogs/url-encoder/what-is-a-url
The above URL will translate and navigate you first to toolsconverters.xyz and then to its sub-path located at blogs/url-encoder/what-is-a-url
As a good practice, you always write the URLs in lowercase. Although it is case insensitive, it is always good to have URLs that are clear and precise. This is one of the important aspects of making your URL search engine optimized.
There are many applications that require you to encode your URL into a format that the systems can understand. If you wish to encode a URL, check out our free online URL Encoder.
Some systems communicate with encoded URLs, so you may need to decode a URL. If you want to decode a URL online, we have our free online URL Decoder.
Frequently asked questions about URL
What is a url link? or what is url address?
URL stands for Unique Resource Locator. Just like in the real world, to identify a physical address, we need to know the street, city, zip, state, and country. A URL consists of different parts, and it is represented as a link. All of its parts are connected together to form one string or one address that can uniquely identify a resource on the internet.
What is url in computer?
A URL means Unique Resource Locator. If you can locate a resource on the world wide web, you can surely locate addresses on your own computer. If you open an explorer (windows) or Finder (Mac), you will see the white area on the top that will tell you where you are on your computer. Precisely, your current folder. This is the current address you are on your computer. So, a URL in a computer is a path for the resource on your computer.
What is a permalink?
A permalink, i.e. a permanent link, is a link that is supposed to remain unique for your resource on your website. So, if you consider an "About" page, you usually want people on the internet to find you at www.yourdomain.com/about. So, that becomes your URL, and you can make this URL a permanent link.
What is bitly or tinyUrl?
Services like Bitly.com or tiny.url allow you to shrink your big URL address to a smaller, much more manageable address. For example:
https://toolsconverters.xyz/blog/url/what-is-a-urlIt can be easily converted in a service like bit.ly as
https://bit.ly/what-is-a-urlSo now, even if you access https://bit.ly/what-is-a-url it will redirect you to the https://toolsconverters.xyz/blog/url/what-is-a-url.
In addition to the redirect, these services let you track the number of times your bitly/tinyurl/goo.gl link was clicked. So if you are running a campaign or want to track the links on social media, it is a very good use case for using such a service.
What is a url, and Where is it located?
A URL is an address to a resource on the internet. You can read more about the URL.
A URL is located at the top of the browser window in the address bar. On the computer, if you are using File Explorer (windows) or Finder (Mac), the URL is located at the top in the address bar, where you see the folder structure.
What does io mean in url?
Every URL on the internet consists of a domain name. There are different types of a domain that you can use for your website. Each domain type has a particular definition. Each domain type has an abbreviation. Here is a list of some commonly used domain types.
.io stands for Input/Output .com stands for Commercial .net stands for Network .edu stands for Education .org stands for Organization .gov stands for Government
You can register your domain with any of the commonly used providers like
You can also use these simple website builders for your domain
There are many applications that require you to encode your URL into a format that the systems can understand. If you wish to encode a URL, check out our free online URL Encoder.
Some systems communicate with encoded URLs, so you may need to decode a URL. If you want to decode a URL online, we have our free online URL Decoder.