Also known as an Internet address or web address, a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is a form of URI and a standardized naming convention for directing documents accessible over the Internet and Intranet. An example URL is https://www.excellentdigitalservices.com , which is the URL of the Café con SEO website.
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Parts of a URL or Internet address:
http:// or https://
The “http” stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. It allows the browser to know what protocol it is going to use to access the information specified in the domain. The “https” protocol is short for “Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol” and indicates that information transmitted over HTTP is encrypted and secure. After http or https are the colon (:) and two forward slashes (//) that separate the protocol from the rest of the URL. A URL is not explicit to an HTTP or HTTPS address; FTP, TFTP, Telnet, and other addresses are also considered URLs and cannot follow the same syntax as our example.
www.
Below, “www” stands for World Wide Web and is used to distinguish the content. This part of the URL is not necessary and can often be omitted. For example, if you type “https://www.excellentdigitalservices.com” you will reach the Café website with SEO. This part of the address can also be replaced by an important subpage known as a subdomain.
www.excellentdigitalservices.com
Next, “www.excellentdigitalservices.com” is the domain name of the website. The last part of the domain (.com) is known as the domain suffix , or TLD. It is used to identify the type or location of the website. For example, “. Com ” is short for commercial, “ .Org ” is short for an organization, and “ .Co.uk ” is the United Kingdom. There are several domain suffixes available. To obtain a domain, you must register the name through a domain registrar.
/SEO
Next, “/seo” is the directory directory where the web page is located on the server. In this example, the web page is one directory deep. To find the file on the server, it would be in the /public_html/seo/ directory. On most servers, the public_html directory is the default directory containing HTML files.
.html
Lastly, .html is the actual web page for the domain you are viewing. The final .html is the web page extension that indicates the file is an HTML file. Other common file extensions on the Internet are .html, .php, .asp, .cgi, .xml, .jpg, and .gif. Each of these file extensions serves a different function, just like all the different types of files on your computer. As you may have noticed, the protocol, domain, directories and files are separated by forward slashes (/).
Also Read: Complete list of Google Search Operators
Where is the URL located?
A URL is located at the top of the browser window, in the address bar, or in the overview box, depending on the browser window. On desktop and laptop computers, unless the browser is displayed in full screen, the URL is always visible. On most smartphone and tablet browsers, the address bar containing the URL disappears as you scroll down and only displays the domain when it is visible.
If the address bar is not visible, scroll up the page. If only the domain is displayed, tapping the address bar displays the full address. Most video sharing sites, such as YouTube , also have sharing links below the video or in the video. Using these sharing links is another method to get the video URL.
How to open a URL?
You can open a URL by clicking a hyperlink. For example, if you click “hyperlink” in this paragraph, the SEO coffee home page opens . If a URL is in printed material (for example, an email or a magazine) where it is not a hyperlink, you can open the page by typing the URL into the browser’s address bar. If the URL is in an email, it can also be copied and pasted into the address bar.
What characters are not allowed in a URL?
Most people know that space is not allowed in a URL. However, it is also important to know, as documented in RFC 1738, the URL String CAN ONLY CONTAIN ALPHABETRIC CHARACTER(S)! $ -_ + * ‘(), . Any other characters needed in the URL must be encoded.
Understand the URL and more complex parameters
When a URL points to a script that performs additional functions (such as when you perform a Google search), additional information (parameters) is added to the end of the URL. For example, a search engine URL that points to a search results page includes a parameter with the words of the search query. When you use Google for example, after the keywords you used, is there a question mark? before other characters . The question mark in a URL separates the URL from all parameters or variables passed to a query or script.
Is an IP address the same as a URL or web address?
No. An IP address is a unique number that is assigned to each device on a network. On the World Wide Web, a domain name is assigned a unique IP address . When typed (for example, www.excellentdigitalservices.com), DNS translates the domain name into an IP address that routers use to find the web server. A domain name is used instead of an IP address because it is easier for humans to remember. For example, it is easier to remember “www.excellentdigitalservices.com” than an IP address like “215.60.214.164”.
Also Read: What Is Content Delivery Network (CDN) and How Does It Work
How does the URL affect SEO?
We have already explained that to access a web page, you need to know the IP or URL, but it can also be accessed through a search engine, which will offer you a hyperlink to different pages that may solve your query.
Applying good practices, it is advisable to use the name of the article or the title of that web page in the URL to guide the user about what they are going to find or give them indications of where they are, and thus be able to use the URL itself to navigate (for example By removing the “/ url” from www.excellentdigitalservices.com/url you will access the main page.
It also serves to help publicize your brand (branding) since you are allowing users to “read” the URL and subsequently recognize it and decide whether to visit it before other options that are displayed. This can increase the number of times users voluntarily enter that website and increase the percentage of times a URL is visited each time it is displayed in a search engine. This is known as CTR and is a positioning factor that Google takes into account.
