Originally published on CodingCush.
A URL — short for Uniform Resource Locator — is the full address of something on the web: a page, an image, a file, or a video. When you type or tap a URL, your browser uses it to find the right server and ask for the right thing. Every URL is built from a few simple parts — the scheme, the domain name, the path, and sometimes parameters and an anchor — and once you can name those parts, web addresses stop looking like random strings and start reading like proper postal addresses.
One URL, Taken Apart
Let us dissect a real-looking example slowly:
https://www.codingcush.com/blog/python-guide?page=2#faq | Part | In this URL | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Scheme | https:// | How to talk to the server (here, securely) |
| Domain name | www.codingcush.com | Which server (or site) to contact |
| Path | /blog/python-guide | Which page or resource on that site |
| Parameters | ?page=2 | Extra information sent to the page |
| Anchor | #faq | A marked section inside the page |
The postal address comparison is a good one. The scheme is like choosing between a letter and a courier — the method of delivery. The domain is the building. The path is the flat number inside the building. Parameters are a note attached to the parcel, and the anchor is "third shelf on the left" once you are already inside the room. MDN, the web documentation run by Mozilla, introduces URLs exactly this way, and the MDN "What is a URL?" page is a friendly next read once you finish here.
The Scheme: http and https
The scheme sits at the very start, before the ://. The two you will meet daily are http and https. The extra "s" stands for secure: with HTTPS, the conversation between your browser and the server is encrypted, so people sharing your coffee-shop Wi-Fi cannot read or quietly alter it. Modern browsers now warn visitors when a site still uses plain HTTP, and search engines prefer HTTPS sites, which is why almost every serious website has made the switch. Other schemes exist — mailto: opens an email app, ftp: is an older file-transfer method — but for web pages, the choice is simply between the secure one and the one you should avoid building new sites on.
The official MDN "What is a URL?" page on developer.mozilla.org — the reference this explainer follows.
The Domain Name: Finding the Right Server
After the scheme comes the domain name, such as codingcush.com. Computers do not actually find each other by these friendly names; they use numeric IP addresses. A system called DNS translates the name you type into the correct address, a bit like your phone contacts turning "Mum" into an actual phone number. The neat part is that you never have to see this happen — although it happens in a fraction of a second, every single time. If you enjoy knowing what goes on behind the curtain, our walkthrough of what happens when you type a URL in the browser follows the whole journey from that DNS lookup to the finished page on your screen. The difference between HTTP and HTTPS also connects here: our guide to HTTP vs HTTPS explains certificates and the padlock in simple words.
The Path: Which Page, Exactly?
The path is everything after the domain, up to any question mark. /blog/, /shop/, /students/login — each path points to one specific resource on the site. Old websites mapped paths directly to files on the server, and some still do, but modern websites usually treat the path as an instruction: "show the product with this name" or "open the course with this slug". Either way, from the visitor's side the rule is simple — change the path, and you ask for a different page on the same site. This is also why a mistyped path gives you the famous 404 error: the server was found perfectly well; it simply has nothing at that address. For the formal rules behind all of this, the WHATWG URL Standard is the living specification that browsers actually follow — heavier reading, but it is the real rulebook.
Parameters and Anchors: The Optional Extras
Parameters begin with a question mark and come as key-and-value pairs, joined by ampersands: ?page=2&sort=price. Websites use them for search pages, filters, page numbers and tracking tags. They change what the page shows without changing which page it is. The anchor, starting with a hash — #faq — is different again: it never even reaches the server. It simply tells the browser to scroll to a marked section of the page it already loaded, which is why table-of-contents links at the top of long tutorials work instantly with no loading spinner.
Absolute vs Relative URLs
When you write code, you will meet two flavours. An absolute URL is the complete address, scheme and domain included, and it works from anywhere. A relative URL is a shortcut that only makes sense from the current page: just /contact, or even just style.css. Inside one website, relative URLs keep code short and survive domain changes. When you link to another website, you must use the absolute form — otherwise the browser will look for that page on your own site, find nothing, and hand your visitor a 404 as a souvenir.
What About Port Numbers?
Sometimes you will see a number after the domain, separated by a colon, like http://localhost:8000 when you run a project on your own computer. That number is a port — a numbered door on the server. One computer can run many services at once, and the port tells the browser which door to knock on. Normal websites hide their ports because browsers already know the defaults: 80 for HTTP and 443 for HTTPS. Local development servers, however, often use ports like 3000, 5173 or 8000, which is why those numbers appear in tutorial URLs. If your local project "is not loading", checking that the port in the URL matches the port your server printed in the terminal is the first fix to try — a mismatch there is the digital equivalent of knocking politely on the wrong house.
Small Habits That Prevent Big Confusion
A few practical rules round things off. URLs cannot contain spaces — browsers quietly turn them into %20, which is why some links look uglier than the ones you typed. Capital letters in paths can matter on many servers, so /Blog and /blog may not be the same page. And when you share a link, share the whole thing carefully: dropping the parameters can turn a carefully filtered product page back into a giant unfiltered catalogue, which is nobody's idea of a good time.
What does URL stand for?
Uniform Resource Locator. It is the standard format for addressing a resource on the web, so that any browser can find it in the same way.
Is a URL the same as a domain name?
No. The domain name is only one part of a URL — the site's name. A URL also includes the scheme, the path to a specific page, and sometimes parameters and an anchor.
Why do some URLs have a question mark in them?
The question mark starts the parameters section. It passes extra information to the page, such as a search word, a page number, or a filter choice.
Does the part after the hash (#) go to the server?
No. The anchor is handled entirely by your browser, which uses it to scroll to a section of the page. The server never sees it.
Conclusion
A URL is not a random string — it is a well-organised address. The scheme says how to connect, the domain says where to go, the path says what to open, parameters add instructions, and the anchor points inside the page. Learn to read those five parts, and you will debug broken links faster, write cleaner code, and never again feel nervous when an interviewer asks the classic question: "So, what exactly is a URL?"
