What Is a URL? Full Form, Meaning, Parts and Examples

Every link you click, every QR code you scan and every address you type into a browser is a URL. You use dozens a day, but most people never look closely at one. That's a shame, because a URL tells you a lot: which site you're really on, what the page is, what data is being passed along and sometimes who sent you there.

This guide covers the full form and meaning, breaks a URL into its parts, gives 17 real examples you can copy, and shows you how to read a URL well enough to spot a fake one.

In this guide

• What does URL stand for?
• The parts of a URL
• URL examples
• What happens when you open a URL
• URL vs URI vs URN
• URL vs domain name
• Absolute vs relative URLs
• URL encoding (percent-encoding)
• How to find and copy a URL
• How to read a URL and spot a fake link
• Long URLs vs short URLs
• A short history of the URL

What Does URL Stand For?

URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. That's the full form, and each word does a specific job:

• Uniform: every URL follows the same syntax, so any browser, app or server can read any URL.
• Resource: the thing being pointed at. Usually a web page, but it can be an image, a video, a PDF, an API endpoint, an email address or a phone number.
• Locator: it tells software where the resource lives and how to reach it, meaning which protocol to use.

In everyday language, a URL is a "web address" or a "link address". When you copy a link and paste it into a message, the text you paste is a URL. The plural is URLs.

The Parts of a URL

Here is one URL that uses every common part. Most URLs you see use only some of them.

Part	In the example	What it does	Required?
Scheme (protocol)	https://	Tells the browser how to fetch the resource. https is encrypted HTTP. Others include http, mailto, tel and file.	Yes
Subdomain	shop.	An optional prefix the domain owner creates to split up a site. www is the most familiar one.	No
Domain name	example	The name someone registered. With the TLD (example.com) it identifies the website.	Yes, for web URLs
Top-level domain (TLD)	.com	The last label of the host name. Generic TLDs include .com and .org. Country codes include .uk, .in and .ai (Anguilla).	Yes, for web URLs
Port	:8443	The network "door" on the server. Browsers assume 443 for https and 80 for http, so you rarely see a port.	No
Path	/products/shoes	Which page or file on the site, organized like folders on a computer.	No (defaults to /)
Query string	?color=blue&size=9	Extra data for the server as key=value pairs joined with &. Used for search terms, filters and tracking tags.	No
Fragment (anchor)	#reviews	Jumps to a section of the page. Handled by the browser and never sent to the server.	No

Scheme: http vs https

The scheme comes first and ends with a colon. For web pages it's http or https, followed by //. The s in https means the connection between your browser and the server is encrypted, so nobody on the same Wi-Fi network can read or change what you send and receive. Browsers flag plain http pages as not secure, which is why most sites have moved to https.

Not every scheme uses //. Email, phone and data URLs start with just the scheme and a colon: mailto:, tel:, data:. If you want to go deeper on schemes, including the ones apps register for themselves, our URI schemes guide covers them.

Host: subdomain, domain name and TLD

The subdomain, domain name and TLD together form the host, such as shop.example.com. Read it right to left:

1. .com is the top-level domain.
2. example.com is the registered domain. Whoever owns it controls everything to its left.
3. shop is a subdomain the owner of example.com created.

This right-to-left habit is the single most useful URL skill you can learn, because it's how you tell a real site from a fake one (more on that below). The host is not case-sensitive, so EXAMPLE.com and example.com are the same site. A host can also be a raw IP address, like 192.168.1.1, instead of a name.

Query string and URL parameters

Everything after the ? (and before any #) is the query string. It holds URL parameters as key=value pairs separated by &:

?q=running+shoes&page=2&sort=price

That's three parameters: q is running shoes, page is 2 and sort is price. Some parameters change what the page shows (search terms, filters, page numbers). Others only record where a visit came from, such as the utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign tags marketers add for analytics. Our UTM parameters guide explains those, and the UTM builder writes them for you.

Fragment

The # and whatever follows it is the fragment, also called an anchor or hash. It points to a spot inside the page, usually an element with a matching id, and the browser scrolls there. Browsers don't send the fragment to the server at all, which is why changing it doesn't reload the page.

A newer variation is the text fragment: #:~:text= followed by words on the page. Opening https://example.com/guide#:~:text=step%203 scrolls to and highlights the first "step 3" on that page. Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox all support text fragments in current versions.

URL Examples

URLs aren't only for web pages. Here are 17 real formats, from the everyday to the unusual. Swap in your own details and they work.

Type	Example URL	What it does
Homepage	https://www.example.com	Opens a site's home page. The path defaults to /.
Page on a site	https://example.com/blog/what-is-a-url	Opens one specific page.
File	https://example.com/files/menu.pdf	Opens or downloads a PDF.
Search query	https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+a+url	The q parameter holds the search term. + stands for a space.
Several parameters	https://example.com/shoes?color=blue&size=9&sort=price	Filters and sorts a product list.
Fragment (anchor)	https://example.com/guide#step-3	Opens the page and jumps to the section with id="step-3".
Text fragment	https://example.com/guide#:~:text=step%203	Scrolls to and highlights the words "step 3".
UTM tags	https://example.com/sale?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spring	Tells your analytics the visit came from the spring email.
With a port	http://localhost:3000	A local development server running on port 3000.
IP address	http://192.168.1.1	A typical home router admin page. The host is an IP instead of a name.
Subdomain	https://docs.example.com/start	A separate section of a site, run under the same domain.
Email	mailto:hello@example.com?subject=Hello	Opens a new email to that address with the subject filled in.
Phone	tel:+15555550123	Starts a call on a phone.
Text message	sms:+15555550123	Opens a new SMS to that number.
FTP	ftp://ftp.example.com/pub/file.zip	A file on an FTP server. Chrome and Firefox dropped built-in FTP support in 2021, so you need an FTP app.
Local file	file:///C:/Users/you/Documents/report.pdf	A file on your own computer. The three slashes mean the host is empty.
Data URL	data:,Hello%2C%20World%21	Carries the content itself, here the text "Hello, World!".

Need one of these in a hurry? The mailto link generator and the tel and SMS link generator build the email and phone formats for you.

What Happens When You Open a URL

Typing a URL and pressing Enter sets off a short chain of steps:

1. Parse. The browser splits the URL into its parts. If you typed something without a scheme, it adds one or treats your text as a search.
2. Look up the host. A DNS lookup turns the host name (example.com) into the IP address of a server.
3. Connect. The browser connects to that server on the port (443 for https) and sets up encryption.
4. Request. It asks for the path and query string. The fragment stays behind in the browser.
5. Respond. The server sends back the page, a redirect to another URL (status 301 or 302) or an error such as 404 Not Found.
6. Render. The browser displays the page and, if there's a fragment, scrolls to it.

Redirects are how short links, moved pages and http-to-https upgrades work. Our guide on how URL redirects work walks through them, and 301 vs 302 redirects covers which one to use.

URL vs URI vs URN

These three terms confuse a lot of people because they overlap.

Term	Stands for	What it is	Example
URI	Uniform Resource Identifier	Any string that identifies a resource. The umbrella term.	https://example.com/page, urn:isbn:0451450523
URL	Uniform Resource Locator	A URI that also says where the resource is and how to reach it.	https://example.com/page
URN	Uniform Resource Name	A URI that names a resource permanently, without saying where it is.	urn:isbn:0451450523 (a book's ISBN)

Every URL is a URI, but not every URI is a URL. The URN above identifies one specific book (The Last Unicorn), but you can't paste it into a browser and read it, because it has no location. The IETF's RFC 3986 defines the shared syntax, and the WHATWG URL Standard that browsers follow simply calls everything a URL. In daily use, "URL" is the right word almost every time.

URL vs Domain Name

A domain name is part of a URL, not the same thing.

	Domain name	URL
What it is	The name of a website	The full address of one resource
Example	u2l.ai	https://u2l.ai/url-shortener
Contains	A name and a TLD	Scheme, host, path, and optionally port, query and fragment
How you get it	You register it with a registrar and renew it	You create as many as you like under a domain you control
Points to	A whole site, through DNS	One specific page, file or action

So u2l.ai is a domain name, and https://u2l.ai/url-shortener is a URL on that domain. Fun detail: .ai is the country-code TLD of Anguilla, and many AI companies register it for the obvious reason.

Absolute vs Relative URLs

An absolute URL is complete. It includes the scheme and host, so it works anywhere: https://example.com/pricing.

A relative URL leaves out parts and relies on the page it appears on (the base URL) to fill them in. Websites use relative URLs inside their own HTML because they're shorter and keep working if the domain changes.

If the current page is https://example.com/blog/what-is-a-url, here's how the browser resolves common relative URLs:

Relative URL	Resolves to
/pricing	https://example.com/pricing
related-post	https://example.com/blog/related-post
../about	https://example.com/about
?page=2	https://example.com/blog/what-is-a-url?page=2
#faq	https://example.com/blog/what-is-a-url#faq
//cdn.example.com/logo.png	https://cdn.example.com/logo.png

URL Encoding (Percent-Encoding)

URLs can only contain a limited set of characters: letters, digits and a few symbols. Everything else, including spaces and non-English letters, has to be percent-encoded: replaced by a % followed by two hexadecimal digits for each byte of the character.

Symbols that have a job inside a URL (?, #, &, =, /) also need encoding when they're part of the data rather than the structure. A search for R&D has to be sent as R%26D, otherwise the & would start a new parameter.

Character	Encoded	Why it needs encoding
Space	%20 (or + in query strings)	Spaces aren't allowed in URLs
&	%26	Separates parameters
#	%23	Starts the fragment
?	%3F	Starts the query string
/	%2F	Separates path segments
%	%25	Starts an encoded character
+	%2B	Means a space inside query strings
é	%C3%A9	Non-ASCII letters are encoded as their UTF-8 bytes

Two things trip people up. First, the same space can appear as %20 or + depending on where it is, and both are correct. Second, double encoding: if an already-encoded URL gets encoded again, %20 becomes %2520 and the link breaks. The URL encoder and decoder shows you exactly what a string looks like either way.

Domain names with non-Latin characters use a different system called Punycode, which turns them into ASCII names that start with xn--. The Punycode converter translates in both directions.

How to Find and Copy a URL

On a computer (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari)

1. Click the address bar at the top of the browser. The shortcut is Ctrl + L on Windows (Alt + D and F6 also work in Chrome) or Cmd + L on a Mac.
2. The whole URL is selected. Press Ctrl + C (or Cmd + C) to copy it.

Browsers often shorten what they display. Chrome hides https:// and www until you click the address bar. To always see the full address, right-click the address bar and choose Always show full URLs. In Safari on a Mac, go to Safari > Settings > Advanced and turn on Show full website address.

To copy a link without opening it, right-click the link and choose the copy option (Chrome calls it Copy link address). For an image, right-click it and choose Copy image address in Chrome.

On iPhone and iPad (Safari)

• Touch and hold the address bar, then tap Copy.
• Or tap the Share button and choose Copy.
• To copy a link on a page, touch and hold the link, then tap Copy Link.

On Android (Chrome)

• Tap the address bar, then tap the copy icon (two overlapping squares) next to the URL.
• To copy a link on a page, touch and hold it, then tap Copy link address.

Inside apps

Apps like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Spotify and Google Maps don't show an address bar. Tap Share on the post, video or place, then Copy link. What you get is a normal URL you can paste anywhere.

How to Read a URL and Spot a Fake Link

Phishing links work by looking almost right. A few habits make them easy to catch.

1. Find the real domain. Look at the host (between :// and the next /) and read it right to left. The registered domain is the name just before the TLD. Everything to its left is a subdomain the owner can set to anything, including another company's name:

This URL starts with "yourbank.com", but it belongs to secure-login.xyz. The bank has nothing to do with it.

2. Check for look-alike characters. rn next to each other looks like m, zero looks like the letter O, and a lowercase l looks like a capital I. Attackers can also register domains using letters from other alphabets that look identical to Latin ones, known as a homograph attack. Browsers show many suspicious names in Punycode, so an address starting with xn-- where you expected a familiar brand is a red flag. The Punycode converter reveals what such a name really spells.

3. Watch for an @ sign. In https://yourbank.com@203.0.113.7/login, everything before the @ is treated as a username. The real host is 203.0.113.7.

4. Ignore brand names in the path. https://example.net/yourbank/login is a page on example.net. Putting a brand in the path costs nothing.

5. Don't trust the padlock alone. https means the connection is encrypted. It says nothing about whether the site is honest, and phishing sites use it too.

6. Expand short links first. A short link hides its destination by design. Paste it into the URL expander to see where it goes, or run it through the link safety checker, which follows every redirect and scans the final page.

Long URLs vs Short URLs

Long URLs are normal on the web. Product pages, search results and anything with tracking tags can easily run past 100 characters. That's fine inside a website, where people click rather than read. It becomes a problem when a person has to see, type, say or scan the URL:

• Social posts and messages: a long, parameter-heavy URL looks like spam and eats character limits.
• Print and QR codes: nobody types a 120-character address from a flyer, and more characters make a denser QR code.
• Spoken channels: podcasts, videos and radio need something a listener can remember.
• Tagged links: UTM parameters make links longer and uglier, but you still want them for tracking.

A short URL fixes this. It's a compact link that redirects to the long one, so the destination and its tracking tags stay intact. Our explainer on what URL shortening is covers how that redirect works.

With U2L AI, creating a short link is free and needs no signup. The short domain (u2l.ai or u.gy) is picked automatically based on the destination. A free account adds click analytics and link management, and custom domains are available on paid plans. When the link is headed for print, turn it into a QR code with the QR code generator.

Don't shorten links that live on your own site. Internal links, navigation and canonical URLs should use the real address.

A Short History of the URL

When	Milestone
1989	Tim Berners-Lee proposes the World Wide Web at CERN, built on documents linked by addresses.
June 1994	RFC 1630, "Universal Resource Identifiers in WWW", describes the address syntax the early web used.
1994	"Universal" is dropped in favor of "Uniform" as the IETF standardizes the terms.
December 1994	RFC 1738 by Tim Berners-Lee, Larry Masinter and Mark McCahill formally defines Uniform Resource Locators.
January 2005	RFC 3986 sets the generic URI syntax that remains the IETF standard.
Today	Browsers follow the WHATWG URL Standard, a living standard written to match how browsers actually parse URLs.

One piece of trivia: in 2009, Berners-Lee told The New York Times that the two slashes after http: were unnecessary and made web addresses longer than they needed to be. They stuck anyway, and billions of people have typed them since.

Key Takeaways

• URL full form: Uniform Resource Locator, the address of a resource on the internet.
• Parts: scheme, subdomain, domain name, TLD, port, path, query string and fragment. A web address needs only the scheme and host.
• Read the host right to left to find the real domain. It's the fastest way to spot a fake link.
• URL vs domain: the domain names the site, the URL points to one exact resource on it.
• Encoding: spaces and special characters become % codes, like %20.
• Sharing: use absolute URLs outside your site, and a short link when people need to read, type, say or scan it.

For more on the links built from URLs, read what is a hyperlink, or open the URL parser and take apart any address you're curious about.