It is a common mistake to refer to a domain name as a "URL," which should be avoided. This error is frequently made by uninformed start-up founders, managers, and executives nearing retirement. Domain investors should be outraged by this mistake, as it downplays the value of their industry.



Bill Sweetman, a well-known domain broker, was once thanked for acquiring a "URL" by one of his higher-level clients. URLs are actually Uniform Resource Locators, which provide the address of a specific page or resource on a website.

On the other hand, a domain name is the unique name that identifies a website or email address on the internet. When you purchase a domain name, you can create as many URLs as you like; however, you cannot register a URL. Let us work together to put an end to this misnomer once and for all.

The URL, or Uniform Resource Locator, is essentially a website's address on the World Wide Web. It is composed of three main components: the Protocol, Domain Name, and Path, and it serves as a way to identify where all the resources of a website are located. To simplify, the domain name is comparable to a person's home address, and it is the part of the URL that people are most familiar with.

To access a website like Google's, a browser needs a specific IP address, which is difficult to remember and challenging to use later on. That's where the domain name comes in, such as www.google.com. When you enter a domain name in a browser, it is sent to the Domain Name System (DNS), which then converts the domain name into an IP address. This IP address allows the browser to access the server where the website's content is hosted.

Furthermore, the domain name also has a suffix that indicates the type of website for which it's used, such as .com for commercial sites, .org for organizations, and .edu for educational sites. To register a specific domain name for your website, you must use a Domain Name Registration service.

A domain name is a string of characters that serves as the human-readable address of a website. It typically consists of two main parts: the actual name of the website (like "example") and a top-level domain (TLD) such as .com, .org, .net, and so on. For example, in the domain name "example.com," "example" is the name of the website, and ".com" is the TLD.

Domain Name:
- "google.com": In this domain name, "google" is the name of the website, and ".com" is the top-level domain. Together, they form the domain name "google.com".
- "example.org": In this domain name, "example" is the name of the website, and ".org" is the top-level domain, forming the domain name "example.org".

URLs:
- http://www.example.com/homepage: In this URL, "http://" is the protocol, "www.example.com" is the domain name, and "/homepage" is the path specifying a specific resource (the homepage in this case).
- https://www.google.com/search?q=example: In this URL, "https://" is the protocol, "www.google.com" is the domain name, and "/search?q=example" includes the path ("/search") and a parameter ("q=example") for a search query.

On the other hand, a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is a complete web address used to access a specific web page or resource on the internet. A URL consists of several parts:

1. Protocol: This indicates the method used to access the resource, such as "http://" or "https://".
2. Domain name: This is the human-readable address of the website, like "example.com".
3. Path: This specifies the location of a specific resource on the web server. For example, "/blog/article" might refer to a specific article on a blog.
4. Parameters: These are additional information that may be sent to the server, such as search queries or session identifiers.

Domain name is a part of a URL that identifies a website, while a URL is the complete address used to locate a specific web page or resource on the internet, including the protocol, domain name, and additional information.