{"id":8029,"date":"2024-01-24T04:50:25","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T10:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/?p=8029"},"modified":"2024-01-24T04:50:26","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T10:50:26","slug":"difference-domain-vs-url","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/difference-domain-vs-url\/","title":{"rendered":"Domain vs URL: What is the Difference?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo by: Kaboompics .com<\/a> courtesy of Pexel.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domain vs URL, no, it\u2019s not the title of Marvel\u2019s next blockbuster. It\u2019s a question on everyone\u2019s lips, or at least it is when they\u2019re starting a business and realize that a strong web presence is essential for building a successful brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than a quarter<\/a> of all business is conducted online as of 2024. Whether you\u2019re selling a digital marketing toolkit to a tech-savvy audience or yoga mats and bone broth to digital detoxers, a website is more important than ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for many business founders (particularly those selling bone broth, maybe), the internet is a complicated place. That leads to some questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Namely, what is the difference between domain vs URL? So let\u2019s find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is a Domain Name?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A domain name, or just \u201cdomain,\u201d is a unique address that leads internet users to a website. Our domain name is Atom.com.<\/a> Domain names are made up of two parts: a memorable \u201cname\u201d like Atom, Google, or Harvard and an extension like .com, .org, or .edu (in the case of Harvard.edu<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Memorability is key. We use domain names because they make it easy for humans to remember and access websites. When you need to search the web, you type Google.com, and when you need a business name, you type Atom.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every domain name is matched with an equally unique IP address (and sometimes more than one for really popular websites like Google). IP addresses are what your computer browser uses to find a website, and they are made up of long sequences of numbers like 198.112.534.7. Domain names are the human side of web addresses, while IP addresses are the computer side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, a domain name and an IP address both refer to the website in different ways. Think of a domain name like a street address (123 Main Street) and an IP address like a set of GPS coordinates. They may refer to the exact same address, but you\u2019ll remember the street address for postcards, not the GPS coordinates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domain vs URL: What\u2019s the Difference?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. While a domain name refers to a website as a whole, a URL refers to the specific page of a website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine if 123 Main Street wasn\u2019t a whole home but a block of flats, and you wanted to send a postcard to your friend in apartment 13F. The full address would then be 13F, 123 Main Street. This new address would now point to a particular place inside the whole apartment block, like a particular page on a website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domains and URLs look similar and can sometimes be confusing because the main landing page of a website will be https:\/\/www.Atom.com<\/a>. This is the full URL of the domain name Atom.com<\/a>. Our browsers will add the transfer protocol (https:\/\/) and subdomain www<\/em> automatically, translating a domain name into a URL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officially, a URL will include the protocol (like http:\/\/ or https:\/\/). It also includes any further path (such as \/en\/blog) and potentially a subdomain like mail or blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n