The document discusses the anatomy of a URL and its key components. It explains that a URL identifies network resources on the internet using a protocol, domain name, and path. The protocol specifies how the browser communicates with the web server, such as HTTP. The domain name identifies the website. The path refers to files or directories on the server. Web browsers use URLs to locate and access web pages by translating HTML code. Search engines also use URLs to index website content and return search results when users enter queries.

1. WEB DESIGN
ANATOMY
OF A URL

2. THE URL
URL: Uniform Resource Locator
• Used by web browsers to identify a
network resource on the Internet
What are network resources?
• Web pages
• Text documents
• Graphics
• Programs
A URL is like the address to your house

3. THE PARTS OF A URL
Protocol: The how
• How your browser needs to communicate with the web server when sending or
requesting files
Domain: The where
• The unique reference that identifies a web site on the internet (e.g. google.com)
Path: The what
• A file or directory on a web server

4. THE PROTOCOL
• Often is HTTP, but you may also be familiar with HTTPS
• Hyper text transfer protocol (HTTP) is a set of instructions or commands
HTTP defines:
1. How messages are formatted and transmitted
2. What actions need to happen by your browser and the web server

5. THE WEB SERVER
• All websites including content, images, videos, files all must live on a web server that
is connected to the internet in order to be available to view
• When you enter in a URL your computer connects with the sever hosing the site and
sends back the necessary files

6. THE DOMAIN
• When you type in a URL such as www.mohawkcollege.ca, your browser connects
with a domain name server (DNS) that translate the server name
”www.mohawkcollege.ca" into an IP Address
• The IP Address it used to actually connect to the server
DNS – Domain Name System:
• The domain names we’re familiar with all have a “machine-readable” IP address
IP – Internet Protocol:
• IP address (e.g. 69.127.23.407) is like your homes mailing address and isn’t easy to
remember. To make it easier we use domain names

7. IP ADDRESS TEST
Type the IP address:
74.125.20.104
into a browser window…

8. IP ADDRESS TEST
…your browser will take you to:
google.com
the domain name for that
IP address

9. VIDEO: DNS MADE EASY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72snZctFFtA

10. …AND THE PATH
• The path refers to a file or directory (like a folder) on the web server
• If the page is using programming language to create some or all of it’s content (e.g.
loading a specific product or event detail) there may be additional parameters
followed by ?’s or other numbers or letters
• URLs can also contain fragments which are typically used to identify a portion of
that document – eg. it “jumps” you down the page to a certain section
• This is how “back to top” often works – look in the URL after clicking, it will often
have #top included after you click a “back to top” link

11. WEB DESIGN
WEB
BROWSERS
& SEARCH

12. WEB BROWSERS
• A web browser is a
software application used
to enable computers users
to locate and access web
pages.
• Popular browsers include:
• Firefox
• Internet Explorer
• Firefox
• Chrome
• Safari
• …and more

13. WEB BROWSERS
Web browsers translate the HTML (Hypertext Mark Up Language) code that makes
up a web page and allows us to:
• See images and video
• Read text and listen to audio
• Click links that let us travel to different web pages

14. WEB BROWSERS
• Web pages can look
different across various
browsers
• When designing for the
web it important to test
your webpages in many
different browsers and
versions to make sure
they render correctly
across all

15. SEARCH ENGINES
• A search engine is a website running special software that allows users to search
for information on the Internet using keywords or phrases
• Keywords and phrases are stored from websites and are based on relevant content
found on websites

16. TAKE A GUESS…
How many
Google searches
were there yesterday?

17. TAKE A GUESS…
A) 150 million
B) 1.5 billion
C) 3.5 billion

18. … AND THE ANSWER IS…
3.5 billion!

19. SEARCH HISTORY

20. SEARCH ENGINES
• Search engines send out
“spiders” to read and
remember important
information about websites
• Once the spiders have
“crawled” a website, it returns
and stores that information in
its database
• This allows you to enter
keywords and phrases and find
the information you are looking
for

21. VIDEO: HOW SEARCH WORK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNHR6IQJGZs

22. SEARCH ENGINE
OPTIMIZATION (SEO)
Search engine optimization
(SEO):
• The process of affecting the
visibility of a website or a web
page in a search engine's
"natural" or un-paid ("organic")
search results

23. SEARCH RESULTS
Paid
Ads
Natural or
“organic”
results

24. SEARCH ENGINE
OPTIMIZATION (SEO)
• The higher and more
frequently a site appears in
the search results list, the
more visitors it will receive
from the search engine's users
(a good thing!)
• Several techniques can be
used to improve SEO – we will
talk more about this later in the
course

25. WHAT IS SEARCH ENGINE
OPTIMIZATION (SEO)?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF515-0Tduk