URL Paths

Owned by Melissa Chavira
Last updated: Mar 17, 2023
2 min read

 What is a “path” and how does it relate to my web address and the contents of my site?

You may have seen the term “path” mentioned in the basic training or knowledge base articles. You may have also seen a note regarding file names or page name recommendations that should be all lowercase letters separated by hyphens or underscores and without special characters (e.g. #$%$%^&). This is important because it impacts the web address to specific files and pages on your site.

Definitions

  • Protocol - The protocol (also referred to as transfer protocol or scheme) in a URL determines how data is transferred between the host and a web browser (or client). HTTP and HTTPS (secure) are two of the most common protocols you’ll find in most URLs.

  • URL or Web Address - A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is used to uniquely identify a resource over the web.

  • Hostname or Domain name - The name of your website. the hostname refers to where your site is hosted. for example: nmsu.edu

  • Path - The path refers to the exact location of a page, post, file, or other asset. It can be considered as a relative file structure of your website.

  • Path Segment - The path may consist of a sequence of path segments separated by a single slash "/" character.

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