URLs are the addresses of web pages. When you click on a linked URL or type it into your web browser, it tells your browser which page to load. But imagine that web address takes you to the door of a huge apartment building. Yes, you’ve come to the right place, but what now?
This is where URL parameters come in. They provide additional information, similar to an apartment number in the example above.
Understanding URL parameters is not only crucial for reading URLs, but it can also help you manage your website better. Here’s what you need to know.
What are URL parameters?
A URL, which stands for “Uniform Resource Locator,” is an identifier for web addresses. A URL parameter, netherlands email list also known as a query string or URL query string, is additional information added to the end of the URL that modifies or specifies the content displayed on the web page. These parameters also contain details about where users are coming from. They are separated from the rest of the URL by a “?”; everything before the question mark is the main URL, everything after it is a parameter.
These parameters provide additional context and information to the web browser. Depending on the website and its functionality, 4 key trends in the world of business in 2024 they can serve a variety of purposes, from modifying page content – such as search results, filters and language settings – to providing analytical information.
More specifically, a URL parameter is a series of key-value pairs – data objects with corresponding values - that are appended to the end of a URL, philippines numbers after the domain name . An example of a key would be utm_source , and an example of a value it could be combined with is google. This is expressed in a parameter as “?utm_source=google”. (Learn more about UTM parameters below.) There is no limit to the number of individual parameters that can be appended to a URL. Multiple parameters are each separated by the “&” symbol.
Let’s take the following URL as an example:
https://www.shopify.com/blog/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=ppc&exampleparam=example
The page location is ” https://www.shopify.com/blog/ ” and the parameters are “?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=ppc&exampleparam=example.” If you look closely at this URL string, you’ll see three individual parameters, each separated by an “&”: “utm_source=facebook,” “utm_medium=ppc,” and “exampleparam=example.”
URL parameters vs. clean URLs
URL parameters have disadvantages. Although they can provide additional context and information to the web browser, clean URLs – URLs without parameters – are easier for users and search engines to read and understand:
- For users: Clean URLs tend to be more concise, making them easier to share and remember.
- For search engines. Clean URLs without unnecessary parameters make it easier for search engine crawlers to navigate and understand the structure of a website. They also help avoid duplicate content; URLs with parameters can result in multiple URLs pointing to the same content, which can lead to duplicate content problems (where search engines have difficulty determining the canonical version of a page).
Uses of URL parameters
- modify content
- Sort and filter content
- Web analytics inform
- inform code
1. Modify content
Content-modifying parameters can change the content displayed on a web page. For example, you might want to host a quiz for your customers on a single page of your website: “company.com/quiz.” However, you only want to display one question at a time to avoid overwhelming users, and you want new questions to depend on their previous answers. If users don’t complete the quiz in one sitting, you also want them to be able to return to where they left off. Programming the quiz to associate a parameter with each step (“/quiz?step=1,” “/quiz?step=2,” etc.) will help the browser understand which step to display. This allows users to return to that step by entering the full URL and parameter.
Another typical example of a modifying parameter is YouTube’s use of the “t” parameter. The online video service uses it to determine the point in time at which playback begins. For example, “?t=125” means that YouTube should play 125 seconds into the video when the page loads.