The Difference Between Website and Domain Revealed

First things first: what’s a website?

A website is a collection of a webpage on a worldwide web that lives on a certain domain name. Basically, a webpage is а text file written in different programming languages – HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc. They act as instructions for the web browser on how to display your page. The browser takes all of the code, analyzes it, and displays it on the user’s screens. 

What is a domain? 

A domain name is a form of an internet address that’s used to identify websites.  

Computers communicate using numbers like 192.168. 1.1. This is called an IP address. And if you type the IP address connected to your domain name, you will end up seeing the same exact results as if you are typing your domain name. 

So, your website domain is the user-friendly version of your IP address. Just imagine how hard it would be if you had to remember so many numbers to access your favorite web pages. And that’s why we humans tend to remember short and catchy domain names. 

A domain name is not the same as a URL!

Oftentimes, people assume that a URL address and domain are the same things. They are NOT. 

A URL (or known as a link) is a complete address used to locate files on the web.  

A domain, on the other hand, is located in the URL. If we take Google as an example, the URL is https://www.google.com/, and the domain name is google.com. 

Wrap up

So to wrap it up, let’s summarize: 

• A website is the full collection of interlinked web pages. 
• A domain name is the user-friendly IP address version that enables users to locate your website. 

As you can see, a website and a domain are tied together, and you need them (along with a reliable hosting provider) to enable your target audience to find you online. If you have any questions, you can contact us directly here.