Every time a query is made to a website, the request goes to the Domain Name System (DNS) which converts the alphabetic name into the server's numeric IP address. For example, when you type the name of a small website, the DNS turns it into the IP address of that website's server.
However, when you type the URL of a huge company such as google.com, the DNS turns it into the IP address of the server that determines your location and directs the request to the closest server geographically. See
DNS,
URL,
Internet domain name and
private DNS.