the url gives you information about the project, where the project is hosted
from the documentation (http://maven.apache.org/pom.html):
url: The URL, like the name, is not required. This is a nice gesture
for projects users, however, so that they know where the project
lives.url: The URL, like the name, is not required. This is a nice
gesture for projects users, however, so that they know where the
project lives.
Examples
joda-time:
https://github.com/JodaOrg/joda-time/blob/master/pom.xml
<packaging>jar</packaging>
<name>Joda-Time</name>
<version>2.8-SNAPSHOT</version>
<description>Date and time library to replace JDK date handling</description>
<url>http://www.joda.org/joda-time/</url>
apache commons-lang:
http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/commons/proper/lang/trunk/pom.xml?view=markup
<inceptionYear>2001</inceptionYear>
<description>
Apache Commons Lang, a package of Java utility classes for the
classes that are in java.lang's hierarchy, or are considered to be so
standard as to justify existence in java.lang.
</description>
<url>http://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-lang/</url>