How does load testing work for websites?

Websites have software called a web server installed on the server. The user sends a request to the web server and receives a response. So, for instance, when you type www.google.com the web server senses it and sends you the home page as a response. This happens each time you click on a link, do a submit, etc. So if we want to do load testing you need to just multiply these requests and responses "N" times. This is what an automation tool does. It first captures the request and response and then just multiplies it by "N" times and sends it to the web server, which results in load simulation.