What is a URL Slug?
A slug is the part of a URL that identifies a specific page on a website in a form that is easy to read by both users and search engines. It is usually the exact string of text that appears at the end of the domain name.
For example, in example.com/hello-world, the slug is hello-world. Unlike a dynamic URL (like example.com/post?id=123), a slug contains human-readable words that describe the content of the page.
Why Use a Slug Generator?
- SEO Optimization: Clean URLs containing relevant keywords (derived from the page title) rank better in search results than messy query strings or numeric IDs.
- Readability: Users are more likely to click on a link that looks like
.../seo-tips than one that looks like .../p=234.
- Trust & Sharing: When sharing links on social media, a clear URL makes the destination obvious and builds trust with the audience.
Best Practices for Slugs
Our Slug Generator implements these standards automatically, but it is important to understand them:
- Use Hyphens, not Underscores: Google treats hyphens as word separators but treats underscores as word connectors.
red-shoes is read as "red shoes", whereas red_shoes is read as "red_shoes". Always use hyphens.
- Keep it Short: Aim for fewer than 4-5 words. Shorter URLs are easier to remember and share. Long slugs can be truncated in mobile search results.
- Lowercase Only: URLs are case-sensitive on some servers, but most of the internet is lowercase. Using lowercase prevents duplicate content issues (e.g., /Slug vs /slug).
- Remove Stop Words: While not mandatory, removing words like "a", "the", "and", and "in" helps focus the slug on the core keywords without cluttering the URL length.
- No Special Characters: Avoid accents, symbols, and characters other than alphanumeric and hyphens. Modern browsers might handle accents, but encoding them makes URLs ugly.