URL Slug Generator: Create SEO-Friendly URLs

URL slugs are the human-readable part of a web address that identifies a specific page. Creating clean, descriptive slugs improves SEO, user experience, and link sharing. Understanding slug best practices helps you build URLs that rank better and build trust with users. The Slug Converter transforms any text into a URL-safe slug instantly.

What is a URL Slug?

A slug is the end portion of a URL that identifies a page in readable form. It appears after the domain name and any path segments. The term "slug" comes from newspaper publishing, where it referred to a short name given to an article in production.

https://example.com/blog/url-slug-generator-seo-friendly-urls
                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
                                    This is the slug

Examples of good vs bad slugs:

• Good: /how-to-bake-chocolate-cake (readable, descriptive, includes keywords)
• Bad: /post?id=12345 (meaningless to humans and search engines)
• Bad: /How%20To%20Bake%20A%20Cake! (URL-encoded spaces and special characters)
• Bad: /p/12345/article-title-here-with-too-many-words-that-make-it-too-long (too long)

Why URL Slugs Matter for SEO

URL slugs impact search rankings and user behavior in several ways:

• Search relevance signals: Search engines use slugs to understand page content. A study of Google search results found that URLs containing the search keyword had a slight ranking correlation.
• User trust and click-through: Readable URLs get more clicks in search results. Users are more likely to click on /chocolate-cake-recipe than /p?id=47382 because they can predict the content.
• Link sharing appearance: Clean slugs look professional on social media and in emails. A marketing team found that posts with readable URLs got 25% more engagement than posts with ID-based URLs.
• URL memory and navigation: Users can remember, type, and modify descriptive URLs. Some users navigate by editing URLs directly.
• Keyword signals: While Google has downweighted URL keywords, they still contribute to overall page relevance signals.

Common Use Cases

Blog Posts and Articles

Every blog post needs a unique, descriptive slug that reflects the article topic. A content strategist noticed their "10 Best Productivity Apps" article was outranked by competitors. After changing the slug from /productivity-tips to /best-productivity-apps-2024, the article moved up three positions within two weeks.

E-commerce Product Pages

Product URLs with clean, keyword-rich slugs improve discoverability and build trust. An online retailer changed their product URLs from /product?sku=ABC123 to /blue-running-shoes-mens and saw a 15% increase in organic traffic to product pages.

Category and Tag Pages

Category and tag URLs benefit from clear slugs that describe the content grouping: /category/javascript-tutorials is better than /cat?id=7.

Landing Pages and Marketing

Marketing landing pages use targeted slugs with campaign keywords: /free-seo-audit or /winter-sale-2024. These slugs reinforce the page topic and can include tracked campaign identifiers when needed.

Documentation and Support

Technical documentation benefits from descriptive slugs that help users find pages: /docs/getting-started and /docs/api-authentication are navigable and bookmarkable.

URL Slug Conversion Rules

Lowercase Everything

"How To Bake" becomes "how-to-bake". URLs are case-sensitive on many servers (example.com/Page and example.com/page can be different pages on Linux servers). Using lowercase avoids duplicate content issues and user confusion.

Replace Spaces with Hyphens

"chocolate cake" becomes "chocolate-cake". Hyphens are the standard separator because Google treats hyphens as word separators but treats underscores as part of the word. "chocolate-cake" ranks for "chocolate cake" while "chocolate_cake" might not.

Remove Special Characters

"What's New?" becomes "whats-new". Special characters like apostrophes, question marks, and exclamation points can break URLs or require encoding that looks ugly.

Handle Consecutive Separators

"Hello - World" or "Hello World" (double space) both become "hello-world". Multiple hyphens in a row look unprofessional and can cause issues.

Remove Stop Words (Optional)

"The Best Way to Cook" can become "best-way-cook" for shorter URLs. However, be careful: sometimes stop words are needed for meaning. "How to Program" should probably keep "to" to remain clear.

Handle Non-ASCII Characters

Accented characters need special handling:

• Transliterate: "cafe" (with accent) becomes "cafe" (without)
• Preserve: Some sites keep accented characters: "cafe" becomes "café" (URL-encoded)
• Consider your audience: English-language sites typically transliterate; international sites may preserve

Slug Generation in Code

Here are examples of generating slugs programmatically:

JavaScript

function slugify(text) {
    return text
        .toString()
        .toLowerCase()
        .trim()
        .normalize('NFD')                   // Normalize accented characters
        .replace(/[\u0300-\u036f]/g, '')   // Remove diacritics
        .replace(/[^\w\s-]/g, '')          // Remove special characters
        .replace(/[\s_-]+/g, '-')          // Replace spaces/underscores with hyphen
        .replace(/^-+|-+$/g, '');          // Remove leading/trailing hyphens
}

slugify("Hello World!");           // "hello-world"
slugify("Café au Lait");           // "cafe-au-lait"
slugify("What's    New??");        // "whats-new"

// With stop word removal
const stopWords = ['a', 'an', 'the', 'and', 'or', 'but', 'to', 'of'];
function slugifyWithoutStopWords(text) {
    const slug = slugify(text);
    return slug.split('-').filter(w => !stopWords.includes(w)).join('-');
}

Python

import re
import unicodedata

def slugify(text):
    # Normalize unicode characters
    text = unicodedata.normalize('NFKD', text)
    # Remove non-ASCII characters
    text = text.encode('ascii', 'ignore').decode('ascii')
    # Convert to lowercase
    text = text.lower().strip()
    # Replace spaces and unwanted characters
    text = re.sub(r'[^\w\s-]', '', text)
    text = re.sub(r'[\s_-]+', '-', text)
    text = re.sub(r'^-+|-+$', '', text)
    return text

slugify("Hello World!")      # "hello-world"
slugify("Café au Lait")      # "cafe-au-lait"

# Using python-slugify library (recommended)
from slugify import slugify
slugify("Hello World!", max_length=50, word_boundary=True)

PHP

function slugify($text) {
    // Transliterate non-ASCII characters
    $text = iconv('UTF-8', 'ASCII//TRANSLIT//IGNORE', $text);
    // Convert to lowercase
    $text = strtolower(trim($text));
    // Remove special characters
    $text = preg_replace('/[^a-z0-9\s-]/', '', $text);
    // Replace spaces and multiple hyphens
    $text = preg_replace('/[\s_-]+/', '-', $text);
    // Remove leading/trailing hyphens
    return trim($text, '-');
}

// Laravel has built-in Str::slug()
use Illuminate\Support\Str;
Str::slug("Hello World!");  // "hello-world"

Advanced Techniques

Handling Duplicate Slugs

When two articles have similar titles, you need unique slugs:

// Check for existing slug and append number if needed
function uniqueSlug(title, existingSlugs) {
    let slug = slugify(title);
    let count = 1;
    let candidate = slug;
    while (existingSlugs.includes(candidate)) {
        candidate = `${slug}-${count++}`;
    }
    return candidate;
}
// "hello-world" → "hello-world-2" → "hello-world-3"

Preserving Some Special Characters

Some sites allow certain characters for specific purposes:

• Plus sign for tags: /tags/c++ (though usually becomes cpp)
• Dots for versions: /docs/v2.0/getting-started

Slug Length Optimization

Very long slugs are truncated in search results and hard to remember. Aim for 50-60 characters maximum. Truncate at word boundaries:

function truncateSlug(slug, maxLength = 50) {
    if (slug.length <= maxLength) return slug;
    // Truncate at last hyphen before maxLength
    const truncated = slug.substring(0, maxLength);
    const lastHyphen = truncated.lastIndexOf('-');
    return lastHyphen > 0 ? truncated.substring(0, lastHyphen) : truncated;
}

Common Mistakes to Avoid

These errors frequently cause URL slug problems:

• Using underscores instead of hyphens: Google does not treat underscores as word separators. "chocolate_cake" may not rank for "chocolate cake".
• Including dates unnecessarily: /2024/01/15/blog-post makes content look dated. Unless dates are essential (news), use /blog-post.
• Keeping stop words: "the-ultimate-guide-to-the-best-way-to-learn" is too long. Remove unnecessary words.
• Changing slugs after publication: Existing links break and SEO value is lost. If you must change, set up 301 redirects.
• Not handling special characters: "What's New?" becoming "what%27s-new%3F" looks terrible. Clean special characters.
• Using transliteration for all languages: Non-English sites may want to keep their script in URLs for better user experience.

Best Practices

Follow these guidelines for optimal URL slugs:

• Keep it short: Aim for 3-5 words (50-60 characters max) that convey the topic
• Include keywords: Put your main keyword in the slug, preferably near the beginning
• Avoid dates: Unless content is time-sensitive, dates reduce evergreen value
• Use hyphens: Google treats hyphens as word separators (not underscores)
• Be descriptive: Users should know what to expect from the URL
• Be consistent: Use the same slug format across your entire site
• Plan for changes: If titles might change, consider generating slugs only once at creation

CMS Slug Features

WordPress

Automatically generates slugs from titles. Edit in the permalink section of the post editor. WordPress allows customizing the permalink structure (/%postname%/, /%category%/%postname%/, etc.).

Shopify

Product URLs use auto-generated or custom "handles" that serve as slugs. Once set, changing handles breaks existing links.

Ghost, Jekyll, Hugo

Most modern CMS and static site generators include slug generation. Many allow specifying custom slugs in front matter or metadata.

Related Tools

Complete your URL optimization with these tools:

• URL Encoder - Encode special characters in URLs
• Lowercase Converter - Convert text to lowercase first
• Whitespace Remover - Clean text before slugifying
• Find & Replace - Customize slug formatting with patterns

Conclusion

Clean URL slugs improve SEO, user trust, and link sharing. They signal professionalism and help both search engines and users understand page content before clicking. The key principles are: keep slugs short and descriptive, use hyphens to separate words, include relevant keywords, and be consistent across your site. Avoid changing slugs after publication unless absolutely necessary, and always set up redirects when you do. The Slug Converter applies these best practices automatically, transforming any title into a URL-safe slug ready for your CMS or application.