A URL slug is the part of a web address that identifies a specific page in a human-readable way. For example, in example.com/blog/seo-tips, the slug is seo-tips. Getting your slugs right is one of the easiest SEO wins you can make.
Search engines use the words in your URL to understand what the page is about. A clean slug like how-to-write-seo-slugs tells Google - and users - exactly what to expect. A messy URL with random numbers or parameters gives no useful information at all.
Best Practices for URL Slugs
- Use hyphens, not underscores: Google treats hyphens as word separators and underscores as word joiners. Always use hyphens for the best SEO results.
- Keep it lowercase: Some servers treat uppercase and lowercase URLs as different pages, which can cause duplicate content issues. Lowercase avoids this entirely.
- Remove stop words: Words like "the," "a," "and," and "of" add length without adding SEO value. Our tool removes them automatically.
- Keep it short: Aim for 3-5 words. Shorter slugs are easier to read, remember, and share. They're also less likely to get truncated in search results.
- Include your primary keyword: Your slug is one of the strongest on-page SEO signals. Make sure it includes the main keyword for the page.
What About Changing Existing Slugs?
If you change a slug on an existing page, set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. This preserves your search rankings and prevents broken links. Without a redirect, anyone who clicks the old link will hit a 404 page.
All slug generation happens locally in your browser. Your content strategy and keywords stay private.