A URL slug is the readable part of an address that identifies one page, the bit after the domain. In example.com/blog/best-running-shoes-2026, the slug is best-running-shoes-2026. It is written once but read by humans and search engines for years, so getting it right matters.
The rules of a good slug
- Lowercase everything. URLs are case-sensitive on many servers, so
Blue-Shoesandblue-shoescan be two different pages. - Separate words with hyphens. Search engines read hyphens as word breaks; underscores glue words together (
blue_shoesreads as one token). - Drop stop words when they add nothing. Words like "the", "a", "of" and "to" rarely help a slug. "the-best-guide-to-running" becomes "best-guide-running".
- Remove punctuation and accents. "Café & Crème!" becomes
cafe-creme; apostrophes and commas are stripped. - Keep it short. Aim for three to six meaningful words. Long slugs are harder to read and to share.
- Stay unique. Two pages must never share a slug, or one will overwrite or compete with the other.
Before and after
| Title | Clean slug |
|---|---|
| 10 Best Running Shoes for 2026! | 10-best-running-shoes-2026 |
| How to Bake Sourdough Bread at Home | how-to-bake-sourdough-bread-home |
| What's the Difference: Latte vs Cappuccino? | difference-latte-vs-cappuccino |
| Nos Meilleurs Conseils (Best Tips) | meilleurs-conseils-best-tips |
Why slugs matter for SEO
Slugs are a small ranking signal, but they matter more for click-through. A person scanning search results trusts /pricing or /best-running-shoes-2026 far more than /p=1428. Keywords in the slug are also shown in bold in some search snippets, which draws the eye. Use the primary keyword of the page naturally, once, and never stuff it.
Numbers, dates and IDs
Including the year (2026) helps freshness for a review but dates a page later. If you update the content each year, either keep the year strict and update the slug, or leave it out and avoid a redirect. IDs like /page/4821 are fine for internal tools but poor for public content because they carry no meaning.
Never change a live slug without a redirect
Once a URL is indexed and shared, changing its slug breaks every existing link. If you must rename it, set up a permanent (301) redirect from the oldslug to the new one so visitors and search engines land on the right page instead of a 404.
Turning a title into a slug
The process is mechanical: lowercase, replace spaces and symbols with hyphens, collapse repeated hyphens, and trim leading or trailing ones. Doing it by hand is easy to get wrong, especially with accents, so paste your title into our slug generator to get a clean, copy-ready slug. If you are also trimming a title or description for length, see character limits for social media, meta descriptions and SMS.