URL Slug Generator
Convert titles and phrases into clean, SEO-friendly URL slugs automatically.
What Is a URL Slug?
A URL slug is the human-readable, SEO-friendly part of a web address that identifies a specific page. It appears after the domain name — for example, in https://example.com/how-to-build-a-website, the slug is how-to-build-a-website. A well-crafted slug is short, descriptive, lowercase, and uses hyphens to separate words, helping both users and search engines understand the page's content before even opening it.
Good URL slugs avoid stop words, special characters, and unnecessary numbers. They focus on the primary keyword of the page and remain concise — typically under 60 characters. Search engines like Google use slugs as a ranking signal, making them an important element of on-page SEO.
How to Use the URL Slug Generator
Using this tool is straightforward:
- Single Slug: Type or paste your title into the input field. The slug is generated in real-time as you type.
- Choose a separator: Select hyphen (
-) for standard web slugs, or underscore (_) for database-style identifiers. - Set a max length: Optionally limit the slug to a specific character count to keep URLs short.
- Force lowercase: Toggle this on to ensure all characters are lowercase (recommended for most use cases).
- Bulk Convert: Switch to the Bulk tab and paste multiple titles — one per line — to generate slugs for all of them at once.
- Copy: Click "Copy Slug" to copy the result directly to your clipboard.
Accented and special characters (é, ñ, ü, etc.) are automatically transliterated to their ASCII equivalents so your slugs remain universally compatible.
Use Cases for URL Slugs
- Blog posts & articles — Create memorable, keyword-rich permalinks for every piece of content.
- E-commerce product pages — Turn product names into clean URLs that rank well in search results.
- CMS & WordPress — Quickly generate slugs before publishing pages or posts.
- API endpoints — Create consistent, machine-readable identifiers for your REST APIs.
- Category & tag pages — Standardise taxonomy URLs across large websites.
- Multilingual sites — Transliterate non-ASCII titles into safe URL-compatible strings.
Frequently Asked Questions
What characters are allowed in a URL slug?
URL slugs should only contain lowercase letters (a–z), numbers (0–9), and hyphens ( - ) or underscores ( _ ) as separators. All other characters — including spaces, punctuation, and special symbols — should be removed or replaced. Accented characters like é, ñ, or ü should be transliterated to their plain ASCII equivalents.
Should I use hyphens or underscores in slugs?
Google officially recommends hyphens over underscores for URL slugs. Search engines treat hyphens as word separators (so "how-to-build" is read as three separate words), while underscores can cause words to be treated as a single token. For SEO purposes, always prefer hyphens unless you have a specific technical reason to use underscores.
How long should a URL slug be?
As a best practice, keep URL slugs under 60 characters. Shorter slugs are easier to share, read, and remember. Focus on including only the most important keyword(s) and drop filler words. While search engines can handle longer URLs, shorter slugs tend to perform better in terms of click-through rates from search results.
Should I include stop words like "a", "the", or "and" in my slug?
Generally, no. Stop words add length without adding SEO value. For example, "best-coffee-shops-new-york" is preferred over "the-best-coffee-shops-in-new-york-city". However, if removing stop words changes the meaning or readability significantly, you may choose to keep them for clarity.
Can I change a slug after publishing?
Yes, but it comes with risks. Changing a URL slug breaks existing links and can temporarily harm your search rankings. If you must change a slug, always set up a 301 permanent redirect from the old URL to the new one, and update any internal links pointing to the old URL. It's better to get your slugs right before publishing.
Does this tool handle non-English characters?
Yes. The URL Slug Generator automatically transliterates common accented and special characters from European and other Latin-script languages — such as é→e, ñ→n, ü→u, ç→c — into their ASCII equivalents. This ensures your slugs are universally compatible with all web servers and browsers without requiring URL encoding.