What Is a URL Slug?

Quick answer: A URL slug is the readable part at the end of a web address that names a specific page, such as bake-bread-home in example.com/blog/bake-bread-home. A slug generator turns a title into that form automatically: lowercase letters, words joined by hyphens, and no punctuation, so How to Bake Bread at Home becomes how-to-bake-bread-at-home.

The word comes from newspaper publishing, where a slug was the short working name given to a story before it was printed.

Good slugs help in three ways. Visitors can tell what a page is about before they click, people sharing the link see a tidy address, and search engines get one more clue about the topic. A slug generator removes the fiddly parts of writing one by hand: lowering the letters, swapping spaces for hyphens, stripping symbols and accents, and trimming the result to a sensible length. This page also creates slugs in bulk and checks finished URLs against common SEO rules.

• 1 Click from title to slug
• 25+ Filler words recognised
• 10 URL checks
• 6 Slug formats

How Do You Create an SEO-Friendly Slug?

1. Paste the title: The headline of your post, product, or page.
2. Trim the fat: Tick Remove filler words and set a maximum length if you want.
3. Make the slug: Press Make slug and read the length in the note.
4. Paste it into your CMS: WordPress, Shopify, and others have a slug or handle field.

Every other text case is one click away in the case converter.

What Makes a Good URL Slug?

Rule	Good	Avoid
Use lowercase	/hiking-boots	/Hiking-Boots
Separate words with hyphens	/vegetable-garden	/vegetable_garden or /vegetablegarden
Keep it short	/learn-spanish-online	/the-complete-guide-to-learning-spanish-online-for-beginners
Include the main keyword	/bake-bread-home	/post-1532
Leave out dates and years	/best-laptops	/best-laptops-2026
Use plain letters	/creme-brulee	/crème-brûlée
No symbols or spaces	/mens-boots	/men’s%20boots

For hyphenated names in CSS and file systems, try the kebab case converter.

Search engine guidance favours simple, readable addresses, with hyphens rather than underscores between words. Dates are optional; leaving the year out lets you refresh an article later without changing its address.

Slug, URL or Permalink: How Do They Differ?

The URL is the whole address, from https:// to the end. The permalink is the permanent URL of one post or page, the one you share and link to. The slug is only the last, editable piece of that permalink. In example.com/blog/bake-bread-home, the full line is the URL and the permalink; blog is a folder, and bake-bread-home is the slug. Shopify calls the slug a handle; WordPress calls it the slug.

How Do You Change a Slug in WordPress or Shopify?

Platform	Where to edit the slug
WordPress posts and pages	In the editor sidebar, open the URL or Permalink field and type the new slug
WordPress site-wide format	Settings, Permalinks, then choose Post name for slug-only addresses
Shopify products and pages	Search engine listing section, URL and handle field
Wix and Squarespace	Page SEO settings, URL slug field

Polish the page title itself with the title case converter before making the slug.

Changing the slug of a page that is already published changes its address, so set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. Without it, visitors and search engines following old links reach an error page.

Who Uses a Slug Generator?

• Bloggers: give every new post a clean, keyword-focused address.
• Online shops: create product handles for hundreds of items at once.
• SEO specialists: audit and rewrite messy URLs during a site migration.
• Developers: generate route names and file names from titles.
• Content teams: agree on slugs in a spreadsheet before publishing.
• Multilingual sites: turn accented titles into plain-letter addresses.

URL Slug Glossary

Slug

The readable last part of a page address.

Permalink

The lasting address of a single post or page.

Stop words

Filler words like the or of, usually safe to delete from a slug.

301 redirect

A permanent forward from an old address to a new one.

Query string

The part after a question mark, used for tracking or filters.

Handle

Shopify’s name for a product or page slug.

What Can This Slug Generator Do?

One-click slugs

Lowercase, hyphens, no symbols.

Filler words

Optional removal.

Length cap

Cut at a whole word.

Plain letters

Accents transliterated.

Bulk mode

Unique slugs and a CSV.

URL checker

Ten SEO checks and a fix.

Auditing an old site’s addresses?

Paste a URL, see what holds it back, and copy a cleaner version.

✓ Open the URL Checker

Slug Not Turning Out Right?

Problem	Cause	Fix
The slug is empty	The title had only symbols or filler words	Untick Remove filler words or add a real word
A word was cut short	The maximum length was reached	Raise the limit; the cut always falls between words when possible
Two pages got the same slug	Their titles differ only in punctuation or case	Use the bulk tool, which adds -2, -3 automatically
Non-Latin letters disappeared	Some scripts have no plain-letter version	Untick accent conversion to keep the original letters

Tips for Better Slugs

Three to five words

Enough to describe the page, short enough to read at a glance.

Lead with the topic

Put the main keyword near the start of the slug.

Decide before publishing

Slugs are easy to set and costly to change once links exist.

Skip numbers that change

A list of 10 tips may grow to 12; leave the count out.

Need only lowercase without hyphens? Use the lowercase converter.

URL Slug Generator FAQ

What is a URL slug generator?

A tool that turns a title into the short, lowercase, hyphenated part at the end of a web address.

What is a slug in a URL?

The readable final part of a page address, such as bake-bread-home.

Why is it called a slug?

Newspapers used the word for a story’s short working title, and content systems borrowed it.

Should a slug use hyphens or underscores?

Hyphens. Google recommends them as word separators in URLs.

How long should a URL slug be?

Three to five words is a good target, usually under about 60 characters.

Should I remove stop words from slugs?

Often, yes. Words like the, of, and to add length without meaning; tick Remove filler words.

Should slugs include the year?

Usually not. Leaving dates out lets you update an article without changing its address.

Do slugs help SEO?

A clear slug is a small ranking signal and makes results easier to trust and click.

Clean a list of URLs of repeats with the remove duplicate lines tool.

Can slugs contain capital letters?

They can, but lowercase is safer because some servers treat capitals as a different page.

How are accented letters handled?

They become plain letters, so Crème Brûlée turns into creme-brulee, unless you switch that off.

Can I make many slugs at once?

Yes. The Bulk Slug Maker handles a list of titles and keeps every slug unique.

What happens with duplicate titles?

The second gets -2, the third -3, and so on, so no two pages clash.

Can I export the slugs?

Yes. Download .csv saves each title with its slug and full URL.

How do I check whether a URL is SEO-friendly?

Paste it into the URL SEO Checker for ten checks and a suggested clean version.

Is changing a slug bad for SEO?

It can lose links and rankings unless you add a 301 redirect from the old address.

Where do I edit the slug in WordPress?

In the post editor sidebar, under the URL or Permalink setting.

What does Shopify call a slug?

A handle, found in the search engine listing section of each product or page.

Is a slug the same as a permalink?

No. The permalink is the full lasting address; the slug is only its final, editable part.

Is the URL slug generator free?

Yes. Single slugs, bulk slugs, and URL checks are all free with no account.

Is my content uploaded?

No. Slugs and checks are calculated in your browser.

Does it work on phones?

Yes, so you can tidy a slug from the WordPress or Shopify app as well.

Generate a Better Slug

Title → /clean-slug

Short, readable, keyword-first URLs in one click. / Make My Slug