URL Slug Generator

How this works

A slug is the human-readable part of a URL that identifies a page - the 'how-to-write-a-good-url-slug' at the end of this address. WHAT THE CONVERSION DOES: lowercases everything, replaces runs of anything that is not a letter or digit with a single hyphen, and trims hyphens off both ends. That is the whole transformation, and it is deliberately mechanical. LOWERCASE IS NOT COSMETIC. URL paths are case-SENSITIVE on most servers, so /About-Us and /about-us are different addresses. If both resolve you have duplicated every page, which splits whatever ranking signals they earn and is a genuine SEO problem rather than an untidiness. Picking lowercase and never deviating removes the question permanently. HYPHENS, NOT UNDERSCORES. Search engines have long treated a hyphen as a word separator and an underscore as a word joiner, so red_shoes can be read as one token where red-shoes is unambiguously two. There is no upside to underscores in a URL and one clear downside. ⚠️ SHORTER IS BETTER, AND THIS IS THE PART PEOPLE SKIP. A slug does not have to be the title. Its job is to identify the page and to be readable in a link, a search result and a shared message. 'how-to-write-a-good-url-slug' does that. 'how-to-write-a-good-url-slug-for-your-website-in-2026-complete-guide' does not do it any better and is worse everywhere it appears. The shortened output here is a blunt cut at fifty characters - it does NOT stop at a word boundary, so it will often leave a trailing hyphen or half a word. That is deliberate: it shows you the length you are aiming at, and you finish the edit yourself. Dropping the small words - a, the, of, for, to, and - is the usual way to shorten one, and it costs almost nothing in meaning. ⚠️ NEVER CHANGE A PUBLISHED SLUG WITHOUT A REDIRECT. The slug is the page's address. Changing it breaks every existing link, every bookmark and every citation, and search engines treat the new URL as a new page starting from zero. If you must change one, set up a permanent redirect from the old address. This is the single most expensive mistake available on this page and it is entirely avoidable. ACCENTS FOLD; NON-LATIN SCRIPTS VANISH. Latin accented characters are transliterated to their base letters, so 'Café Crème & Naïve Résumé' becomes cafe-creme-naive-resume - which is what you want. But characters outside the Latin alphabet are DROPPED ENTIRELY: 'Über den Wolken — 東京' becomes uber-den-wolken, and the Japanese is simply gone. If your title is not in a Latin script, check the output before using it, because the slug may have lost the entire subject. DATES AND NUMBERS IN SLUGS AGE BADLY. A slug containing '2026' looks stale in 2027 even if the article was updated, and changing it means the redirect problem above. Leave the year out unless the page is genuinely about that year.

Common questions

What exactly does the conversion do?

It lowercases everything, replaces every run of non-alphanumeric characters with a single hyphen, and trims hyphens from both ends. So 'How to Write a Good URL Slug — A Complete Guide for 2026!' becomes 'how-to-write-a-good-url-slug-a-complete-guide-for-2026'. It is deliberately mechanical, which means it is predictable - the same title always produces the same slug, which matters when you are generating them at any volume.

Why lowercase?

Because URL paths are case-sensitive on most servers, so /About-Us and /about-us are genuinely different addresses. If both resolve, you have duplicated every page on your site - which splits whatever ranking signals they earn and is a real SEO problem rather than an untidiness. Choosing lowercase and never deviating removes the question permanently, which is worth more than any individual case decision.

Hyphens or underscores?

Hyphens, without exception. Search engines have long treated a hyphen as a word separator and an underscore as a word joiner, so red_shoes can be read as a single token where red-shoes is unambiguously two words. There is no upside to underscores in a URL and one clear downside. The underscored output on this page exists purely so the difference is visible - it is not an option, it is a demonstration.

How long should a slug be?

Shorter than the title, nearly always. A slug's job is to identify the page and to be readable in a link, a search result and a shared message - and 'how-to-write-a-good-url-slug' does that job exactly as well as a version with another forty characters bolted on. Dropping the small words - a, the, of, for, to, and - is the standard way to tighten one and costs almost nothing in meaning. Under about 60 characters keeps it readable where it matters. The shortened output here is a blunt cut at 50 characters rather than a clever one - it will leave a trailing hyphen or half a word, on purpose, so that you finish the edit deliberately instead of trusting a machine to guess where the meaning ends.

Can I change a slug after publishing?

Only with a permanent redirect from the old address, and this is the most expensive mistake available here. The slug IS the page's address: changing it breaks every existing link, every bookmark and every citation, and search engines treat the new URL as a new page starting from zero authority. Set the redirect up at the same moment you make the change, not afterwards - and if a slug is merely imperfect rather than wrong, leaving it alone is usually the better decision.

What happens to accents and non-Latin text?

Two different things, and the difference matters. Latin accented characters are TRANSLITERATED to their base letters - 'Café Crème & Naïve Résumé' becomes cafe-creme-naive-resume, which is exactly what you want. But characters outside the Latin alphabet are DROPPED entirely: 'Über den Wolken — 東京' becomes uber-den-wolken and the Japanese is gone without trace. So a French or German title is fine, and a Japanese, Greek, Arabic or Cyrillic one may lose its entire subject. If you are not working in a Latin script, this is the one output you must read before using.

Should I put the year in?

Not unless the page is genuinely about that year. A slug containing 2026 looks stale in 2027 even if you have updated the article thoroughly - and fixing it means changing a published slug, which means the redirect problem above. The cost is paid every year and the benefit is a small one in the first few months. Dates belong in the title and the page metadata, where they can be changed freely.

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