What Is a URL Slug? Best Practices + Generator
Also known as Slug, Permalink, URL path
A URL slug is the final, human-readable part of a URL that identifies a specific page, such as cold-email-deliverability in example.com/blog/cold-email-deliverability/. A good slug is short, lowercase, uses hyphens between words and describes the page's topic. It helps users and search engines understand a page before they click it.
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Open the toolURL Slug explained
The slug is the part you usually control when publishing in a CMS like WordPress. It appears in the browser bar, in shared links and sometimes in search results. A clear slug like /sales-commission-calculator/ sets expectations; a slug like /p?id=4821 or /untitled-draft-7/ does not. Google has said simple, descriptive URLs are better for users.
Slug keywords have a small effect on rankings, so write for clarity rather than stuffing terms. Google recommends hyphens to separate words instead of underscores, and lowercase letters avoid duplicate URLs on servers that treat case differently. Stop words like "a", "the" and "of" can usually be dropped unless removing them changes the meaning.
The biggest risk is changing slugs later. Every change creates a new URL, which breaks existing links and resets the signals that the old URL earned unless you set up a 301 redirect. Choose slugs that will stay accurate: avoid years, numbers in listicles ("7-best-tools") and temporary campaign names that may change when the content is updated.
URL Slug example
A post titled "The 9 Best Cold Email Tools for Agencies in 2025" gets the default slug /the-9-best-cold-email-tools-for-agencies-in-2025/. That will be wrong when the list grows or the year changes. Renaming it to /best-cold-email-tools/ before publishing keeps it short, keeps the main keyword and lets the team update the title each year without changing the URL or losing links.
How to write an SEO-friendly URL slug
Start from the main keyword
Base the slug on the primary topic or keyword of the page, not the full headline.
Keep it short
Use a few meaningful words. Remove filler and stop words that do not change the meaning.
Use lowercase and hyphens
Write all lowercase letters and separate words with hyphens. Avoid spaces, underscores, accents and special characters.
Make it future-proof
Leave out dates, list counts and campaign names so the slug stays accurate when the content changes.
Redirect if you change it
If you must change a live slug, add a 301 redirect from the old URL and update internal links to the new one.
Common mistakes
- Using the full headline as the slug, producing long URLs with stop words and dates.
- Changing a slug on a ranking page without a 301 redirect, which breaks links and loses rankings.
- Stuffing several keyword variations into one slug, which looks spammy and hard to read.
- Using underscores, uppercase letters or special characters instead of lowercase hyphenated words.
- Including years or list counts that make the URL wrong after the next update.
URL Slug FAQ
Slightly. Words in the URL are a minor relevance signal, and a descriptive slug can improve click-through when shown or shared. Its main value is clarity for users. Content, links and intent matter far more, so do not change existing slugs just to add keywords.
Short enough to read at a glance, usually a few words. There is no official limit that matters in practice, but shorter slugs are easier to share, remember and read in search results. Keep the core topic and drop words that add nothing.
Use hyphens. Google recommends hyphens to separate words in URLs, because it treats them as word separators. Underscores can join words together in how they are read, so "cold_email" may be seen as one word instead of two.
It is risky but manageable. Changing a slug creates a new URL, so without a 301 redirect you lose links and rankings tied to the old one. If you must change it, redirect the old URL, update internal links and the sitemap, and expect a short period of fluctuation.