What is a URL slug
How titles become URL slugs
A URL slug is the readable part of a URL that identifies one page: best-running-shoes in example.com/blog/best-running-shoes/. This URL slug generator applies the same steps as WordPress, Shopify and most CMSs, plus several they skip:
- Transliterate:
Crème Brûlée becomes creme brulee, and Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic and other scripts are converted to Latin letters, so Как выбрать becomes kak vybrat. Untick it to keep native characters, which browsers display fine but encode as long %D0%9A... strings when the link is copied.
- Clean punctuation: apostrophes are removed so
don't becomes dont, not don-t. Symbols are spelled out: & becomes and, % becomes percent.
- Remove noise: optional stop words, your own extra words, standalone numbers and years.
- Trim to length at a word boundary, never mid-word.
- De-duplicate across the list by adding
-2, -3 and so on.
SEO slug best practice
What makes a good SEO slug
- Short and descriptive. Three to five meaningful words is usually enough. Long slugs get cut off in search results and are harder to share.
- Use hyphens. Google treats hyphens as word separators. Underscores join words, so
running_shoes can be read as one word.
- Lowercase only. Most servers treat URLs as case-sensitive, so mixed case can create duplicate URLs.
- No years or dates that will go stale. A "2026" in the slug forces a URL change and a redirect when you update the article. Tick Remove years.
- Include the main keyword naturally, but do not repeat it or stuff extra keywords in.
- Stop words are optional. Removing them shortens slugs, but keep them when they carry meaning, as in
how-to-tie-a-tie.
A slug is a small ranking signal at most, but a clear one helps people decide to click and trust a link when it is shared.
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Bulk slugs and redirects
Bulk slugs for imports, migrations and redirects
A bulk slug generator saves hours when importing products or posts from a spreadsheet, planning a new site structure, or cleaning up URLs during a migration. Add your site URL as the prefix to get full URLs, then download the CSV.
Create a 301 redirect map
Changing the slug of a page that is already indexed changes its URL, so you must redirect the old URL to the new one. Tick Lines include the old URL and enter lines like:
/old-post?id=3, 10 Best Running Shoes 2026
/p/2, Crème Brûlée: The Easy Way
Choose 301 redirect map as the output and pick the format:
- Apache / LiteSpeed:
Redirect 301 /old-post /10-running-shoes/ lines for .htaccess, which also work on OpenLiteSpeed and CyberPanel.
- Nginx:
rewrite rules with the permanent flag.
- CSV: old URL, new URL and status code for WordPress redirect plugins.
After going live, test the old URLs with the URL redirect checker and update your sitemap with the XML sitemap generator.
Options
All slug options explained
| Option | What it does |
|---|
| Max length | Trims at a word boundary. 60 characters is a sensible default. 0 means no limit. |
| Separator | Hyphen (recommended), underscore, dot or none. |
| Extra words to remove | Your own list, such as "best", "guide" or a brand name. |
| Keep numbers | Untick to drop standalone numbers like the "10" in "10 Best...". |
| Make unique | Adds -2, -3 to repeated slugs so no two pages collide. |
| Output | Plain list, JSON with title, slug and URL, or a redirect map. |
To convert text to camelCase or snake_case for code instead, use the case converter.
Platforms
Slugs in WordPress, Shopify and Laravel
WordPress creates slugs from post titles automatically and lets you edit them under the title or in the sidebar. Shopify calls them URL handles and adds -1 for duplicates. Laravel developers usually call Str::slug($title). All of them produce similar results, but none remove years or stop words by default, so generating slugs here first and pasting them in gives shorter, more durable URLs.
FAQ
URL Slug Generator: frequently asked questions
What is a URL slug?
The readable part at the end of a URL that identifies a specific page, such as best-running-shoes in example.com/blog/best-running-shoes/.
How do I create an SEO-friendly slug?
Paste the title, keep Lowercase and Transliterate ticked, use hyphens, set a max length around 60, and optionally remove stop words and years. The generator does the rest.
Should I use hyphens or underscores in URLs?
Hyphens. Google treats hyphens as spaces between words, while underscores join words together.
How are accents and non-Latin characters handled?
With Transliterate ticked they become plain ASCII letters: é becomes e, ß becomes ss, and Cyrillic or Greek words are spelled in Latin letters.
How long should a URL slug be?
As short as possible while still describing the page, usually three to five words. The 60-character default trims at a word boundary.
Can I generate slugs in bulk?
Yes. Paste up to 5,000 titles, one per line, and download all slugs as CSV or JSON.
How do I make a 301 redirect map?
Tick Lines include the old URL, enter each line as old URL, comma, new title, choose 301 redirect map and pick Apache, Nginx or CSV.
Should I change slugs on existing pages?
Only when the gain is clear, and always with a 301 redirect from the old URL, because changing a slug changes the page address.