Free URL Slug Generator

Q: What characters are allowed in a URL slug?

Only lowercase letters (a–z), numbers (0–9), and hyphens or underscores as separators. Spaces and special characters must be removed or replaced.

Q: Should I use hyphens or underscores in my URLs?

Use hyphens. Google treats hyphens as word separators, making each word individually indexable. Underscores join words into a single token.

Q: Does changing my URL slug hurt SEO?

Yes, unless you set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. Without a redirect, you lose link equity and Google must re-index the new URL.

Q: Does WordPress generate slugs automatically?

WordPress does auto-generate slugs, but its algorithm is basic and often includes stop words. Use this tool to generate an optimised slug before creating the page.

Turn any page title or text into a clean, SEO-friendly URL slug in one click.
Handles special characters, accented letters, stop words, and punctuation automatically.
Use the batch mode to convert an entire list of titles at once and download the results as a CSV.

Page Title or Text

Word Separator

Your URL Slug

Batch Slug Generator

Paste multiple page titles below (one per line) to convert them all at once.

How to Use the URL Slug Generator

Type or paste your page title into the text field — for example, “10 Best Email Marketing Tools for Small Businesses 2025”.
Choose your word separator — hyphen (-) is recommended by Google; underscore (_) is supported by some legacy systems.
Click Generate Slug. Your clean URL slug appears instantly with an SEO checklist.
Click Copy Slug to copy it to your clipboard, ready to paste into WordPress, Shopify, or any CMS.
Need to convert many titles? Use the Batch Slug Generator — paste one title per line, click Convert All, then download a CSV or copy all slugs at once.

What Is a URL Slug and Why Does It Matter for SEO?

A URL slug is the part of a web address that identifies a specific page — for example, in
https://miindigital.com/url-slug-generator/, the slug is url-slug-generator.
It sounds like a small detail, but slugs directly affect your search rankings, click-through rates, and user experience.

Google reads your slug as a ranking signal. A slug that contains your focus keyword tells Google what the page is about before it even crawls the content.
Clean slugs get more clicks. A URL like /seo-tips-2025/ is far more trustworthy in search results than /p=1234?cat=7&ref=sidebar.
Hyphens beat underscores. Google officially recommends hyphens as word separators in URLs. Underscores cause words to be read as a single token.
Shorter is better. Aim for 3–5 meaningful words. Drop stop words like “the”, “a”, “and”, “for” unless they are part of your keyword.
Never change a live slug without a 301 redirect. Changing a URL after it has been indexed destroys its link equity and ranking position unless you redirect the old URL permanently.

URL Slug Best Practices

Use your focus keyword early in the slug.
Keep it under 75 characters — shorter slugs rank better on mobile and fit neatly in SERPs.
Always use lowercase letters — some servers are case-sensitive and mixed-case URLs cause duplicate content issues.
Avoid dates in slugs (e.g., /2025/06/) unless your content is inherently time-sensitive — dated URLs signal staleness to users.
Remove special characters, accents, and punctuation — they can break links and confuse crawlers.
Do not stuff keywords. A slug like seo-tips-seo-tools-seo-guide looks spammy and may be demoted.

Frequently Asked Questions

What characters are allowed in a URL slug?

Only lowercase letters (a–z), numbers (0–9), and hyphens (-) or underscores (_) as separators.
Spaces, ampersands, apostrophes, slashes, and special characters must be removed or replaced.
Accented characters (é, ü, ñ) are automatically converted to their closest ASCII equivalent.

Should I use hyphens or underscores in my URLs?

Use hyphens. Google’s John Mueller has confirmed that Google treats hyphens as word separators,
meaning “seo-tips” is read as “seo” and “tips” as two separate words.
Underscores, by contrast, join words — “seo_tips” is read as one token “seotips” — which can reduce keyword relevance.

Does changing my URL slug hurt SEO?

Yes, unless you set up a 301 (permanent) redirect from the old URL to the new one.
Without a redirect, the old URL returns a 404 error, you lose all inbound links pointing to that page,
and Google has to recrawl and re-index the new URL from scratch.
Always use this tool before publishing a page, not after.

What is the ideal URL slug length?

There is no hard limit, but SEO best practice is to keep slugs under 75 characters (roughly 3–6 words).
Shorter slugs are easier to read, copy, and remember — and long URLs can be truncated in search results and social previews.

Can I use numbers in a URL slug?

Yes. Numbers are perfectly valid — for example, seo-tips-2025 or top-10-tools.
However, avoid including years in slugs for evergreen content, as it can make your page look dated even after you update it.

Does WordPress generate slugs automatically?

WordPress does auto-generate a slug from your page title, but its algorithm is basic — it often includes
stop words and does not always optimise for SEO. Use this tool to generate a clean, optimised slug
before you create the page, then paste it directly into the “Permalink” field in WordPress.