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Free URL Slug Generator

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.

Your URL Slug
Batch Slug Generator

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

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How to Use the URL Slug Generator

  1. Type or paste your page title into the text field, for example “10 Best Email Marketing Tools for Small Businesses”.
  2. Choose your word separator: hyphen (-) is recommended by Google; underscore (_) is supported by some legacy systems.
  3. Click Generate Slug. Your clean URL slug appears instantly with an SEO checklist.
  4. Click Copy Slug to copy it to your clipboard, ready to paste into WordPress, Shopify, or any CMS.
  5. 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.

  • Slugs help people more than rankings. Google says keywords in the URL alone have hardly any effect on rankings, but a clear slug tells searchers what the page is about before they click.
  • Clean slugs look trustworthy. A URL like /seo-tips/ is far clearer in search results than /p=1234?cat=7&ref=sidebar.
  • Hyphens beat underscores. Google recommends hyphens because they make it easier for people and search engines to see the separate words.
  • 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. The old URL loses the links and rankings it built up unless you redirect it permanently to the new one.

URL Slug Best Practices

  • Use your focus keyword early in the slug.
  • Keep it short, ideally 3 to 5 words. Short slugs are easier to read, share and remember.
  • Always use lowercase letters: some servers are case-sensitive and mixed-case URLs cause duplicate content issues.
  • Avoid dates in slugs (like /year/month/) unless the content is genuinely time-sensitive. Dated URLs make evergreen pages look stale.
  • 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 URL structure guidelines recommend hyphens over underscores because they help people and search engines identify separate words.

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’s no hard limit. Three to five meaningful words is plenty for most pages. Shorter slugs are easier to read, copy and remember, and long URLs get truncated in search results and social previews.

Can I use numbers in a URL slug?

Yes. Numbers are fine, for example top-10-tools. Avoid years in slugs for evergreen content, because the page will 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.

Sources

  1. Google Search Central, “URL structure best practices for Google Search“, accessed September 2026.
  2. Google Search Central, “SEO Starter Guide“, last updated 10 December 2025.

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