A URL slug is the readable part of a web address that names one page, and a slug generator turns any title into a clean, lowercase, hyphenated version of it. The tool below builds your slug as you type, entirely in your browser, so spaces, capitals, and symbols become a tidy, search-friendly URL with no patterns a person would have to fix by hand.
What a URL Slug Is
A URL slug is the part of a web address that identifies one specific page, the text that comes after the domain name and any folders. In the address of this page, the slug is slug-generator. It is the part a person reads to guess what a page is about before clicking, and the part a search engine reads to understand the topic. Because it appears in search results, link previews, and the browser address bar, a clear slug helps both readers and ranking, while a messy one full of numbers and symbols helps neither.
How to Use This Slug Generator
- Type or paste your page title into the box. A sample title is filled in to start.
- Pick a separator. Hyphen is the default and the right choice for almost every site.
- Read the slug the tool builds as you type. It lowercases the text, removes accents, and replaces spaces and symbols with your separator.
- Press Copy to grab the slug, then shorten it to the main keywords before you use it as the page URL.
What Makes a Good Slug
A good slug is lowercase, so the same URL never splits into two versions on case-sensitive servers. It uses hyphens, not underscores, because search engines read a hyphen as a space between words and an underscore as a joiner. It is short, usually three to five words, which keeps it readable in a result or a shared link. It is keyword-focused, leading with the words people actually search, and it drops stop-word clutter like the, a, and of when they add nothing.
Why Slugs Matter for SEO and Sharing
The slug is one of the few ranking signals you write in plain words, so a keyword-focused slug gives a search engine an early, direct clue about the page. It also shapes how a link looks everywhere it appears: a clean slug like how-to-choose-a-laptop reads as a promise of the content, so people are more likely to click and to trust the link when a friend pastes it into a chat or a post. A slug stuffed with numbers, dates, or symbols does the opposite, looking automated and forgettable, and it can break when shared because some characters get encoded into unreadable codes.
Related Tools
Switch text between lowercase, UPPERCASE, Title Case, and sentence case before you turn a heading into a slug.
Build the title and description tags that sit alongside the slug in a search result.
Check the length of a title or piece of text while you trim it down to the core keywords.
Last Thoughts on URL Slugs
A slug is a small detail that pays off every time a page is found or shared. Get it lowercase, hyphenated, short, and built around the keyword once, before you publish, and it keeps working without any further attention. The expensive mistake is changing a slug after a page has links, because the old address breaks unless you add a redirect.
Paste your next title above to get a clean slug in one step, then use it as the page URL from the start. For how that address is read and displayed, see our guide to what a web browser is, and explore the rest of our free online tools.
Key Takeaways:
- A URL slug is the readable part of a web address that names one page.
- Make slugs lowercase to avoid duplicate, case-split versions of the same URL.
- Use hyphens, not underscores, so search engines read each word separately.
- Keep slugs short, three to five words, and lead with the main keyword.
- Drop stop-word clutter and strip accents, spaces, and symbols.
- This generator runs entirely in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is a URL slug?
A URL slug is the human-readable part of a web address that names a single page, the piece after the domain and any folders. For this page the slug is slug-generator. A good slug is lowercase, uses hyphens between words, and contains the main keyword so both people and search engines can tell what the page is about before they open it.
Should a slug use hyphens or underscores?
Use hyphens. Google treats a hyphen as a word separator, so install-windows reads as two words, while it treats an underscore as a joiner, so install_windows can read as one. Hyphens are the long-standing convention for slugs, and this generator defaults to them for that reason.
Does the slug generator send my text anywhere?
No. The slug is built entirely inside your browser as you type, and nothing is uploaded, logged, or stored on any server. You can confirm this by disconnecting from the internet and watching it still work.
How long should a URL slug be?
Keep it short, usually three to five words. A short slug is easier to read, share, and link to, and it keeps the keyword visible in search results and link previews. Trim filler words like the, a, and of unless removing them changes the meaning.
Can I change a slug after publishing?
You can, but avoid it once a page has traffic or links, because the old URL will break. If you must change it, set up a 301 redirect from the old slug to the new one so visitors and link equity follow the page to its new address.
What characters are allowed in a slug?
Stick to lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens. Spaces, accents, and symbols either get encoded into hard-to-read characters or cause errors, so this tool strips them out, converts accented letters to their plain form, and replaces every run of unsupported characters with your chosen separator.
