URL Slug Generator

A URL slug is the part of a web address that identifies a specific page in a human-readable way. For example, in https://example.com/best-chocolate-chip-cookies, the slug is best-chocolate-chip-cookies. Slugs use only lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens — no spaces, special characters, or capital letters — making them safe for URLs and easy for both people and search engines to read.

Search engines use the words in a URL as one of many signals to understand what a page is about. A slug containing your target keywords — such as "best-running-shoes-for-beginners" — signals relevance to both Google and your readers before they even click. Short, descriptive, keyword-rich slugs earn higher click-through rates in search results. Messy slugs like ?p=1234 or random strings give search engines no useful signal at all.

Use hyphens. Google has explicitly confirmed that hyphens are treated as word separators in URLs, while underscores are not. best-running-shoes is read as three distinct words, which helps with keyword matching. best_running_shoes is treated as a single word by Google and provides no keyword benefit. For maximum SEO value, always choose hyphens as your slug separator.

Often yes — removing common stop words like "the", "a", "and", "or", and "in" produces shorter, cleaner slugs. "guide-to-baking-bread" becomes "guide-baking-bread". Shorter slugs are easier to share, look cleaner in search results, and put keywords closer together. However, sometimes removing a stop word changes the meaning, so use your judgment. This tool lets you toggle stop word removal so you can compare both versions.

The general best practice is 3 to 5 words, or roughly 20 to 60 characters. Google tends to truncate very long URLs in search result snippets, and long slugs are harder to share or remember. Focus on including your primary keyword and drop filler words. A slug like chocolate-chip-cookie-recipe is ideal — descriptive, keyword-rich, and concise.