A slug is the readable part of a URL that identifies a specific page, such as "best-running-shoes" in example.com/blog/best-running-shoes. A clean slug tells visitors and search engines what the page is about before they click, and it looks far more trustworthy than a string of IDs and symbols when shared on social media or in an email.
This slug generator turns any headline into a URL-friendly slug in one click. It lowercases the text, converts accented and Turkish letters to plain Latin ones, replaces spaces and punctuation with hyphens and trims stray hyphens from the ends. It runs entirely in your browser, so unpublished titles and campaign names stay private.
How to use: URL Slug Generator
- Type or paste your headline into the Title or text box.
- Click Create slug to generate the URL-friendly version.
- Review the slug in the Result panel and shorten it if it is long.
- Click Copy and paste the slug into your CMS permalink or URL field.
Example: "10 Tips for Café Owners!" becomes "10-tips-for-cafe-owners".
What the slug generator does to your text
The conversion follows a fixed set of rules, so the same title always produces the same slug:
- All letters are lowercased.
- Accented letters lose their accents (é becomes e, ñ becomes n), and Turkish letters ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, ü become c, g, i, o, s, u.
- Spaces, punctuation and symbols, including &, apostrophes and underscores, are replaced with a single hyphen.
- Letters outside the basic Latin alphabet that cannot be converted, such as Cyrillic, Greek or ß, are removed.
- Hyphens at the start and end are trimmed, and digits are kept.
What makes a good SEO-friendly slug
Keep it short and descriptive: three to six meaningful words are usually enough. Include your main keyword, use hyphens rather than underscores, and stick to lowercase letters. Avoid dates or numbers that will go stale, such as a year in an evergreen guide, unless they are essential to the topic.
This tool does not remove stop words like "a", "the", "and" or "for". That is deliberate, because sometimes they matter for meaning. If a slug feels long, delete them by hand: "how-to-choose-the-best-running-shoes-for-beginners" reads just as well as "choose-running-shoes-beginners".
Watch out for apostrophes and symbols
Any character that is not a letter or digit becomes a hyphen, so apostrophes split words: "Don't Panic" turns into "don-t-panic". Similarly, "Salt & Pepper" becomes "salt-pepper", since the ampersand and the surrounding spaces collapse into one hyphen. If you would rather have "dont-panic" or "salt-and-pepper", adjust the title before converting or edit the slug afterwards.
Once a page is published and indexed, avoid changing its slug. If you must, set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one so you keep links and search rankings.
Frequently asked questions
What is a URL slug?
A slug is the part of a web address that comes after the domain and identifies a specific page in readable form. In example.com/blog/url-slug-guide, the slug is "url-slug-guide". Most content management systems, including WordPress, generate one from your title automatically, but a cleaned-up, shorter slug is usually better for readers and search.
Should I use hyphens or underscores in URLs?
Use hyphens. Search engines, including Google, have long recommended hyphens as word separators in URLs, while underscores may cause words to be read as one. That is why this generator replaces spaces, underscores and other symbols with hyphens and never outputs an underscore.
Does the generator remove stop words like "the" and "and"?
No. Every word in your title is kept, so you stay in control of the meaning. Short slugs are generally easier to read and share, so after generating the slug you can delete words like "a", "the", "of" or "for" if they do not add anything. Make sure the slug still describes the page clearly.
What happens to accented, Turkish or non-Latin characters?
Accented Latin letters are simplified, so "café" becomes "cafe" and "jalapeño" becomes "jalapeno". Turkish letters are transliterated: ç to c, ğ to g, ı to i, ö to o, ş to s and ü to u. Letters from other scripts, such as Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic or Chinese, cannot be converted and are removed, so write those titles in Latin letters first.
How long should a slug be?
There is no strict limit, but shorter is better. A slug of three to six meaningful words, or roughly under 60 characters, is easy to read, fits in search results and is less likely to be cut off when shared. Remove filler words and keep the main keyword near the start.
Is my title stored anywhere?
No. The slug is created in your browser with JavaScript and nothing is sent to a server. You can safely draft slugs for posts, product pages or campaigns that have not been announced yet. When you clear the form or close the tab, the text is gone.