How to Write SEO-Friendly URL Slugs

Clean URL slugs are one of the easiest SEO wins most sites ignore. A slug is the last part of a URL — the bit after the domain — and it tells both search engines and humans what a page is about.

What makes a good slug?

A strong slug is short, descriptive, and keyword-focused without stuffing. Compare these:

• Bad: /post?id=48291&ref=home
• Good: /blog/url-slug-seo-guide

Search engines prefer readable URLs. Users are more likely to click a link when the path looks trustworthy.

Rules to follow

1. Use lowercase — avoids duplicate URL issues on case-sensitive servers.
2. Replace spaces with hyphens — my-blog-post, not my_blog_post or myblogpost.
3. Remove stop words when possible — "the", "a", "and" rarely help rankings.
4. Keep it under 60 characters when you can — shorter slugs are easier to share.
5. Match the page topic — if the article is about JSON formatting, the slug should say so.

Common mistakes

• Changing slugs after publishing without redirects (you lose link equity).
• Using dates in every slug (/2026/03/post-title) — fine for news, less ideal for evergreen guides.
• Non-Latin characters that get percent-encoded into ugly URLs.

Try it free on PeasyDo

Paste any title into our Slug Generator and get a clean, URL-safe slug instantly — no sign-up, runs in your browser.

Quick checklist

Before you publish, ask:

• Does the slug describe the page in 3–6 words?
• Would a stranger understand the topic from the URL alone?
• Is it free of special characters and uppercase letters?

Get this right once per page and it keeps paying off in search and shares for years.