Slug Generator
Turn any title into a clean, SEO-friendly URL slug as you type, with accents stripped and stop words removed. Free, no sign-up, and it runs in your browser.
Dedicated page: /en/slug-generator
Quick answer
A slug generator turns a page title or heading into a clean URL slug: lowercase, accents removed, spaces replaced with your chosen separator and stop words dropped if you want. Clean slugs keep URLs short, readable and keyword focused for SEO.
About this Slug Generator
Turn any title into a clean, SEO-friendly URL slug as you type, with accents stripped and stop words removed. It is one of the SEO and Webmaster on ToolUstad, and like every tool here it runs entirely in your browser: nothing you type, paste or open is uploaded to a server, and there is no sign-up or usage limit.
What is a URL slug?
The slug is the readable part of a URL that identifies the page: in example.com/blog/how-to-bake-bread, the slug is how-to-bake-bread. Search engines and humans both read it. A good slug is short, lowercase, uses hyphens, contains the main keyword, and stays stable for the life of the page, because changing a slug means redirects and lost link equity.
How this generator cleans your text
- Lowercases everything, because URLs are case sensitive on many servers.
- Transliterates accented characters, so "café" becomes "cafe" instead of broken encoding.
- Strips punctuation and symbols that need percent encoding.
- Replaces spaces with hyphens (or underscores, if your platform uses them).
- Optionally removes stop words like "the", "a" and "how" to shorten long titles.
- Trims the result to a maximum length so CMS limits never cut it mid word.
When and why slugs matter
- New blog posts and products: replace the default ID based URL with a keyword slug.
- Site migrations: generate consistent slugs in bulk before moving platforms.
- Multilingual content: transliteration keeps non English titles usable in URLs.
- Sharing: a short readable slug looks trustworthy in social posts and emails.
Best practices
| Do | Avoid |
|---|---|
| Keep it to 3 to 6 meaningful words | Dates, session IDs and random numbers |
| Use hyphens between words | Underscores, which Google reads as one word |
| Include the main keyword once | Repeating the keyword twice in one slug |
| Set it once and keep it | Editing slugs later without a 301 redirect |
Common mistakes to avoid
- Copying the whole headline into the URL, stop words and all.
- Leaving uppercase letters, spaces or special characters that get percent encoded.
- Changing a ranking page's slug for cosmetic reasons without redirecting the old URL.
Who is the slug generator for?
Bloggers, SEO specialists, e-commerce managers and developers generating URLs in bulk. WordPress and most CMS platforms create a decent slug automatically, but pasted titles with accents, symbols and capital letters still produce ugly URLs that someone has to clean by hand, one character at a time.
Slugs, keywords and click through rate
A slug cannot rescue weak content, but it does two useful jobs. First, it confirms relevance: a searcher comparing results can see that a URL contains their exact topic, which nudges click through rate when titles are similar. Second, it survives sharing: a clean slug pasted into a chat, email or slide deck explains where the link goes, while an ID based URL says nothing and gets clicked less.
Planning slugs during a site migration
Migrations are where slug discipline pays for itself. Export every old URL, generate the new slugs with one consistent rule set here, and build the redirect map before the new site launches, not after traffic drops. Keep hierarchy shallow (example.com/slug rather than example.com/a/b/c/slug), because every extra folder is another thing that can change. And never let two generations of slugs live side by side without redirects: duplicate reachable URLs split the ranking signals you are trying to consolidate.
Length discipline helps here too. If a slug needs ten words to make sense, the page is probably trying to cover two topics, and splitting it into two focused pages with two short slugs usually wins more traffic than one long compromise page.
Learn: how to use the Slug Generator
- Type or paste your page title.
- Pick a separator (hyphens are the web standard) and decide on stop word removal and a maximum length.
- Copy the slug, or the full example URL, straight into your CMS.
Features
- Live preview with character count and length guidance
- Accent stripping: café becomes cafe, naïve becomes naive
- Stop word removal you can switch off
- Hyphen or underscore separators and a word-safe maximum length
- Ampersands become the word "and" instead of vanishing
Worked example
10 Best Café Tips for Beginners in 2026! becomes 10-best-cafe-tips-beginners-2026: accents gone, stop words (for, in) removed, punctuation stripped.
Frequently asked questions
Hyphens or underscores in URLs?
Hyphens. Google has recommended hyphens as word separators in URLs for years, and they are easier to read and type.
Should the slug contain the full title?
Usually not. A slug with the 3 to 6 words that carry the meaning ranks and shares better than a full sentence. Stop word removal handles most of the trimming.
Is changing an existing slug safe?
Only with a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. Without it, you lose the old page's links and rankings.
Does it handle non-English titles?
It strips accents from Latin scripts (Spanish, French, German, Portuguese) correctly. Scripts like Arabic or Chinese are removed rather than transliterated.
Should a slug include stop words like 'the' and 'a'?
Usually not. Removing stop words makes slugs shorter and keeps the keyword prominent, which is why this generator can strip them. The exception is when the stop word changes the meaning, as in book or film titles.
Are hyphens or underscores better in URLs?
Hyphens. Google has stated for years that hyphens act as word separators in URLs, while underscores join words into one term. Use hyphens for page slugs; underscores remain normal inside file names and code.
How long should a URL slug be?
There is no hard limit, but 3 to 6 words is a good target. Shorter slugs are easier to share, read and type, and long slugs get truncated in search results anyway.
Should product SKUs or IDs be part of a slug?
Usually no. IDs add length without meaning for readers or search engines, and they date badly when ranges change. Keep the descriptive keyword part of the slug clean, and let the product page itself carry the SKU where buyers and support staff actually look for it.
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