What is Slug?
Slug is a URL-friendly version of a string, typically derived from a title or name, that uses only lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens. It is used to create human-readable and SEO-friendly URLs for web pages, blog posts, and other content.
Quick Facts
| Full Name | URL Slug |
|---|---|
| Created | Web usage from early 2000s |
| Specification | Official Specification |
How It Works
The term 'slug' originated from newspaper publishing, where it referred to a short name given to an article for internal tracking. In web development, a slug transforms titles like 'How to Create a Website' into 'how-to-create-a-website'. Slugs improve SEO by including relevant keywords in URLs and make links more shareable and memorable. Good slugs are lowercase, use hyphens instead of spaces or underscores, remove special characters and stop words, and are concise yet descriptive.
Key Characteristics
- Lowercase letters and numbers only
- Hyphens replace spaces (not underscores)
- Special characters and accents removed
- Concise yet descriptive
- SEO-friendly with relevant keywords
- Unique within the same content type
Common Use Cases
- Blog post and article URLs
- Product page URLs in e-commerce
- Category and tag URLs
- User profile URLs
- Content management systems
Example
Loading code...Frequently Asked Questions
Why should I use hyphens instead of underscores in slugs?
Search engines like Google treat hyphens as word separators but treat underscores as word joiners. For example, 'web-development' is seen as two words (web, development), while 'web_development' is treated as one word. Using hyphens improves SEO by helping search engines properly index your content.
How do I handle non-English characters in slugs?
There are two common approaches: transliteration (converting characters to ASCII equivalents, e.g., 'café' becomes 'cafe') or romanization (converting to phonetic representation, e.g., '你好' becomes 'ni-hao'). The choice depends on your audience and SEO strategy. Some sites keep Unicode characters for local SEO.
Should slugs include stop words like 'the', 'a', or 'and'?
Generally, stop words should be removed from slugs to keep them concise. 'The Ultimate Guide to JavaScript' becomes 'ultimate-guide-javascript'. However, if removing stop words changes the meaning significantly, you may want to keep them. Prioritize clarity and readability.
What happens if two posts have the same slug?
Slugs must be unique within the same content type to avoid conflicts. Most CMS platforms automatically append numbers to duplicate slugs (e.g., 'my-post', 'my-post-2'). For better SEO and user experience, try to create unique, descriptive slugs that differentiate your content.
Can I change a slug after publishing content?
Yes, but changing slugs can break existing links and negatively impact SEO if not handled properly. If you must change a slug, always set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one to preserve link equity and prevent 404 errors for users with bookmarked links.