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SEO tip

Keep slugs under 60 chars. Use hyphens — Google treats them as word separators. Remove stop words (a, the, of) to shorten.

How it works
  1. 1Type or paste any text — title, product name, heading
  2. 2Choose options: lowercase, accent removal, separator
  3. 3Slug is generated live as you type — no button needed
  4. 4Click Copy slug and paste into your CMS, URL field, or code
Examples
My Post Titlemy-post-title
Jak zoptymalizować?jak-zoptymalizowac
Product #1 (New!)product-1-new

What is a URL Slug?

A URL slug is the human-readable part of a web address that identifies a specific page. In cleantextfree.com/slug-generator, the slug is slug-generator. Slugs appear after the domain and any directory path — they form the final segment of a URL and tell both users and search engines what the page is about.

The word "slug" actually comes from typography. In the era of hot-metal typesetting, a "slug" was a single line of text cast as one piece of lead. Early web developers borrowed the term to describe a short, identifying string derived from a longer title.

A slug differs from the full URL path: the path includes every segment separated by slashes (/blog/2024/my-post), while the slug is just the final identifying part (my-post). Most CMS platforms auto-generate slugs from page titles, but the results are often too long or contain characters that cause problems — that's where a permalink generator like this one helps.

Well-formed slugs follow a few rules: lowercase only, words separated by hyphens, no spaces, no special characters or accents, and ideally under 60 characters. Shorter slugs are cleaner to share, easier to read, and marginally better for SEO.

How to Use the Slug Generator — Step by Step

  1. Paste or type your text in the input field above. This can be a blog post title, product name, page heading, or any text you want to convert to a URL-friendly format.
  2. Choose your options: toggle Lowercase to force all characters to lowercase (recommended), toggle Remove accents to transliterate characters like é → e or ą → a, and select your preferred separator — Hyphen (-) for standard SEO slugs or Underscore (_) for technical identifiers.
  3. Copy the generated slug with the "Copy slug" button and paste it directly into WordPress, Shopify, Ghost, your CMS, or any URL field.

The slug is generated live as you type — no need to click a button. Your text never leaves your browser; all processing happens locally on your device.

Slug Examples

Title / Input Text Generated Slug Why
10 Best SEO Tools for 2024 10-best-seo-tools-for-2024 Spaces replaced with hyphens, all lowercase — ready for WordPress or Ghost
Jak zoptymalizować stronę pod SEO? jak-zoptymalizowac-strone-pod-seo Polish characters (ó→o, ę→e, ą→a) transliterated; question mark removed
🚀 Launch Your Product Fast! #startup launch-your-product-fast-startup Emoji and special characters stripped; hashtag removed cleanly
The Complete Guide to Building a High-Converting E-Commerce Product Page That Ranks the-complete-guide-to-building-a-high-converting-e-commerce-product-page-that-ranks Valid slug but 84 chars — consider shortening to "high-converting-ecommerce-product-page" for SEO best practice
Men's Slim-Fit Chino Trousers — Navy Blue mens-slim-fit-chino-trousers-navy-blue Apostrophe removed, em dash replaced — clean Shopify/WooCommerce product URL

SEO Best Practices for URL Slugs

A well-optimized slug can improve click-through rates in search results and help search engines understand page content. Here's what matters:

Use Cases

Related Tools

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a URL slug?

A URL slug is the last part of a web address that identifies a specific page in a human-readable way. For example, in example.com/blog/my-first-post, the slug is my-first-post. Slugs use lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens — never spaces or special characters.

How do I create an SEO-friendly slug?

Paste your title into this SEO slug generator, keep the Lowercase and Remove accents options enabled, and select Hyphen as the separator. Then shorten the result if it exceeds 60 characters by removing stop words. Include your primary keyword near the beginning of the slug.

Should I use hyphens or underscores in URL slugs?

Use hyphens. Google's John Mueller has confirmed that hyphens are treated as word separators in URLs, while underscores are not. "best-seo-tools" is indexed as three separate words; "best_seo_tools" is treated as a single compound word.

How long should a URL slug be?

Aim for under 60 characters. There's no hard technical limit, but shorter slugs are cleaner in search results, easier to share on social media, and simpler for users to remember. Remove unnecessary stop words to shorten long title-based slugs.

Does a slug affect SEO rankings?

Yes, modestly. Keywords in URLs are a minor ranking signal. More importantly, a clean descriptive slug improves click-through rates in search results — users are more likely to click a URL they can read and trust. It also helps with internal linking and anchor text clarity.

How does this tool handle Polish and other special characters?

With the "Remove accents" option enabled, all accented and special characters are transliterated to their ASCII equivalents: ą→a, ę→e, ś→s, ź→z, ż→z, ó→o, ć→c, ń→n, ł→l. German ü→u, French é→e, Spanish ñ→n, and many other diacritics are handled automatically.

Can I change a slug after publishing a page?

You can, but you should always set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one first. Without a redirect, existing backlinks, bookmarks, and any URLs you've shared will return a 404 error — and you'll lose the SEO authority those links carried. Plan your slugs carefully before publishing.

From the Blog

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