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Slug Generator

Turn any title into a clean, readable URL slug as you type: lowercase, hyphen-separated, with punctuation removed and every word kept. Your text is processed locally in your browser and is not uploaded to Q3 Labs.

  • Free
  • · No signup
  • · Nothing uploaded
  • · Unicode-aware

Private by design. Your text is processed locally in your browser and is not uploaded to Q3 Labs.

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The slug updates as you type.

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Free URL slug generator

Paste a page title and get a slug you can use straight away in WordPress, Shopify, Webflow or any CMS. The rules are fixed and listed on this page, so the same title always gives the same slug. Nothing is guessed, no words are added or removed, and there is no AI rewriting.

You can switch to underscores, turn off lowercasing, and preview the slug on your own domain. Everything happens in your browser. When you've written the rest of the page, check how it will look in search with the SERP Snippet Preview.

What is a URL slug?

A slug is the readable, page-specific part at the end of a URL. In https://example.com/blog/how-to-build-a-website, the slug is how-to-build-a-website. WordPress calls it the permalink or URL slug; other systems call it the handle or path.

Readable slugs help people: a visitor can tell what a page is about from a link in an email, a chat or a search result, and a clean URL is easier to share and less likely to break. Google's guidelines recommend simple, descriptive URLs that use words rather than long ID numbers.

How to create an SEO-friendly URL slug

  1. Start from a clear title that says what the page is about.
  2. Paste it into the generator. The slug appears instantly.
  3. Review it. If it's long, you can trim words yourself, as long as the meaning stays clear.
  4. Copy it into your CMS's slug or permalink field before the page is published.

The generator applies these rules, in this order: Unicode is normalized; accents are removed from Latin letters; apostrophes are removed inside words; a period between two digits becomes a hyphen and any other period is removed; every other character that isn't a letter or number (spaces, punctuation, symbols, emoji, &) becomes a hyphen; the result is lowercased; repeated hyphens are merged and hyphens at the start and end are removed.

Slug generator examples

Each result is produced by the same code the tool uses.

Titles and the slugs the generator produces
TitleSlugWhat happened
How to Improve Your Website's SEO in 2026how-to-improve-your-websites-seo-in-2026Apostrophe removed inside the word
SEO: A Beginner's Guideseo-a-beginners-guideColon becomes a separator
SEO & Web Designseo-web-design& is dropped, not turned into “and”
React.js Tutorialreactjs-tutorialPeriod between letters removed
WordPress 6.9 Guidewordpress-6-9-guidePeriod between digits becomes a hyphen
" Hello World! "hello-worldExtra spaces and punctuation cleaned up
Crème Brûlée Recipecreme-brulee-recipeLatin accents removed
Über SEO – Größeuber-seo-grosseUmlauts and ß converted
Already A Slugalready-a-slugOnly lowercased and joined
🚀 Launch Daylaunch-dayEmoji dropped

Best practices for URL slugs

  • Describe the page. Use the words a reader would expect, usually from the title.
  • Keep it readable. Words separated by hyphens, no stray symbols or ID codes.
  • Use lowercase so there's only ever one version of the URL.
  • Avoid unnecessary parameters. Session IDs, tracking tags and sort orders belong in query strings you control, not in the page's main URL. Use the UTM Builder for campaign tracking links instead of changing the slug.
  • Don't stuff keywords. Repeating a keyword makes URLs awkward and doesn't help.
  • Keep it stable. Once a page is live and linked, avoid changing its URL unless there is a good reason.

Hyphens vs underscores in URLs

Google's URL structure guidance recommends hyphens to separate words, because it treats a hyphen as a word separator. With underscores, words can be read as joined. That is why hyphen-separated slugs such as web-design-tips are the standard for web pages.

The tool offers underscores (web_design_tips) for systems that need them, such as some file names or identifiers, but the default is hyphens.

Should URL slugs be lowercase?

Yes, as a rule. The path part of a URL can be case-sensitive (it is on most Linux servers), so /Web-Design and /web-design may be treated as two different pages. Consistent lowercase avoids duplicate URLs and broken links from mistyped capitals. The tool lowercases by default; you can turn it off if your system requires mixed case.

Should you remove stop words?

Stop words are short words such as "a", "the", "to" and "how". Some tools delete them automatically, which can change meaning: "How to Build a Website" and "Build Website" aren't quite the same thing. This generator never removes words on its own; "How to Build a Website" becomes how-to-build-a-website. If you want a shorter slug, remove words yourself where the meaning stays clear.

How long should a URL slug be?

There is no single correct length and no documented Google character limit for slugs. As general guidance, short, descriptive slugs are easier to read, share and remember, so a few meaningful words is usually enough. The tool shows the character count and, for very long slugs, a gentle suggestion to consider trimming. It never marks a slug as failing because of its length.

Unicode and international URL slugs

URLs can contain characters from any language. The browser displays them normally and percent-encodes them when sending the request, so a Hindi or Arabic slug works just like an English one. Latin accents are removed because the unaccented form is a widely expected convention, but other scripts have no reliable automatic transliteration, so this tool keeps them rather than deleting them and leaving you with an empty slug.

International titles, their slugs and the percent-encoded form browsers send
LanguageSlugSent by the browser as
Hindiनमस्ते-दुनिया%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%87-%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE
Urduہیلو-دنیا%DB%81%DB%8C%D9%84%D9%88-%D8%AF%D9%86%DB%8C%D8%A7
Arabicمرحبا-بالعالم%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%AD%D8%A8%D8%A7-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85
Chinese你好-世界%E4%BD%A0%E5%A5%BD-%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C
Japaneseこんにちは-世界%E3%81%93%E3%82%93%E3%81%AB%E3%81%A1%E3%81%AF-%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C

If your site prefers ASCII-only URLs, write a short transliterated or English slug by hand. To see exactly how any value is percent-encoded, use the URL Encoder & Decoder.

When should you change an existing URL slug?

As rarely as possible. A published URL collects links, bookmarks and search history, and changing the slug creates a brand-new URL. Good reasons include a slug that is misleading, contains an error, or exposes something it shouldn't.

If you do change one, set up a permanent (301) redirect from the old URL to the new one, update your internal links and sitemap, and check that the old address redirects correctly, for example with the HTTP Status Checker. Then review the page's title and description with the Meta Tag Checker or a full On-Page SEO Checker audit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Explore more

Write the title and description for the page with the SEO Title & Meta Description Generator, preview it with the SERP Snippet Preview, and check the live page with the Meta Tag Checker. Change text case with the Case Converter, count characters and words with the Character Counter and Word Counter, and encode values with the URL Encoder & Decoder or Base64 Encoder & Decoder. Browse all our free tools.

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