Free tool
URL slug generator
The last part of a page’s address is the part people read, in a search result, in a message and in a link, and it is the part that should never change once the page is live. Paste a title, or a list of them, and this makes the slug the way Google’s own address guidance describes, and tells you what it changed and why. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Sites changing their addresses usually need our SEO migration services.
The slugs
Paste a title and its slug appears here.
The slugs appear here as you type. This needs scripting on.
What was checked
What a slug is for, and the rules that hold
A slug is the last part of a page’s address, the words after the final slash. Search results show it under the title, messaging apps show it when a link is pasted, and people read it before they decide whether to click. It is also the one part of a page that is meant to last for the page’s whole life, because every link to the page carries it. So the slug has two jobs: say what the page is about, and stay put.
Two of the rules come from Google’s own guidance on URL structure: use words a person can read rather than codes, and separate them with hyphens, which Google reads as breaks between words where an underscore is not. Everything else here is the reader’s reason. Lower case, because two spellings of one address are two addresses and one of them will be the copy nobody meant to publish. No accents or apostrophes, because the person typing the address from a printed page will not add them. No year in the slug unless the page is about that year, because the page will be updated and the address will still say the old one. And no repeating the folder in the slug: if the page sits in a services folder, the slug says which service, and the folder has already said it is one.
Length is a judgement rather than a rule. A slug that reads as a short sentence is fine; one that carries the whole title, subtitle and a keyword for luck is not, and it is the second kind that gets cut in a result. This tool warns past the word count you set and never trims a slug itself, because dropping words changes what the address says and that decision is yours.
When the address already exists
A new page can take any slug this tool makes. A live page is a different matter: its address is in links, in bookmarks, in Google’s index and possibly in print. Changing it means a redirect from the old address to the new one, every link you control updated, and a short loss while the move settles. That is a job with its own steps, and they are on the migration checklist. The on-page checklist covers what sits around the slug on the page itself, and once the title and slug are set, the SERP preview shows how the pair will be cut in a result.
Questions about slugs
Does the slug affect ranking?
Google’s guidance asks for readable words separated by hyphens and does not promise a position for them. The slug’s job is to be read: in a result, in a message someone forwards, in a link someone types. A slug that says what the page is about earns the click a cryptic one loses, and that is the whole of its effect.
Should I take the small words out?
Either form is fine. This tool keeps them unless you tick the box, because “how-to-fix-a-leaking-tap” reads as a sentence and “fix-leaking-tap” reads as a note. Take them out when a slug runs long, and leave them in when they carry meaning: “to” in “how to” does.
Can I change the slug of a page that is already live?
Only with a redirect from the old address to the new one, and with every link you control updated. A page that has links or rankings loses some of both in the move, so a slug that is merely nicer is rarely worth changing. The migration checklist covers the redirect and the checks around it.
Hyphens or underscores?
Hyphens. Google’s own documentation says it reads a hyphen as a break between words and recommends it over an underscore, which is why this tool turns every underscore into a hyphen and says so.
What happens to a title that is not in English?
Letters from any alphabet are kept and lower-cased, and accents on Latin letters are removed so that é becomes e. A slug in another script is a valid address; a browser may show it in its encoded form in some places, which is normal. If you would rather have Latin letters, write that slug by hand.
Is anything I type here sent anywhere?
No. Everything happens in your browser. There is no form submission, no analytics event and no network request of any kind, which you can confirm in your browser’s network tab.
Book a call with us
A 30-minute call in your working hours. Tell us what you sell and where, and we will tell you what we would do first and what it involves. Prefer email? Send your website through the form and the Passieon Team will reply within two working days.