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Slug Generator

Convert any text to a clean, SEO-friendly URL slug — handles special characters, accents, and spaces.

Last updated: March 25, 2026

Client-Side Processing
Input Data Stays on Device
Instant Local Execution

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What is Slug Generator?

A URL slug is the human-readable, SEO-optimized part of a URL that identifies a specific page. In the URL https://example.com/blog/how-to-optimize-images, the slug is how-to-optimize-images. A well-formed slug is all lowercase, uses hyphens (not underscores or spaces) as word separators, contains no special characters, and directly reflects the page's topic.

Search engines like Google read slugs as ranking signals — a descriptive, keyword-rich slug tells Google exactly what a page is about and can improve rankings compared to meaningless IDs like /post?id=2847. This tool instantly converts any text — even strings with accented characters (é → e), Japanese, or Arabic — into a clean, standards-compliant URL slug.

How to Use Slug Generator

1

Paste your text (e.g., blog post title) into the input field — the slug generates in real time

2

Review the output and optionally toggle options: keep/remove numbers, custom separator character

3

Check the character count — slugs under 60 characters are recommended for readability

4

Click "Copy" to copy the generated slug to your clipboard

5

Paste the slug directly into your CMS (WordPress, Shopify, Contentful, etc.) permalink field

Common Use Cases

  • Generating clean, keyword-rich URLs for blog posts and articles
  • Creating product page slugs for e-commerce sites (Shopify, WooCommerce)
  • Generating page permalinks for CMS-managed sites (WordPress, Contentful, Sanity)
  • Creating URL-safe identifiers for API resources (e.g. /products/blue-running-shoes)
  • Normalizing user-submitted titles into URL-safe strings in web applications
  • Generating consistent folder and file names for documentation sites (Docusaurus, GitBook)
  • Creating consistent category and tag slugs across localized content
  • Converting title strings in automated content pipelines and scripts

Example Input and Output

From a typical blog post title to a clean, SEO-optimized URL slug:

Original title text
10 Ways to Optimize Your Website's Speed (2024 Guide!) — Résumé & Tips
Generated URL slug
10-ways-to-optimize-your-websites-speed-2024-guide-resume-tips

Client-Side Processing

All slug generation happens in your browser — no text is sent to our servers. The conversions run instantly using JavaScript string transformations.

Slug Best Practices

Include your primary keyword early in the slug. Remove unnecessary words (the, a, of). Aim for 3–5 meaningful words. Example: "best-image-compressor-tools" not "the-10-best-online-image-compressor-tools-of-2024-guide".

CMS Auto-Generation

WordPress, Shopify, and most modern CMS platforms auto-generate slugs from post titles. However, they often include stop words and don't handle accented characters well. Always manually review and clean auto-generated slugs before publishing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why use hyphens instead of underscores in slugs?
Google's John Mueller has explicitly stated that hyphens are treated as word separators (like spaces), while underscores merge words together. "seo_tips" is read as "seotips" (one word) while "seo-tips" is read as "seo tips" (two words). Always use hyphens for maximum SEO benefit.
How long should a URL slug be?
Keep slugs as short as possible while still being descriptive. Most SEO experts recommend 3–5 words (30–60 characters). Include your primary keyword. Remove stop words (the, a, an, of, for) that add length without adding search value.
Should I include the year in my slug (e.g. -2024)?
Only if the content genuinely needs to be dated (e.g., annual reports, "Best tools of 2024" lists). For evergreen content, avoid the year — it forces you to change the URL (and lose backlinks) when content is updated, or makes the page look outdated to searchers.
What happens to accented characters (é, ü, ñ, etc.)?
They are transliterated to their closest ASCII equivalent. é → e, ü → u, ñ → n, ç → c. "Résumé" becomes "resume". This ensures slugs work correctly across all browsers and servers without URL encoding artifacts like %C3%A9.
Can I change an existing URL slug without hurting SEO?
Yes, but you must implement a 301 (permanent) redirect from the old URL to the new one. Without a redirect, all existing backlinks and Google rankings are lost. Most CMS platforms (WordPress, Shopify) offer built-in redirect management. Never change a slug without setting up the redirect first.
Should URL slugs be case-sensitive?
Always use lowercase slugs. Servers are case-sensitive by default — /Blog/My-Post and /blog/my-post can be treated as different pages, causing duplicate content issues. Lowercase ensures consistency and prevents accidental content duplication.

How This Tool Works

The input string is processed through a pipeline of transformations: (1) Unicode normalization (NFD) decomposes accented characters (é → e + combining acute), (2) non-ASCII characters are stripped, (3) the string is lowercased, (4) special characters and punctuation are replaced with hyphens, (5) multiple consecutive hyphens are collapsed to a single hyphen, (6) leading and trailing hyphens are trimmed. The result is a standards-compliant slug compatible with all web servers and browsers.

Technical Stack

Browser-native JavaScriptUnicode NFD normalizationRegex-based character transformationClient-side only

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