Slug Generator

About this Slug Generator

The Slug Generator converts human-readable text into a simple URL-friendly slug by lowercasing it, removing unsupported punctuation and replacing spacing with hyphens. It is useful for page URLs, filenames and content planning.

A URL slug should be short, lowercase, and use hyphens instead of spaces or special characters, both for consistency across a website and because search engines and browsers handle clean slugs more reliably.

For related tasks, try Meta Tag Generator, Case Converter or Find & Replace Text.

How the calculation works

The tool normalizes accented Latin characters when possible, removes remaining unsupported symbols, converts runs of non-alphanumeric characters to single hyphens and trims hyphens from the ends.

How to use it

1. Enter a title or phrase.
2. Select Generate slug.
3. Copy the resulting lowercase hyphenated slug.

Practical example

“Best Online Tools 2026” becomes “best-online-tools-2026”.

The title 10 Best Budgeting Apps for 2024! converts to the slug 10-best-budgeting-apps-for-2024, removing the exclamation point, converting to lowercase, and replacing spaces with hyphens.

Things to double-check

Once a page's slug has been published and indexed by search engines, changing it later can break existing links and temporarily hurt that page's search ranking unless a proper redirect is set up, so it's worth getting a slug right before a page goes live.

What a good slug looks like

A slug is the readable part of a web address. The generator turns a title such as 10 Best Online Tools! into 10-best-online-tools by making it lowercase, removing punctuation and replacing spaces with hyphens. Good slugs are short, descriptive and easy to read aloud. Three to five words is a common target, and shorter slugs are easier to share and less likely to be cut off in search results.

Hyphens, not underscores

Search engines treat hyphens as word separators and underscores as joiners, so best-tools is read as two words while best_tools may be read as one. Avoid spaces, capital letters, accents and special characters, which turn into percent codes in addresses. Remove filler words such as a, the and of when they do not change the meaning, but keep enough words to make the topic clear.

Do not change slugs casually

Once a page is published and indexed, its address becomes part of its identity. Changing the slug breaks existing links and can lose search ranking unless you set up a permanent 301 redirect from the old address to the new one. Choose the slug carefully before you publish, and keep it stable. Avoid putting dates or years in slugs for content that you plan to update.

Non-English titles

The generator works best with English letters and numbers. Titles in other scripts, such as Urdu or Arabic, can be used in addresses, but browsers display them readably while sending them as long percent-encoded strings, which are awkward to share. Many sites use a short English transliteration for the slug and keep the original script in the page title. Check that each slug is unique on your site.

Slug patterns for a site

Choose a clear pattern for your site and keep it. For tool pages, the slug can be the name of the tool, such as loan-emi-calculator, which is short and descriptive. A slug such as loan-emi-calculator-online-free-2026 is longer and ties the page to a year, which will look out of date. Keep slugs lowercase, use hyphens, avoid stop words when they add nothing and keep them unique. Before you rename an existing slug, plan a redirect from the old address so that links and rankings are not lost.

Worked examples

The title How to Convert Tola to Grams? becomes how-to-convert-tola-to-grams, with the question mark removed. A title with an accent, such as Cafe Menu with an acute accent on the final letter of Cafe, becomes cafe-menu once the accent is simplified. Numbers are kept, so 7 Tips for Saving Money becomes 7-tips-for-saving-money. Symbols such as the ampersand are usually dropped or replaced, so check how a title such as Q and A turns out. Read the final slug aloud to make sure it is clear.

Worked examples

The title 10 Best Free Online Calculators in 2026! becomes 10-best-free-online-calculators-in-2026, which is fine but long, and a shorter choice such as best-free-online-calculators avoids tying the address to a year. The title Zakat on Gold and Silver: What You Owe becomes zakat-on-gold-and-silver-what-you-owe, and after trimming the filler words you might keep zakat-on-gold-and-silver. A title with accents, such as Creme Brulee with accents on the e and u, becomes creme-brulee. Read each slug aloud and ask whether a visitor would understand the page from the address.

Slugs and search

A clear slug gives search engines and readers a hint about the page. Use the main topic words, keep the address short, and avoid dates unless the page is really about a specific year. Use lowercase letters and hyphens and avoid underscores, spaces and special characters. Keep one slug per page, and avoid duplicates that point to the same content. The slug is only a small part of ranking, so quality of content matters far more, but a good slug makes links look trustworthy and easy to remember.

Changing a slug safely

If a page is already published and indexed, its address is part of its identity. Changing it breaks links from other sites and from your own pages, and the page can lose rankings. If you must change it, set up a permanent 301 redirect from the old address to the new one, update internal links and the sitemap, and submit the new address in Search Console. On this site, the slugs of existing tool pages are kept fixed for this reason. For new pages, choose the slug carefully before you publish.

Other scripts, length and uniqueness

The generator works best for English letters and digits. Titles in Urdu, Arabic or other scripts can be used in addresses, but browsers turn them into long percent-encoded strings when copied, so many sites use a short English transliteration instead. Content management systems add a number when two pages would get the same slug, so choose different words instead of relying on this. Aim for under about 60 characters, and remember that some systems treat the path as case-sensitive, so keep it lowercase.

Key terms explained

A slug is the part of a web address that names a page. A permalink is the permanent address of a page. A redirect sends visitors from an old address to a new one, and a 301 redirect is permanent. A canonical address is the preferred version of a page. Transliteration writes words from one script in the letters of another. A stop word is a very common word, such as the or of, that is often left out of slugs. A path is the part of an address after the domain.

Rules of thumb and quick checks

Use lowercase letters, digits and hyphens, and keep the slug to three to six words. Leave out dates and filler words when they do not matter. Make each slug unique on the site. Do not change the slug of a published page without a 301 redirect, updated internal links and a new sitemap entry. Read the slug aloud, and test the link after you publish it.

Quick reference and sanity checks

A good slug is short, readable and stable. It uses lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens, drops punctuation and replaces accented letters with plain ones, so a title such as Café Menu: Spring 2026 becomes cafe-menu-spring-2026. Keep only the words that describe the page and remove filler such as a, the and of when the meaning stays clear. Avoid changing the slug after a page is published, because the old address stops working and visitors, links and search results can be lost. If you must change it, set up a permanent redirect from the old address to the new one and update your internal links.

Frequently asked questions