URL Slug Generator

URL Slug Generator - Create SEO-Friendly URLs

A powerful URL slug generator that converts any text into clean, SEO-friendly URL slugs. Perfect for creating permalinks, web-safe URLs, and file names. Customize separators, case formatting, and character filtering options to match your specific needs.

What is a URL slug?

A URL slug is the part of a URL that identifies a specific page in a human-readable, SEO-friendly format. For example, in 'example.com/blog/my-first-post', the slug is 'my-first-post'.

Good slugs are:
- Lowercase and URL-safe (no special characters)
- Use hyphens (-) to separate words
- Short, descriptive, and readable
- Contain relevant keywords for SEO
- Free of spaces and special characters

Slugs improve both user experience and search engine optimization by creating clean, memorable URLs that describe the page content.

How do I use this URL Slug Generator?

Using the slug generator is simple:

1. Enter your text in the input field (titles, phrases, or any text)
2. Choose your preferred separator: hyphen (-), underscore (_), space, or none
3. Select case option: lowercase (recommended) or keep original
4. Enable strict mode to remove all special characters
5. Click 'Generate Slug' to create your URL-friendly slug
6. Copy the generated slug to use in your URLs

The tool automatically handles:
- Converting spaces to separators
- Removing special characters and accents
- Converting to URL-safe format
- Trimming extra whitespace
- Creating clean, readable slugs

What are the best practices for URL slugs?

Follow these best practices for optimal URL slugs:

1. Keep it Short: 3-5 words maximum
2. Use Hyphens: Separate words with hyphens, not underscores
3. Lowercase Only: Always use lowercase letters
4. Include Keywords: Use relevant keywords for SEO
5. Be Descriptive: Make it clear what the page is about
6. Avoid Stop Words: Remove 'a', 'the', 'and', etc.
7. No Special Characters: Only letters, numbers, and hyphens
8. No Date/Numbers (unless necessary): Focus on content

Good examples:
- 'best-chocolate-cake-recipe'
- 'how-to-learn-javascript'
- 'summer-vacation-tips'

Bad examples:
- 'post123' (not descriptive)
- 'The_Best_Chocolate_Cake!' (wrong case, characters)
- 'how-to-learn-to-code-javascript-in-2024-for-beginners' (too long)

Why is lowercase recommended for slugs?

Lowercase slugs are recommended for several important reasons:

1. Consistency: URLs are case-sensitive on some servers. 'Page' and 'page' could be treated as different URLs, causing duplicate content issues.

2. User-Friendly: Lowercase URLs are easier to type and remember. Users don't need to remember which letters are capitalized.

3. SEO Best Practice: Google treats uppercase and lowercase URLs as different pages, which can hurt SEO by splitting page authority.

4. Avoid Errors: Prevents 404 errors from case mismatches when users type URLs manually.

5. Professional Appearance: Lowercase URLs look cleaner and more professional in most contexts.

6. Platform Compatibility: Some platforms and CMSs automatically convert to lowercase, so starting with lowercase avoids issues.

What is strict mode?

Strict mode is a filtering option that removes all characters except:
- Letters (a-z, A-Z)
- Numbers (0-9)
- Your chosen separator (hyphen, underscore, etc.)

With strict mode enabled:
- All accents and special characters are removed
- Symbols like @, #, $, %, etc. are stripped
- Only alphanumeric characters and separators remain
- Creates the cleanest, most URL-safe slugs

With strict mode disabled:
- Some special characters may be preserved
- Accented characters might be transliterated (é → e)
- More flexible but potentially less URL-safe

For maximum compatibility and SEO, enable strict mode. For preserving some character information, disable it.

How does batch mode handle duplicate slugs?

Batch mode converts each line of your input into its own slug, then guarantees every slug is unique - the same behavior WordPress (wp_unique_post_slug) and Django (slugify + uniqueness check) use.

How collision suffixes work:
- The first time a slug appears, it is used as-is (e.g. 'hello-world')
- The second identical slug becomes 'hello-world-2'
- The third becomes 'hello-world-3', and so on
- The suffix uses your chosen separator; if you picked 'None', a hyphen is used so duplicates stay readable

This matters for CMS migrations, bulk permalink generation, and seeding databases: duplicate slugs cause route collisions and 404s, so the tool returns a ready-to-use, de-duplicated list. Empty lines are skipped, and lines that reduce to an empty slug (only symbols) are dropped. The toast tells you how many slugs were generated and how many duplicates were renamed.

How are non-Latin scripts handled, and is there a max slug length?

The slugify engine transliterates a wide range of Latin-based accented characters (é → e, ü → u, ñ → n, ç → c) and many common symbols (& → and). With strict mode on, anything it cannot map to ASCII is removed.

Transliteration limits:
- Latin-script accents transliterate reliably
- Non-Latin scripts (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Cyrillic, Thai) are NOT romanized - those characters are stripped in strict mode, which can leave an empty slug. For those languages, supply a romanized/pinyin title or a manual slug instead.

Length and platform limits to keep in mind:
- SEO best practice: keep slugs under ~60 characters / 3-5 words
- WordPress stores post slugs up to 200 characters
- Django's SlugField defaults to max_length=50
- Database/byte limits: ASCII slugs are 1 byte per character, so character count equals byte count - safe for URL path segments (browsers cap URLs near 2000 chars)

Reserved characters differ per platform: WordPress and Django sanitize to letters, numbers and the separator; Shopify also lowercases and strips most punctuation. Strict mode produces output compatible with all three.

Can I use underscores instead of hyphens?

Yes, you can use underscores, but hyphens are generally recommended:

Hyphens (-) are preferred because:
- Google treats hyphens as word separators
- More readable in URLs
- Standard practice for web URLs
- Better for SEO
- Example: 'best-chocolate-cake' is clearly three words

Underscores (_) have uses:
- Common in programming and file names
- Some platforms prefer them
- Google now treats underscores as separators (updated policy)
- Example: 'best_chocolate_cake'

Best practice:
- Web URLs: Use hyphens
- File names: Either works
- Database slugs: Match your system's convention
- Be consistent within your project

This tool lets you choose based on your specific needs.

Is this tool safe and private?

Yes, completely safe and private:

- All processing happens in your browser
- No data is sent to any server
- We don't store, log, or track your text
- Works offline after page load
- No registration or account needed
- Open-source client-side processing
- No analytics on your data

You can verify privacy by checking your browser's network tab - no requests are made when generating slugs. Your text never leaves your device.

Key Features

• Convert any text to URL-friendly slugs
• Multiple separator options: hyphen, underscore, space, or none
• Lowercase or preserve original case
• Strict mode for maximum URL safety
• Automatic special character removal
• Trim whitespace and clean formatting
• Copy slug to clipboard with one click
• Real-time slug generation
• SEO-friendly slug formatting
• Perfect for blog posts, products, and pages
• Dark mode support
• 100% client-side processing - data never leaves your browser
• Works offline after initial load
• No registration required
• Mobile-friendly responsive design