On-page SEO
URL Slug
What is URL Slug?
A URL slug is the part of a URL that identifies a specific page in a readable form, usually the last segment after the domain and any folders. In example.com/blog/how-to-brew-cold-brew, the slug is "how-to-brew-cold-brew".
Good slugs are short, descriptive, lowercase and use hyphens to separate words. Google recommends hyphens rather than underscores, and advises against long strings of parameters or IDs where a readable path is possible. Dates and stop words are usually unnecessary.
Why it matters for SEO
A clear slug helps users understand a link before clicking and can appear in search results as part of the breadcrumb-style URL. Keywords in the URL are only a very light signal, so the bigger benefit is clarity and stability. Changing slugs on established pages without 301 redirects breaks links and loses accumulated signals.
Example
A CMS auto-generates example.com/p?id=4812&cat=7 for a recipe. The editor changes it to example.com/recipes/vegan-banana-bread before publishing. Months later a writer wants to add "easy" to the slug, but because the page already has backlinks, they leave the URL unchanged rather than create a redirect for a trivial gain.
Free tools for URL Slug
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