Slug Generator
Convert titles and phrases into clean, URL-friendly slugs. Removes special characters, replaces spaces with hyphens, and normalizes Unicode for maximum URL compatibility.
Google treats hyphens as word separators in URLs, confirmed in Google Search Central documentation, while underscores join words into a single compound token. /blue-widget ranks for both "blue" and "widget" individually. /blue_widget does not. This slug generator converts any text into a properly formatted URL slug in real time, using Unicode NFD decomposition to handle accented characters. Paste a headline and copy the result; nothing is sent to a server.
How to Generate a Slug
- Type or paste your title or phrase into the input field.
- The slug is generated in real time as you type.
- Adjust the separator option if your platform uses underscores instead of hyphens.
- Click Copy to copy the slug to your clipboard.
How Slugs Are Generated
The Normalization Process
Slug generation follows a fixed sequence: (1) Unicode NFD normalization separates base characters from diacritical marks — é (U+00E9) decomposes into e (U+0065) plus a combining acute accent (U+0301); (2) combining diacritics are stripped, leaving just the base characters; (3) the text is lowercased; (4) characters that are not letters, numbers, spaces, or hyphens are removed; (5) spaces and consecutive hyphens are replaced with a single hyphen; (6) leading and trailing hyphens are removed. The result contains only a-z, 0-9, and -.
Why Hyphens, Not Underscores
Google's John Mueller confirmed in multiple Google Search Central videos that hyphens are word separators in URLs while underscores join words. /best-running-shoes ranks for "best", "running", and "shoes" individually and in combination. /best_running_shoes is treated as a single compound token. For SEO, hyphens are always preferred. The only exception is an existing platform convention using underscores — changing that would break existing URLs.
Example
Input
Hello World! Ãœber Cool "Quotes" & Symbols @2024Output
hello-world-uber-cool-quotes-symbols-2024The quotes, ampersand, and @ are removed. The umlaut ü normalizes to u via NFD. Spaces become hyphens. Consecutive hyphens collapse to one.
SEO Impact of URL Slugs
- Keyword inclusion — Slugs containing target keywords provide a small direct ranking signal and improve click-through rate in search results
- Stability — A slug changed after indexing requires a 301 redirect; without one, link equity from inbound links is lost
- Length — Keep slugs under 5 words; remove stop words (a, the, and, of) unless they are part of the exact target keyword
- Readability — Short, descriptive slugs perform better in social sharing and link previews
Common Mistakes
- Changing slugs after indexing — Set the slug at publication time; changing it later requires a 301 redirect to preserve rankings
- Leaving stop words in — Remove "a", "the", "in", "of", "and" unless part of the exact target keyword phrase
- Slugs over 60 characters — Longer slugs are truncated in search result URLs and appear untidy
The Text Case Converter in kebab-case mode produces similar output for simple ASCII text. The Word Counter checks title length before slugifying. For URL-encoding slugs that still contain special characters, use the URL Encoder.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a URL slug?
A URL slug is the human-readable, URL-safe portion of a web address that identifies a specific page. In example.com/blog/how-to-write-a-slug, the slug is how-to-write-a-slug. Slugs should be lowercase, use hyphens as word separators, and contain only letters, numbers, and hyphens.
Should I use hyphens or underscores in URL slugs?
Hyphens. Google treats hyphens as word separators and underscores as connectors, meaning blue-widget is indexed as two words while blue_widget is one compound word. This is confirmed in Google Search Central documentation and stated consistently by Google engineers. Always use hyphens for SEO benefit.
How are non-English characters like é, ü, and ñ handled?
The generator applies Unicode NFD (Canonical Decomposition) normalization, separating each accented character into its base letter plus a combining diacritic mark. The diacritic is then removed: é → e, ü → u, ñ → n, ç → c. This produces clean ASCII slugs from European language text.
Can I generate slugs for Chinese, Arabic, or Japanese text?
Characters from non-Latin scripts have no ASCII equivalents and are removed by the normalization process, resulting in an empty or truncated slug. For these languages, a transliteration step is needed first — Pinyin for Chinese, Romaji for Japanese, ALA-LC for Arabic. Run the transliteration result through this slug generator.
Does slug length affect SEO rankings?
Slug length is not a direct ranking factor, but shorter slugs are better for readability and click-through rate. Best practice: keep slugs under 5 words, remove stop words, and ensure the slug describes the page content. Google truncates displayed URLs in search results at roughly 60-70 characters.