URL Slug
A URL slug is the part of a web address that identifies a specific page, the readable text after the domain. A clean, descriptive slug helps both readers and search engines understand what a page is about.
A URL slug is the part of a web address that identifies a particular page, the human-readable bit that comes after your domain name. In the address example.com/best-running-shoes, the slug is best-running-shoes. It is the page's name within your site, and while it is a small detail, it is one you fully control and one that quietly does real work. A clear slug tells a reader, before they even click, what the page is about. It tells a search engine the same thing. And it shows up in the search results, in shared links, and in the browser bar, so it is a tiny piece of real estate that gets seen far more often than people assume.
A slug is a label you stamp on a page's address. A clear one tells a reader and a search engine what they will find before they even click. A messy one wastes the chance.
What makes a good slug
Good slugs follow a handful of simple rules, and none of them require any technical skill. The whole goal is to be clear, readable, and stable, so a reader can practically guess what the page contains from the URL alone.
- Keep it short and descriptive: convey the topic in as few words as possible, no filler.
- Use your target keyword: include the main phrase the page is about, naturally.
- Separate words with hyphens: hyphens are the standard word separator that search engines read cleanly.
- Use lowercase only: mixed case can cause duplicate-URL headaches on some servers.
- Drop stop words and dates when they add nothing: skip the, a, and, and avoid baking a year into an evergreen page's slug.
targetWhy you should not change slugs casually
Here is a rule that saves a lot of pain: once a page is live and has any traffic, links, or rankings, do not change its slug without a very good reason. Changing a slug changes the URL, which breaks every existing link to that page and can wipe out the ranking it built up. If you absolutely must change it, you have to set up a proper redirect from the old URL to the new one so you do not lose the equity. The best move is to get the slug right at publication and leave it alone. A clean slug you keep beats a perfect slug you constantly rewrite.
Slugs are part of the larger craft of putting a page together well, alongside your title, headings, and the words on the page itself. A descriptive slug reinforces the same relevance signal your title and content already send, giving a search engine one more consistent clue about the topic. It is a small lever, but small levers compound, and getting the easy ones right is just good discipline. This fits into the broader picture of writing pages that read clearly and rank, which I dig into in my guide on content writing.
Example
Compare two URLs for the same article on choosing a standing desk. The messy version is example.com/p?id=8842&cat=12, which tells a human nothing and a search engine almost as little. The clean version is example.com/how-to-choose-a-standing-desk, which a reader can understand at a glance, which reinforces the keyword, and which looks trustworthy in a search result or a shared link. Same page, same content, but one URL works for you and the other just sits there as a meaningless string of characters.
Readable before clever
If a person could read your slug aloud and roughly guess what the page is about, you wrote it well. If it is a string of numbers, codes, or random words, you threw away a small but free signal.
lightbulbPRO TIP
Set your slug deliberately before you publish, because that is the cheapest moment to get it right. Decide on the short, keyword-friendly version up front, and resist the urge to rewrite it later. Changing a live slug means setting up redirects and risking rankings, all to fix something you could have nailed in five seconds at the start.
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