Text guide

How to generate a URL slug

A URL slug is the readable path segment that identifies a page, such as how-to-generate-a-slug. Good slugs are short, stable, and easy to type.

Open the Slug Generator tool

Build the slug from the page topic

Start with a concise page title. Convert letters to lowercase, replace spaces with a consistent separator, remove unsupported punctuation, and collapse repeated separators.

Example

Café Menu: Spring 2026!

A normalized slug might be cafe-menu-spring-2026. Accent handling depends on the chosen normalization rules.

How to generate a slug

  1. Paste a title or phrase into the ToolPixels Slug Generator.
  2. Choose a hyphen or another supported separator.
  3. Select the normalization options appropriate for your system.
  4. Generate and inspect the result for meaning and collisions.
  5. Copy the slug into the URL path.

Keep slugs readable and stable

Use words that identify the content. Remove filler only when meaning remains clear. Avoid dates unless the date is an enduring part of the topic, and do not add words such as “free” solely for search engines.

Once a URL is public, changing its slug breaks bookmarks and inbound links unless the old URL redirects to the new one. Treat the slug as a stable identifier, not a headline that must change whenever the page title changes.

Normalization and uniqueness

Accented and non-Latin characters can be preserved in modern URLs or transliterated to ASCII, depending on platform requirements. Neither choice guarantees uniqueness. Different titles can normalize to the same slug after punctuation and accents are removed.

  • Check for an existing page with the same path.
  • Avoid reserved path names used by the application.
  • Keep separators consistent across the site.
  • Do not include private IDs or sensitive data.

Common questions

Hyphens or underscores?

Hyphens are the common choice for readable web paths. Follow the established convention of the site or application.

Should a slug include every title word?

No. It should retain the distinctive topic while staying concise. Do not shorten it so far that several pages become indistinguishable.

Generate a slug