The URL of a page is one of the first things both people and search engines see. A clean URL like yoursite.pk/best-budget-laptops looks trustworthy and tells everyone what the page is about. A messy one like yoursite.pk/index.php with a long string of numbers looks broken and is hard to share. When I helped a news blog in Multan move from numbered URLs to readable slugs, their links started getting shared far more on WhatsApp groups, simply because people could tell what each link was about.
What a slug is
The slug is the last part of a URL that identifies a specific page. In yoursite.com/blog/how-to-build-a-pc, the slug is how-to-build-a-pc. Most website platforms create it automatically from your title, but the automatic version is often too long or full of small words.
What our slug generator does
The URL Slug Generator instantly converts your text into a clean slug:
- Lowercase letters only
- Hyphens between words
- Special characters and symbols removed
- Accented letters converted to plain letters
- Optional removal of stop words such as a, the, and, of and in
- Live results as you type, with a copy button
How to use it
- Open the URL Slug Generator.
- Paste your page title, such as 10 Best SEO Tools in 2026 for Small Businesses.
- Choose whether to remove stop words.
- Copy the slug and paste it into the URL or permalink field in your CMS.
Rules for great slugs
- Keep it short. Three to five words is ideal.
- Include the main keyword. It helps relevance and makes the link descriptive.
- Use hyphens, not underscores. Google treats hyphens as word separators.
- Avoid dates and years unless the page is truly about a specific year. A slug without a year can be updated each year without changing the URL.
- Avoid numbers that may change. A slug like 10-best-tools becomes wrong when you add an eleventh tool.
- Use lowercase only to prevent duplicate URL problems.
Examples
- Title: 10 Best SEO Tools in 2026 for Small Businesses. Good slug: best-seo-tools-small-business
- Title: How to Apply for a Passport in Pakistan Online. Good slug: apply-passport-pakistan-online
- Title: Lahore to Islamabad Motorway Toll Rates. Good slug: lahore-islamabad-motorway-toll
Changing existing slugs
Be careful when changing the slug of a page that already ranks or has links. If you change it, set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. Then check the redirect with our URL Redirect Checker. Without a redirect, visitors and Google will land on a 404 error page and you can lose rankings.
Urdu and other languages
You can use Urdu script in URLs, but browsers encode it into long strings of percent signs and codes when shared, which look messy. Most Pakistani sites use English or Roman Urdu words in slugs for this reason, even when the page content is in Urdu. If you need to read or create encoded URLs, use the URL Encoder Decoder.
A real example
A recipe site in Lahore had URLs like recipe-post-2026-05-14-chicken-karahi-recipe-easy-desi-style-at-home. We shortened new slugs to patterns like chicken-karahi-recipe and redirected only the most popular old posts. The cleaner URLs looked better in search results and social shares, and the site's internal linking became much easier to manage.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Keyword stuffing, like best-cheap-laptop-cheap-laptops-pakistan-laptop.
- Leaving the default post 123 or page id structure.
- Changing slugs often without redirects.
- Using spaces or capital letters, which can create broken or duplicate links.
Frequently asked questions
Does the slug affect rankings
It is a small factor, but a clear slug helps users and search engines understand the page and can improve clicks.
Should I remove stop words
Usually yes for shorter slugs, unless removing them changes the meaning.
How long should a slug be
Short enough to read at a glance, usually under 60 characters.
Create your next slug with the free URL Slug Generator.