ToolBox.Online

URL Slug Generator — Create SEO-Friendly Slugs Online [2026]

Convert any text into a clean, SEO-friendly URL slug. Choose separator (hyphen or underscore), force lowercase, and strip special characters. Copy the result instantly. Free browser-based tool.

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What is URL Slug Generator?

A URL slug is the part of a web address that comes after the domain name and identifies a specific page in a human-readable format. For example, in "example.com/my-blog-post", the slug is "my-blog-post". Good URL slugs are important for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) because search engines use them to understand page content. A well-crafted slug contains relevant keywords, uses hyphens to separate words, is lowercase, and avoids special characters, numbers, and filler words. This tool converts any text — article titles, product names, page headings — into a clean, URL-friendly slug. It handles Unicode characters, removes special characters, collapses whitespace, and applies your preferred formatting rules automatically.

How to Use URL Slug Generator

Type or paste any text — such as a blog post title, product name, or page heading — into the input field. The URL-friendly slug appears instantly in the output. Use the options to customize the output: choose between hyphens or underscores as the separator, toggle lowercase conversion on or off, and enable or disable special character removal. The character count and word count of both the original text and the generated slug are displayed. Click the copy button to copy the slug to your clipboard.

How URL Slug Generator Works

The slug generator applies a series of text transformations: 1. **Normalize Unicode:** Decomposes accented characters (é → e, ñ → n) using Unicode NFD normalization, then strips combining marks. 2. **Lowercase:** Converts the entire string to lowercase (optional, enabled by default). 3. **Remove special characters:** Strips everything that is not a letter, number, space, or the chosen separator. 4. **Replace spaces:** Converts spaces (and consecutive spaces) to the chosen separator character (hyphen or underscore). 5. **Trim separators:** Removes leading and trailing separators, and collapses multiple consecutive separators into one. The result is a clean, URL-safe string that is easy to read, type, and share.

Common Use Cases

  • Creating SEO-friendly URLs for blog posts and articles
  • Generating clean slugs for e-commerce product pages
  • Building URL-friendly identifiers for CMS content entries
  • Converting page titles to slugs for static site generators (Hugo, Jekyll, Next.js)
  • Standardizing URL patterns for REST API endpoint design
  • Cleaning up file names to be web-safe for download links

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a URL slug?▼

A URL slug is the human-readable portion of a URL that identifies a page. In "example.com/best-coffee-shops", the slug is "best-coffee-shops". Good slugs use lowercase letters, hyphens between words, and include relevant keywords for SEO.

Should I use hyphens or underscores in URL slugs?▼

Google recommends hyphens (-) over underscores (_) in URLs. Google treats hyphens as word separators, meaning "best-coffee" is read as "best" and "coffee". Underscores are not treated as separators, so "best_coffee" is read as one word "bestcoffee". Use hyphens for better SEO.

How does a good slug improve SEO?▼

A well-crafted slug helps SEO in several ways: (1) it includes target keywords that search engines use for ranking, (2) it provides a clear signal about page content, (3) it creates clean, shareable URLs that improve click-through rates, and (4) it avoids URL parameters and IDs that search engines may treat as duplicate content.

Does this tool handle accented characters?▼

Yes. The tool normalizes Unicode characters by decomposing accented letters into their base form. For example, "café" becomes "cafe", "naïve" becomes "naive", and "über" becomes "uber". This ensures broad URL compatibility across all browsers and systems.

What characters are removed from slugs?▼

By default, the tool removes all characters that are not alphanumeric (a-z, 0-9) or the chosen separator (hyphen or underscore). This includes punctuation (!@#$%^&*), brackets, quotes, and other special characters. Spaces are converted to the separator character.

Is there a maximum length for URL slugs?▼

There is no strict maximum, but SEO best practice is to keep slugs under 60-70 characters. Shorter slugs are easier to read, share, and display in search results. This tool shows the character count so you can keep your slugs concise.

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