Should a slug use hyphens or underscores?

Hyphens. Search engines read a hyphen as a word break and an underscore as a joiner, so my_page reads as one token while my-page reads as two.

How long should a URL slug be?

Three to six meaningful words is a practical target. There is no penalty for a longer slug, but it truncates in results and is harder to cite.

Should the slug match the title exactly?

It should reflect the topic, not necessarily the wording. Titles often carry qualifiers and brand names that add no value in the URL.

What happens if I change a slug without a redirect?

The old URL returns 404. Existing links, bookmarks and accumulated ranking signals point at a dead page. A 301 from old to new preserves both the visitor and the signals.

Guides

URL slug best practices for content teams

How to structure readable URLs, when to change one, and what to do about the redirects nobody remembers to add.

By Remi Okafor, Editor, Toolspea · Published 2026-06-20 · Updated 2026-08-05 · 5 min read

What a slug is for

The slug is the human-readable part of a URL. It is visible in search results, in shared links, and in citations. A URL that describes the page earns trust before the page loads; a URL ending in ?p=4821 tells the reader nothing.

Formatting rules that matter

Most slug problems come from four habits:

Use hyphens, not underscores — search engines treat hyphens as word separators.
Lowercase everything; some servers treat cases as different URLs, creating duplicates.
Fold accents to ASCII so the URL survives copying between systems.
Keep it to three to six words. Long slugs get truncated in results and are awkward to share.

Do not put dates in the slug

A dated slug tells the reader the piece is old even after you have updated it, and it prevents the URL being reused when the content is refreshed. Publish the date as visible metadata instead, where it can change honestly when the article does.

Changing a published slug

Treat a live URL as a commitment. When you must change it — a rebrand, a genuinely wrong slug, a restructure — create the 301 redirect in the same change, not later. Then update internal links to point at the new URL directly, so readers and crawlers do not travel through a redirect on every visit.

Frequently asked questions

Tools mentioned

URL Slug Generator — Turn any headline into a clean, lowercase, hyphenated URL slug.
Case Converter — Switch text between sentence, title, upper, lower, camel and snake case.
Meta Tag Generator — Produce title, description, Open Graph and Twitter tags for any page.

Keep reading

Everything referenced in this article, plus the hubs and guides that go with it.

URL Slug GeneratorToolTurn any headline into a clean, lowercase, hyphenated URL slug.Case ConverterToolSwitch text between sentence, title, upper, lower, camel and snake case.Meta Tag GeneratorToolProduce title, description, Open Graph and Twitter tags for any page.Text toolsCategory5 browser-based text tools that never upload your files.SEO toolsCategory4 browser-based seo tools that never upload your files.How to compress images without visibly losing qualityGuideA practical method for cutting image weight by 80–95% using format choice, sensible dimensions and a quality setting you can defend.Title tags and meta descriptions: what still mattersGuideLength limits, rewriting behaviour and a repeatable way to write snippets that survive truncation and earn the click.Using the toolsFAQInput limits, supported formats, browser requirements and what to do when a tool behaves unexpectedly.