What Is a Slug? URL Slugs and Why They Matter for SEO

What Is a URL Slug?

The last part of the address of the URL which serves as a unique identifier of the page is known as the URL slug.

“rateWhat-is-a-URL-slug” is the URL’s slug.

Why Is a URL Slug Important for SEO?

A great place to incorpo the target (primary) keywords of a page is known as A URL slug.

John Mueller who is Google Search Advocate has confirmed that words in the URL are factors of ranking.

It is a “very very lightweight” one he also emphasized thta, and it helps primarily to asses the page before Google accesses it.

Mueller also said in one his tweet:

Following:

We should not overestimate its effects on rankings overestimate even if we have keywords in the URL.

Nevertheless, it makes still sense to use the target keywords in the URL of the page slug.
Mainly the UX (User Experience )point of view, which is closely connected to SEO.

Let’s look at these 2 examples:

1. https://website.com/blog/82354
2. https://website.com/blog/rock-climbing

The latter is just a chain of numbers that ddon’tprovide any added value, while the first example provides clear information about the content of the post.

They are much more likely to click the first one if someone only saw these 2 URL addresses. (Not including the content which is actually on the page either).

This URL slug should supply a description that is concise to the page. It is an amazing way to do this to use the target keyword as it happens.

URL Slug Best Practices

Let now talk about some tips and practices on the topic of how to create good URL slugs.

Be Descriptive

As we already talked about above, the main role of URL slugs is to URLs more user-friendly. For that reason, they allow report page content.

1. Bad URL slug:/2527
2. Google URL slug:/best-air-purifier

To achieve this target keywords are a great way. But Why? Since it is normally a correct, yet very short, description of what the page is all about.

This conducts us to the next step…

Make It Concise and Easy to Read

Good URL characters are it should be not too long. Harder to read and Remember Long URLs. Try to use less or more than 5 words in your slug.

(1). Bad URL slug:/ the-best-abs-exercises-for-all-levels-of-gym-goer

(2). Good URL slug: /abs-exercises

Besides the very long URL, it gets deceived in SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).
Although it is not a disaster of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) it doesn’t make the snippet of the page very good.

Separate Words

How you unconnect the sentences (or not) readability influences of slug URL. Part of the words in the slug helps the users in understanding easily the URL.

Bad URL slug: /besttraveltips

Good URL slug: /best-travel-tips

Use Hyphens, Not Underscores

To separate the words use hyphens in the words of URLs. Search Engine may not interpret correctly other separates for example underscores.

1. Bad URL slug: /good_old_fashioned_pancakes
2. Good URL slug: /good-old-fashioned-pancakes

Use Lowercase Characters

It is the best practices to stick charcaters which are lowercase to stop any issues and make it easy to write manually the URL since the URLs can be ofthen be treated as case-sensitive.

1. Bad URL slug: /New-York
2. Good URL slug: /new-york

Avoid Special Characters

Search Central of Google suggest to avoid non-ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) characters , for intances emojis or languages.

1. Bad URL slug : /😊🚀
2. Good URL slug: /emoji-meanings

Make It Future-Proof

Numbers which is likely change in the future. Avoid them , like of number ideas or tips or the pubilisng year.

1. Bad URL slug: /5-tips-to-write-url-slugs-in-2022
2. Good URL slug: /how-to-write-url-slugs

URL Slugs & WordPress

Most poular CMS in the world is WordPress , let see how to change URL slug in WordPress.

First and Leading , you need to be sure your structure of permalink will allow for User-friendly URL slugs.

Click “Permalinks” after going to the “Setting”

In this place you can easily selected one the basic permalink structure types or make a custom one. “Post Name” Structure we recommend strongly.

This way , WordPress will create automatically URL slus which is based on the title of your post or page. But more importantly with the help of you to edit the URL slug.

You need to go to the editor of page or specific post to chnage the URL slug in the WordPress.

You will find the “URL” section in the right panel. After you click on the automaticaaly generated slug , you can edit it easily.

If you are using Yoast SEO plugin then you can chnage also the URL slug in the panel of Yoast SEO at the bottom of your editor.

The section of “SEO analysis” will notify also if your URL slug dont contain your focus keyphrase (i.e., the target keyword.)

you follow take this as recommendation if it makes sense for you – not something you need to do at all costs.

Keywords in the URL slug have very small impact on SEO as we have ebtablised earlier. You should mainly focus on the UX as compare to the keyword stuffing.

FAQs

Are Website Slugs Important for SEO?

Absoluty yes URL slug are important for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) . They are necessary for UX (User Experience) element. And SEO and UX are connceted closely.

What Is the Difference Between a URL Slug and a URL?

The entire web address of page is URL , while the URL slug is just the past part of the URL which serves as the identifier of the page.

1. URL slug: /iphone-14
2. URL: https://www.apple.com/shop/iphone-13

What Happens When You Change the URL Slug?

The whole URL address of the page will change once the URL slug will change. This meaning the page cannot beaccessed through the URL which is old address anymore.

It is the best practices to se up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one every time you change the URL slug.

You will stop users from landing on the 404 erorr page this way. Inlcuding also potentail loss of traffic and link equity links poniting to the URL which is old.

Why Is It Called a Slug?

Slug word is used in jounalism . This meaning to the practice of using description which are short of article for purpose of internet.

Next Steps

Now you know how to create or change or basic meaning of URL slug , you may wanted to check out our guide on ON-Page SEO and you will find another aspect of on-page SEO which will improve your rankings.