Tool 02
Slug Generator
Convert any title into a clean, SEO-friendly URL slug. Lowercases, removes special characters, replaces spaces with hyphens.
Try an example
What Is the Slug Generator?
The Slug Generator turns any headline into a clean, SEO-friendly URL slug: lowercase, hyphen-separated, with special characters stripped and stop words removed. It also transliterates Cyrillic text, so a Russian headline becomes a readable Latin slug instead of percent-encoded gibberish.
URL slugs are a small but real SEO signal: they appear in search results, get read by users before clicking, and stay with the page for its whole life. A short descriptive slug is easier to link to, easier to share, and less likely to need changing later, which spares you redirects.
The same rules apply to file names. Before uploading an image, PDF, or any other file, run its name through the generator: pad-thai-restaurant-bangkok.jpg says far more to Google Images than IMG_4382.JPG. Clean file names also avoid broken links from spaces and special characters, and behave predictably on case-sensitive servers and CDNs.
How to Use It
- 1Paste your page title, headline, or a raw file name into the input field.
- 2The tool generates the slug instantly: lowercase, hyphens between words, stop words and special characters removed.
- 3Review the result and shorten it if needed: 3 to 5 meaningful words is the sweet spot.
- 4Click the copy button and use the result as a URL slug in your CMS, or as a file name before uploading images and documents.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I use hyphens or underscores in URLs?
Always hyphens. Google treats hyphens as word separators, so red-shoes is read as "red shoes". Underscores join words: red_shoes is read as one token "red_shoes", which matches fewer queries. This is one of the few URL rules Google has stated explicitly.
Should slugs include stop words like "the" and "of"?
Usually not. Removing stop words keeps slugs short and scannable without losing meaning: how-to-use-reddit-for-seo works fine as reddit-for-seo. Keep a stop word only when removing it changes the meaning or makes the slug read strangely.
Is it safe to change the slug of a published page?
Only with a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. Without a redirect you lose the rankings, backlinks, and bookmarks the old URL earned. If the page already ranks well, the small keyword benefit of a better slug rarely justifies the risk: save slug changes for redesigns or genuinely broken URLs.
Do image file names matter for SEO?
Yes. Google Images reads the file name as one signal about what the image shows, alongside alt text and the surrounding copy. A descriptive name like red-tuk-tuk-bangkok.jpg gives Google usable context; DSC01234.jpg gives it nothing. Rename files before uploading: renaming after publication changes the file URL and drops any image rankings unless you redirect.
How should I name files before uploading them to my site?
Follow the same rules as URL slugs: lowercase, hyphens between words, no spaces or special characters, 3 to 5 words that describe the content. Spaces turn into %20 in URLs and sometimes break links, and mixed case can cause 404s on case-sensitive servers. This generator produces upload-ready names: just keep the file extension.
Why are spaces in file names and URLs a bad idea?
Browsers cannot show a space in an address, so every space becomes %20: My Menu 2026.pdf turns into My%20Menu%202026.pdf. That link looks broken and untrustworthy when someone shares it in a chat or email, it is hard to read and retype, and some apps cut the link off at the space, sending people to a 404. A hyphenated name like menu-bangkok-2026.pdf stays clean everywhere, and Google reads the hyphens as word separators.