How to Create Simple and Clear URL Slugs for Your Blog is crucial for making your website more user friendly and helping search engines understand your page’s topic. A well-crafted page slug gives readers a concise description of a specific page and can positively affect your ranking factor without adding unnecessary weight to your site. In this article, we’ll examine why a good URL slug is important for SEO and walk you through best practices for crafting SEO friendly slugs in WordPress, Drupal, HubSpot, or any CMS.
Why URL Slugs Matter
A slug is the part of a URL that identifies a new page or post on your site. Whether automatically generated slug suggestions pop up in your post editor or you change URL slugs manually in your permalink settings, it’s vital to ensure each slug in WordPress or any CMS makes sense for both users and search engines.
A clear page’s slug gives a unique identifier to each page.
Lowercase letters and separate words with hyphens to avoid confusion.
A lightweight ranking factor, a well-formed slug can have a direct impact on SEO without keyword stuffing.
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Best Practices for a Good URL Slug
Before creating your new slug, keep these best practices in mind:
Use lowercase letters only; URLs are case sensitive.
Keep it concise: avoid common words and remove dates or filler.
Separate words with hyphens; avoid special characters.
Include relevant keywords naturally, without keyword stuffing.
Ensure each slug is unique to avoid duplicate URLs.
Reflect the page’s content and focus keyphrase.
Step 1: Choose Relevant Keywords
Selecting the right keyword is the first part of URL creation. Think about what users type into Google when searching for your topic. Use SEO analysis tools to identify relevant keywords with good search volume. For example, if your article covers SEO tips for WordPress, you might choose “slug in wordpress” as your focus keyphrase.
Step 2: Draft Your Page Slug
Once you’ve chosen your keyword, draft a descriptive, lightweight slug. For an article about slug best practices, start with:
good-url-slug-practices
This draft slug uses a concise description of the page’s content and the focus keyphrase naturally.
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Step 3: Refine and Remove Unnecessary Words
Long URLs with many URLs segments or dates become hard to read. Remove stop words and dates to create a lightweight permalink:
Original draft slug:
how-to-create-simple-and-clear-url-slugs-for-your-blog-2025
Refined slug:
create-clear-url-slugs
Step 4: Implement in Your CMS
Implementing your new URL slug in your chosen CMS is simple and ensures your web address reflects your page's content accurately for both users and search engines.
Slug in WordPress
In the post editor, look for the permalink settings below the title.
Click “Edit” next to the full URL.
Replace the automatically generated slug with your new slug.
Save draft or update to apply the change.
Other Platforms
Drupal (Pathauto module): Set patterns for slugs using tokens like [node:title] and refine in your page edit screen.
HubSpot: In the SEO panel, adjust the page slug under URL & Tracking.
Step 5: Test and Preview the Full URL
Always preview the full URL before publishing to check for encoding issues:
Ensure the part of the URL after your domain reads correctly.
Share the full URL internally to confirm it’s user friendly.
Step 6: Handle Old URL Redirects
When you change the URL or update a slug, set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new slug. This ensures users and search engines land on the right page and preserves link equity.
Example in WordPress with Redirection plugin:
Source URL: /old-url-slug
Target URL: /new-url-slug
Save and test the redirect.
Avoiding Common Mistakes
Keyword Stuffing: Don’t cram multiple keywords into one slug like best-clear-url-slugs-seo-analysis-post.
Dates and Version Numbers: Avoid including dates, especially for evergreen content.
Special Characters: Stick to hyphens; avoid underscores, spaces, or symbols.
Advanced Tips for Many URLs
For websites with many URLs or dynamic pages, automate slug patterns while keeping them descriptive:
Define patterns in your CMS’s permalink settings or code (e.g., PHP routes in a REST API).
Use tokens for post titles and categories to generate consistent slugs.
Local and International Considerations
If you publish location-specific content, include geographic keywords:
clear-url-slugs-sydney
For multilingual sites, translate slugs and use hreflang tags so search engines understand each page’s content in its language.
Future-Proof Your Slugs
A lightweight slug without dates or excessive parameters remains relevant over time. Think of your slug as a future proof identifier for the page’s topic—avoid references to current events that will date the URL.
Conclusion
A good URL slug is an often-overlooked but important part of a web address that helps search engines understand your page and users navigate your site. By following these best practices—choosing relevant keywords, keeping it concise, using lowercase letters, and setting up redirects—you’ll make your URLs both SEO friendly and user friendly.
ACT Marketing provides SEO analysis, URL slug optimisation, and technical SEO services for websites across Australia. Contact us to review your site’s URLs and boost your search engine rankings today.