How to use the Slug Generator
Last verified 2026-08-08 · about 5 minutes to read
The short version
- 1.Paste your titles. One per line. A whole content calendar can be converted in a single pass.
- 2.Choose a separator and length. Hyphen and 60 characters suit almost every CMS. Change them only if your platform requires it.
- 3.Copy the slugs. Output lines match input lines exactly, so you can paste the column straight back into a spreadsheet.
Why this is worth getting right
Accented characters are transliterated, not deleted. The input is normalised to NFD first, which separates a letter from its combining accent, so only the accent is dropped and the letter survives. Tools that strip non-ASCII in one pass turn Münster into mnster — a slug nobody can read and no search engine can match.
Method 1 — use the Slug Generator on this site
The fastest route. It runs entirely in your browser, so nothing is uploaded and there is no queue to wait in. No account is needed and there is no daily limit.
- Paste your titles. One per line. A whole content calendar can be converted in a single pass.
- Choose a separator and length. Hyphen and 60 characters suit almost every CMS. Change them only if your platform requires it.
- Copy the slugs. Output lines match input lines exactly, so you can paste the column straight back into a spreadsheet.
Method 2 — do it without this site
Worth knowing, because a tool you cannot replace is a dependency rather than a convenience. Most tasks in the text division have a command-line or built-in equivalent; it is usually more setup and less convenient, but it works offline and it is scriptable, which matters once you are doing something a hundred times instead of once.
What this tool will not do
Every tool has an edge. These are ours for slug generator, stated up front so you find out here rather than halfway through a deadline:
- Non-Latin scripts (Bangla, Arabic, CJK) are not romanised — those characters are removed. Romanise first if you need a Latin slug.
- Numbers are preserved, so "2026" stays in the slug. Edit the title if you want an evergreen URL.
Questions people ask
Should a URL slug use hyphens or underscores?
Hyphens. Google has stated for years that it reads a hyphen as a word separator and an underscore as a word joiner, so "compress_pdf" can be read as one token while "compress-pdf" is read as two words. Every major CMS defaults to hyphens for the same reason.
What happens to accented characters?
They are transliterated to their closest ASCII form: é becomes e, ü becomes u, ß becomes ss, ø becomes o and æ becomes ae. Many tools simply delete them, which turns "Münster" into "mnster".
How long should a slug be?
Under about 60 characters is a sensible working limit — long enough to carry the keyword, short enough to display in full in a search result and in a shared link. This is a readability convention, not a ranking rule.
Should I remove stop words?
Usually not. Removing "the" and "of" makes a slug marginally shorter but can make it harder to read, and there is no evidence of a ranking benefit. The option exists for platforms with tight URL limits.
Can I change a slug after publishing?
You can, but do not unless you must. The URL is the identity of the page for search engines and for anyone who linked to it. If you have to change one, set a 301 redirect from the old URL and expect a temporary dip.