What Makes a Good URL Slug?
- Lowercase only — URLs are case-sensitive on most servers; lowercase prevents duplicate content issues.
- Hyphens, not underscores — Google treats hyphens as word separators but underscores as connectors.
my-post not my_post.
- Short and descriptive — Aim for 3–5 words, under 60 characters. Remove articles and filler words.
- No special characters — Punctuation, accents, and symbols must be encoded or removed to avoid broken links.
- Include the primary keyword — Puts the target term close to the domain name, a mild ranking signal.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I include the year in my slug?
Only if the content is specifically tied to a year (e.g., "best tools 2025"). For evergreen content, omit the year so the slug stays relevant and you don't need to change it — URL changes require 301 redirects to preserve SEO equity.
What are stop words?
Stop words are common words (a, an, the, and, or, but, in, on, at, to, for…) that add little SEO value and make slugs longer than necessary. "how-to-build-a-rest-api" becomes "build-rest-api" with stop word removal.
Can I change a slug after publishing?
Yes, but you must set up a 301 permanent redirect from the old URL to the new one. Without a redirect, inbound links and indexed pages will 404, losing their SEO value.