URL Slug
The piece of a web address after the last slash that names the specific page or resource.
A URL slug is the part of a web address that names the specific page you're looking at — usually the last bit, after the domain and any folders. In https://example.com/blog/spring-sale, the slug is spring-sale. In nimble.li/promo, it's promo. Change the slug, and you've changed the URL.
For a concrete example, a podcast platform might give every episode a URL like pod.fm/episodes/the-truth-about-redirects — the slug the-truth-about-redirects is the part listeners actually see and share. A blog post titled "Spring Sale 2026" published on a CMS like WordPress will get an auto-generated slug of spring-sale-2026. You can usually edit it.
Anatomy
The slug sits at the end of a URL, after the protocol, domain, and any folders.
Anatomy of a URL
How the browser should fetch the page. Almost always https.
The website itself — what you've registered with a domain registrar.
Folders or sections on the site. Optional — short URLs often skip the path.
The specific page or resource. The piece you usually pick.
The slug is the part you usually have control over and the piece that travels best when the URL is shared, said aloud, or printed.
A URL has several parts. The slug is the most flexible one — you typically pick it, and it's the piece that travels best when the URL is shared, said aloud, or printed.
Why slugs matter
Most platforms generate a slug automatically — WordPress turns The Truth About Redirects into the-truth-about-redirects; Shopify turns Spring Sale 2026 into spring-sale-2026. You can edit the result, and it's worth doing for three reasons:
- Memorability. A slug like
/saleis easier to remember and type than/post-id-7401. - Reproducibility. When the URL is read aloud (radio, podcast, conference talk) or written by hand, a clean slug survives. Random slugs like
/aB3xQdon't. - SEO. Search engines weigh keywords in the slug as a small ranking signal. A slug that names what the page is about helps a little.
Try it
Paste a slug and see how it scores on length, casing, ambiguity, and pronounceability.
Try it — slug linter
Needs work
- !
Length: 16 chars — getting long for SMS or print.
- !
Casing: contains uppercase. Most platforms preserve case in URLs, but recipients often mistype it.
- ✗
Contains a space — will be URL-encoded as %20.
- ✗
Special characters: — these get URL-encoded and look ugly.
- ✓
No characters that get confused in print or speech.
- ✓
Pronounceability: balanced vowel/consonant ratio.
Slug vs path vs route
Three terms that sound similar:
- Slug — the human-readable name of one specific page (
spring-sale). - Path — everything between the domain and any query string (
/blog/spring-sale). The slug is part of the path. - Route — the pattern a server uses to match URLs to pages (
/blog/{slug}). Routes are how the server interprets paths; visitors never see them directly.
In casual conversation people often say "slug" when they mean "path." It's usually fine — but worth knowing the distinction when you're talking with engineers.
Common mistakes
- Auto-generated slugs left untouched. A slug like
/post-7401works mechanically but tells visitors nothing. If the page matters, edit the slug. - Slugs that change. Changing a slug after publishing breaks every link that pointed at the old URL — bookmarks, social shares, search results. If you must change it, set up a 301 redirect from the old slug to the new one.
- Slugs that say too much. A 60-character slug listing every keyword is worse than a tight 10-character one. Pick one piece of information and stick with it.
- Stop words. Words like the, a, for, of add length without signal. Drop them; readers fill them in mentally.