Creating slugs doesn’t have to be an overly complicated or even a deeply strategic approach. 

After all, simplicity is key when creating URL slugs and just keeping these tips in mind can help you improve both SEO and readability.

1. Use the “-” Symbol

Using a hyphen in between words in your URL slug will help ensure that your slugs are crisp and clean. 

URLs aren’t permitted to have spaces in them, and browsers will turn any spaces you try and use into percentage characters. 

You can probably think of examples you’ve seen of URLs with “%20” or something similar included in the slug. 

A hyphen or dash in between each word will help you avoid unapproved characters and can help readers understand each word found in your URL.

2. Keep Your Slugs Short

Short and clear slugs not only make it easy for readers to understand what content can be found on each page and help them remember the URL.

They also help search engines comprehend the content. 

Experts recommend an ideal URL slug length of between three and five words. 

Readers and search engines respond best to short, direct slugs, and this length is also incorporated into search engine results pages.

3. Incorporate Target Keywords

Your target keyword should be in your slug. Period. 

This is valid for blog posts and every single page you have on your site.

All of these web pages can have target keywords incorporated into them that help boost SEO for things like your products, services, or locations.

4. Match Slugs to Headlines

If you are posting blog posts or articles, you’ll want to match up your slug to your content title. 

It doesn’t need to be an exact match (you want short slugs, remember?). Just focus on the keyword and you should be fine. 

For example, if the blog post title is “Everything You Need to Know About Content Marketing”, your slug could be “everything-about-content-marketing”.

The slug is clear, short, has the keyword (“content marketing”), and adapts the title in an objective way. 

5. Avoid Dating Your Slugs

Users that see a date from a previous year in your URL slug might think your page is old.

It’s unnecessary information that clogs up the URL and can make your content not only appear outdated but out of style as well.

Would you be interested in a page that has “valuable-SEO-lessons-2012” as its slug?

6. Use Lowercase Letters

URLs are tricky things and often have duplication or display issues.

Like with spaces and percentage characters, uppercase letters can also cause issues with duplicate content or 404-page errors.

7. Update Old Slugs

If you have pages created that don’t follow along with these best practices, you might want to consider an overhaul to update your slugs to have better clarity. 

However, keep in mind that slugs are not meant to be constantly updated. In fact, doing so too often can hurt your search engine rankings. 

Try starting with a few, lower-performing pages and monitor the result of your rankings. 

If the risk is too great for your older pages, adopt an alternative strategy of optimization going forward. 

And remember, once you’ve decided on a slug, do what you can to keep it the same!