URL slug generator

A slug is the human-readable last part of a URL that identifies a page:

example.com/blog/creme-brulee-recipe-10-tips

A good slug is short, lowercase, uses only letters, digits and hyphens, and describes the page. The generator does this in a few steps:

1. Replaces smart quotes and dashes with plain characters.
2. Removes accents (crème brûlée → creme brulee).
3. Lowercases the text (optional).
4. Replaces every run of spaces and symbols with a single separator.
5. Trims the result to your maximum length, cutting at a word boundary.

Example: Crème Brûlée Recipe – The 10 Best Tips for 2026! becomes creme-brulee-recipe-the-10-best-tips-for-2026, or creme-brulee-recipe-10-best-tips-2026 with stop words removed.

• Separator. Hyphens are the standard choice for URLs; Google's documentation recommends hyphens rather than underscores to separate words in URLs. Underscores suit file names and code identifiers.
• Max length. 60 characters is the default. The cut always happens between words, so you never get half a word at the end. Set 0 for no limit.
• Remove stop words. Drops short filler words: a, an, the, and, or, but, of, to, in, on, at, for, by, with, from, is, are. If every word would be removed, the original words are kept.
• Lowercase. On by default. Turn it off only if your system is case-sensitive and you need capitals.

Each line of input becomes its own slug, so you can paste a whole list of article titles and copy all the slugs at once. The work happens in your browser.

• Keep it short and descriptive. Three to six meaningful words is plenty. /blog/how-to-compress-pdf beats /blog/2026/11/13/how-you-can-easily-compress-a-pdf-file-online-for-free.
• Use the main keyword. It helps readers (and search engines) understand the page before clicking.
• Avoid dates unless the content really is time-bound, so you don't have to change the URL later.
• Don't change published slugs without a 301 redirect from the old URL.
• Stay consistent. Pick hyphens and lowercase for the whole site.

For more general accent removal while keeping spaces and capitals, use remove accents.

Slugs aren't only for web pages. The same rules make good names for:

• Image and document files, such as annual-report-2026.pdf instead of Annual Report (FINAL) v2.pdf.
• Heading anchors in documentation, so a link like #install-on-windows points to the right section.
• Database keys and tags, where spaces and capitals cause trouble.
• Folder names that need to work on Windows, macOS and Linux.

For file names you may prefer underscores and to keep capitals; switch the separator and turn off Lowercase.

Title	Slug
10 Best Hiking Trails in Colorado	10-best-hiking-trails-colorado
What Is a 401(k)?	what-401-k
Café & Bistro Menu (Updated)	cafe-bistro-menu-updated
Q&A: Your Taxes, Explained	q-your-taxes-explained

(The examples above use stop word removal.) Symbols such as &, ?, ( ) and ! are removed, and numbers are kept. Review slugs that contain abbreviations: 401(k) becomes 401-k, which you might prefer to write as 401k.