URL slugs definition

What are URL slugs?

A URL slug is the final part of a web address that identifies a specific page, like /how-to-bake-bread in example.com/how-to-bake-bread. It’s designed to be human‑readable and acts as a unique identifier for the page. Most website tools generate it from your page title, but you can usually edit it. The term “slug” comes from journalism, where it labeled a story during production.

Good slugs help people and search engines understand content at a glance. Keep them short, descriptive, lowercase, and use hyphens-between-words. Avoid dates and changing numbers. Most platforms allow you to edit the slug. In Sanity, you add a slug field to create and enforce unique, tidy page URLs.

Why URL slugs matter for readers and search

For people, clear, descriptive slugs set expectations before a click. They show up in search results and browser previews, helping users judge relevance fast, which can lift click‑through rate (CTR). Clean slugs are easier to read, remember, and share, and they look trustworthy compared to long strings of numbers or symbols.

For search engines, slugs add context. Including a relevant keyword is a lightweight ranking signal and helps algorithms understand the page topic. Consistent, tidy slugs support site structure and reduce crawl friction. Keep them stable, because changing a slug can break links; if you must, set a 301 redirect to preserve link equity and avoid 404s.

Answer engines read slugs too. When ChatGPT assembles an answer it retrieves a shortlist of candidate pages, and each candidate comes back as a title, a short snippet, and the URL, which is what the model judges before it opens the page at all. Ahrefs, analyzing 1.4 million ChatGPT prompts in April 2026, found that pages with natural-language slugs were cited 89.78% of the time, against 81.11% for slugs built from parameter strings, IDs, or truncated text. That gap is a correlation, and other 2026 analyses find no measurable effect from slug wording, so treat a readable slug as cheap insurance rather than a citation tactic.

How to create and update slugs the right way

Start with your page title, then simplify. Keep it short (about 4–6 words), use-hyphens between words, and stick to lowercase. Remove filler words like “a,” “the,” and “of,” and avoid dates or numbers that might change. Include one relevant keyword if it fits naturally. Skip special characters and emojis; use plain letters and numbers so links stay clean and reliable. Always preview the URL before publishing.

If you must change a slug, do it carefully. Set a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one, update internal links (menus, buttons, related posts), and test both URLs. If the page has been renamed before, point every old slug straight at the current URL rather than at the slug it replaced, because each extra hop is another chance for a crawler to give up before it arrives. Update the slug in your CMS and add a redirect. In Sanity, keep the slug field unique and make sure your site/app handles redirects.

Last updated: October 13, 2026