WordPress SEO in 5 Minutes – What is a Slug and How to Optimise it?

5-Minute WordPress SEO:
Optimising Slugs

If you’ve ever looked at a clean, readable URL and thought, “That just makes sense,” you’ve already felt the power of a good slug.

A slug is one of those small SEO details that seems minor—until it isn’t. Get it right and your URLs become clearer, more clickable, easier for Google to understand, and easier for humans to trust. Get it wrong and you can end up with messy URLs, diluted relevance, and (in worst-case scenarios) broken links and lost traffic after a careless edit.

This guide modernises and expands the original post into a practical, up-to-date resource you can apply immediately in WordPress—whether you’re publishing a new blog post, cleaning up old URLs, or standardising slugs site-wide.

What Is a Slug?

A slug is the part of a URL that comes after the domain (and sometimes after folders like /blog/ or /category/). It identifies a specific page or post and usually summarises what that page is about. Example:

In that example, the slug is:

Slugs are typically made from the page title, but in WordPress they’re editable—and that’s where SEO opportunities (and risks) come in.

Where the slug “lives” in WordPress

Slugs don’t magically rank a page on their own. But they influence multiple ranking-adjacent factors—clarity, relevance, user trust, click-through rates, and site maintenance. Together, those factors can noticeably impact SEO performance over time.

1) Slugs signal topical relevance

Microsoft 365 - Computing Australia Group

A good slug reinforces what the page is about. When your slug includes the main topic, it helps search engines and users quickly understand the page’s theme.

Compare:

Even if Google can understand content from the page itself, a meaningful slug supports that understanding and reduces ambiguity.

2) Better-looking URLs can improve click-through rate (CTR)

In search results, people often glance at the URL as a trust cue. Clean URLs look credible. Messy or irrelevant ones look risky.

These two URLs might appear for the same topic:

If a user is unsure which result to click, the readable URL usually wins.

3) Slugs improve usability and sharing

A clean slug is easier to:

They also create better “share previews” and look more professional when someone posts them in Slack, Teams, or email.

4) Slugs help with internal organisation and content hygiene

Slugs become part of your content’s long-term structure. Consistent slugs make it easier to:

5) Slugs can prevent technical SEO issues (when standardised)

Poor slug habits can cause avoidable issues such as:

A good slug strategy reduces these risks.

What Makes a “Good” Slug?

A strong SEO slug is:

It’s not about stuffing keywords. It’s about clarity and intent.

Slug Optimisation Best Practices (Modern SEO + WordPress Safe)

1) Keep slugs short—but meaningful

Aim for 3–5 words in most cases. As a practical rule, try to keep the full URL within 50–60 characters where possible (not always necessary, but a useful guideline for readability). Good examples:

Too long:

Short doesn’t mean vague—avoid one-word slugs like /services/ unless the page is genuinely that broad.

2) Use your primary keyword (but don’t force it)

Including the target topic in the slug is helpful because it matches user expectations and reinforces relevance.

For this topic, good options might be:

Avoid stuffing:

A slug should read like a label, not a list of keywords.

3) Remove “stop words” unless they improve readability

Stop words are common words like:

Google can usually ignore them, but you don’t always need to remove them. Keep them only if it improves clarity.

Examples:

This is a “clarity first” decision.

4) Use hyphens (dashes) to separate words

In SEO-friendly URLs, use hyphens like:

Avoid:

Hyphens are the most readable and widely supported format.

5) Always use lowercase (this one matters)

Some servers treat uppercase and lowercase as different URLs. That can create duplication and confusion.

These can be interpreted as different addresses:

Best practice: always use lowercase in WordPress slugs.

6) Avoid dates unless the content truly depends on time

Date-based slugs can be useful for news or time-sensitive announcements. But for evergreen educational content (like SEO guides), dates can make content look outdated and can complicate updates.

Better:

Not ideal for evergreen:

If your site already uses date-based permalinks, you can still create strong slugs inside that structure—but consider changing permalink structure only with a careful migration plan (redirects are critical).

7) Avoid repeating categories inside the slug

If your URL structure already includes a folder like /blog/ or /seo/, you don’t need to repeat it in the slug.

Example:

Keep it clean.

8) Don’t change slugs without a redirect (critical!)

Changing a slug changes the URL. If the old URL has:

…then changing it without redirecting means you lose value and users hit a 404 page.

Rule: If you change a slug on an existing page, set a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new URL.

In WordPress, you can manage redirects via:

If you’re not sure how redirects are handled on your site, treat slug changes as a high-impact change.

How to Edit a Slug in WordPress (Classic + Block Editor)

Editing a slug on a new post (recommended)

When creating a new post or page:

1. Write your title.

2. Save as a draft (or publish).

3. Click the permalink/URL field and edit the slug.

4. Keep it short, readable, lowercase, hyphenated.

New posts are the safest time to perfect slugs because there’s no existing SEO equity to lose.

Editing a slug on an existing post (be careful)

If the post is already live and indexed:

1. Record the current URL.

2. Update the slug in WordPress.

3. Add a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new URL.

4. Update key internal links (menus, related posts, in-content links).

5. Confirm the old URL redirects correctly.

6. Re-submit the updated URL in Google Search Console if you use it.

Tip: If you have multiple posts that need slug fixes, do it in a structured batch and keep a spreadsheet of old → new URLs so nothing gets missed.

Common Slug Mistakes That Hurt SEO (or Create Headaches)

Mistake 1: Using generic slugs like “welcome” or “page-1”

These don’t communicate intent and can reduce click confidence.

Mistake 2: Leaving WordPress auto-generated messy slugs

WordPress usually does OK, but long titles can produce long slugs. Editing them is worth it.

Mistake 3: Changing slugs repeatedly

Frequent URL changes confuse search engines and users and create redirect chains.

If you must update, do it once, do it properly, and keep it stable.

Mistake 4: Creating duplicate/near-duplicate slugs

WordPress prevents exact duplicates by adding -2, -3, etc. That’s a warning sign that your site may have overlapping content.

Examples:

Consider consolidating similar pages instead of publishing multiple variations.

Mistake 5: Keyword stuffing

A slug is not a place to cram every variation. It should reflect the page topic clearly, once.

A Practical Slug Formula You Can Use Every Time

When you’re unsure, use this:

Primary topic + qualifier (if needed)

Examples:

If the topic is broad, add a qualifier:

Slug Optimisation for Different Content Types

Blog posts

Best as descriptive, topic-focused:

Service pages Keep them simple and client-friendly:

Avoid location stuffing unless it’s genuinely a location landing page.

Category/tag pages

If these are indexed, keep them tidy:

But be cautious: tag pages often create thin/duplicate content. Many sites choose to noindex tag pages, depending on strategy.

Ecommerce products

Keep it product-name focused:

Avoid adding internal SKUs unless you need them.

Contact our SEO pros or email at sales@computingaustralia.group. To know more about slug and other SEO related topics. For the slimy ones, you will be better off avoiding them as they can cause harm to your pets and your garden.

Jargon Buster

URL – Universal Resource Locator – The web address of a specific page or file on the internet. It includes the protocol, the domain name, and additional path information.

Duplicate content – is a similar or exact copy of content that appears on various places, either on different pages of the same website or on other sites.

SERPs – Search Engine Results Pages – Google’s response to a user’s search query includes organic results, featured snippets, paid results etc.

Optimise – A process that modifies how a campaign is delivering, improving its performance. It includes improving any metric like CTR, Page Load Speed etc.

5-Minute WordPress SEO: Optimising Slugs