Tool Overview

This tool converts titles and phrases into clean, URL-friendly slugs. You enter a title or text, and it transforms it into a lowercase string with words separated by a chosen separator, with special characters removed and stopwords optionally filtered out. It also lets you control maximum length, choose between kebab-case and snake_case, and preview the slug inside a full URL context. A built-in SEO score shows how strong the slug is based on simple, transparent rules.

The problem it solves is creating consistent, readable, and safe URLs for pages, posts, and other content. Manually editing titles into slugs is error-prone; you might forget to remove punctuation, accidentally include disallowed characters, or create URLs that are too long or not descriptive enough. This tool automates those steps while still keeping its behavior predictable.

The slug generator is intended for content authors, developers, and site maintainers. A beginner can paste a title and click copy. Technical users can fine-tune rules such as stopword removal, maximum length, and separator style, then use the SEO health panel to check how well the slug follows common best practices.

Background & Concept Explanation

A slug is the part of a URL that usually comes after the domain and represents a specific resource, often based on the page title. For example, the title "My Awesome Article" might become "my-awesome-article" in the URL. Good slugs are short, descriptive, lowercase, and use only URL-safe characters such as letters, digits, and hyphens or underscores.

Search engines and users both benefit from readable slugs. A clear slug gives a hint about the page content and makes the URL easier to share and remember. However, not all titles make good slugs directly. They may contain punctuation, filler words like "the" or "and", uppercase letters, or be excessively long. A slug generator applies a consistent set of transformations to titles so that slugs are more uniform and robust. A related operation involves extracting URLs from text as part of a similar workflow.

This tool follows a straightforward transformation pipeline: trimming whitespace, lowercasing text, stripping non-alphanumeric characters (except spaces and separators), splitting into words, optionally removing common stopwords, joining with a chosen separator, and then trimming to a maximum length without leaving trailing separators. By keeping these steps explicit and visible, the tool stays predictable and helps you understand how each part of the slug is created.

Key Features

• Title and phrase input. The main input area accepts any text, typically a page title or phrase. You can paste, type, or edit directly. Changes update the slug and SEO score in real time.
• Automatic slug generation. Each time the input or configuration changes, the tool regenerates the slug using its core rules. There is no separate "generate" button needed for basic use.
• Case style selection. A control lets you choose between kebab-case and snake_case. In kebab-case, words are joined with hyphens ("-"). In snake_case, words are joined with underscores ("_"). The chosen style affects only how words are joined; all characters are still lowercased.
• Stopword removal option. A toggle called "Smart Stopwords" controls whether common filler words like "the", "a", "is", and "and" are removed from the slug. When enabled, the tool filters out these words based on an internal list so that slugs focus on more meaningful terms.
• Maximum length control. A slider labeled "Max Length" lets you define an upper bound on slug length (in characters). When the generated slug exceeds this length, it is truncated, and any trailing separator at the cut point is removed so that the slug does not end with a dangling hyphen or underscore.
• URL context prefix. A text field allows you to set a prefix string that represents the URL path before the slug, such as "example.com/" or "blog.mysite.com/". The live preview combines this prefix with the slug so that you can see how the final URL will look.
• Live URL preview. The preview card shows the full URL string made from the prefix and current slug. Colors distinguish the context from the slug, and long URLs are wrapped so you can see the entire result.
• Copy slug button. A large button copies only the slug portion to the clipboard. It provides visual feedback by changing its label and icon briefly after copying, so you know the action succeeded.
• SEO health indicator. The SEO panel calculates a simple score between 0 and 100 based on slug properties such as length, presence of stopwords, allowed characters, and case usage. The score appears inside a circular badge with color-coded status labels ("excellent", "good", "fair", or "poor").
• Rule-by-rule feedback. Below the score, a list of feedback messages explains why points were added or removed. Messages include notes about optimal length, warnings about excessive length or shortness, mentions of stopwords found when stopword removal is off, and flags for disallowed special characters or uppercase letters.
• Transparent rule summary. An "Optimization Log" section lists the main transformation rules, such as the regular expression used to remove symbols, whether stopwords were removed, and how trailing separators are trimmed. This helps you verify that the slug generation is following the expected set of rules.
• AI optimization option. An "Optimize with AI" button sends the original text to a backend service that may suggest an improved slug. When the service returns a string, the tool adopts that suggestion as the current slug, while still applying the local SEO scoring logic to it.

Common Use Cases

Publishing blog posts. Before publishing an article, you paste the title into the input. The tool suggests a kebab-case slug and shows how long it is. You remove stopwords and set a maximum length of 60 characters. The preview and SEO score help you confirm that the slug is descriptive but not overly long.

Naming documentation pages. For developer docs, you might prefer snake_case slugs where underscores are easier to read or work better with certain tools. You change the separator style to snake_case, generate the slug, and copy it into your static site generator configuration.

Refining existing slugs. If you already have a slug but suspect it could be improved, you type the original title and adjust settings. You can then compare the new slug and SEO feedback with the old one to see whether the new option looks better or is shorter and cleaner. For adjacent tasks, converting to kebab-case addresses a complementary step.

Bulk slug planning. When planning a series of pages, you can use this tool to experiment with different titles and slugs quickly. The prefix field can be set to the base path of the section (for example, "docs.mysite.com/guide/") so that you can see how the full URLs line up.

How to Use This Tool (Step-by-Step)

1. Open the slug generator in your browser. You will see an input area on the left and a live preview and SEO panel on the right.
2. Paste or type your title or phrase into the "Input Content" text box. This is usually a page title, article name, or short description.
3. Check the "Configuration" card. Choose "kebab-case" or "snake_case" using the separator style buttons. Decide whether you want to remove stopwords by toggling "Smart Stopwords" on or off.
4. Adjust the "Max Length" slider to your preferred maximum slug length. Watch the numeric label above the slider update with the current character limit.
5. In the "URL Context" field, optionally enter a base path or domain you plan to use with this slug. This does not change the slug itself but is reflected in the preview.
6. Look at the live URL preview card. Confirm that the prefix and slug together form a clean-looking URL. If the slug is too long or short, return to the configuration and adjust the settings or modify your input text.
7. Review the "SEO Health" panel. Note the overall score, status label, and rule breakdown messages. If the score is low due to length or invalid characters, change your title or adjust settings so that the slug improves.
8. If you want an AI-suggested slug, click "Optimize with AI". Wait while the button shows a loading state. When the suggestion returns, it replaces the current slug, and you can re-evaluate its length and score.
9. When you are satisfied with the slug, click the "Copy Slug" button in the preview card to copy it to the clipboard. Use it in your routing configuration, CMS, or static site generator.
10. If you are using a mobile device, you can also use the sticky bar at the bottom of the screen to trigger AI optimization or copy the slug quickly without scrolling.

Calculations & Logic

The slug generator function begins by checking for empty input. If the text is empty, it returns an empty string. Otherwise, it trims whitespace from both ends and converts the string to lowercase to ensure consistent casing.

Next, it removes unwanted characters. It keeps only lowercase letters, digits, spaces, and hyphens based on a regular expression, stripping punctuation and symbols. This step ensures that resulting slugs contain only characters that are typically safe and expected in URLs.

The sanitized text is then split into words using whitespace as a delimiter. Empty segments are discarded. If stopword removal is enabled, the function filters out any words present in a predefined set of common filler words. This reduces slug length and focuses on meaningful terms. When working with related formats, reversing text can be a useful part of the process.

The remaining words are joined using a separator determined by the selected case style: a hyphen for kebab-case or an underscore for snake_case. This joining step creates the raw slug string.

To enforce the maximum length, the function checks the length of the slug. If it exceeds the configured limit, it truncates the slug to that length. After truncation, it checks for a trailing separator. If the truncated slug ends with a separator, it removes that final character to avoid leaving a dangling separator at the end of the slug.

The SEO scoring function evaluates the final slug alongside the original text and rules. It begins with a score of 100 and subtracts points for certain conditions. If the slug is longer than a threshold (for example, longer than 75 characters), it subtracts a larger number of points and notes that the slug may be truncated by search engines. If the slug is very short (for example, under 10 characters), it subtracts fewer points and notes that the slug may be insufficiently descriptive.

The score also takes into account stopwords. It splits the slug on separators and checks whether any of the resulting words are in the stopword list. When stopword removal is turned off and stopwords are present, it subtracts a small number of points per stopword and adds a feedback line recommending their removal. In some workflows, encoding URL components is a relevant follow-up operation.

The function then checks for characters outside the allowed set (letters, digits, hyphens, underscores) and for uppercase letters. Although the slug generation process aims to prevent these, these checks provide extra context for slugs that might have been created or modified elsewhere. If such characters are found, it subtracts additional points and records feedback about invalid characters or uppercase usage.

Finally, it clamps the score between 0 and 100 and assigns a status string based on ranges: "excellent" for high scores, "good" for moderately high scores, "fair" for medium scores, and "poor" otherwise. The function returns the score, status, and feedback messages, which the UI uses to build the SEO health panel.

The AI optimization function validates that the input text is a non-empty string and that the target width parameter is a positive number when used for layout-related suggestions. It then calls a backend service with the text and uses the returned text if valid. If the service response is invalid or an error occurs, it logs the error and throws a new error with a clear message, which the UI catches and displays.

Reference Tables or Scales

The score is then mapped to "excellent", "good", "fair", or "poor" status ranges based on the final value. For related processing needs, url encoder operations handles a complementary task.

Tips, Limitations & Best Practices

Use kebab-case for most web URLs, as it is widely recommended for readability and compatibility. Snake_case can be helpful in some technical contexts but is less common for public-facing URLs.

Do not rely solely on the numeric SEO score. It is a simple heuristic, not a replacement for full SEO analysis. Use it as a quick check for obvious issues like extreme length or unwanted characters.

When using stopword removal, double-check that removing those words does not change the meaning of the slug in a way that could confuse users. In some cases, small words are important to preserve nuance.

Always verify that generated slugs are unique within your site or system. This tool does not check your database or routing rules for collisions; it focuses only on generating a single clean slug from the current input.

If the AI optimization feature is unavailable or returns unexpected results, fall back to the core slug generation and adjust your input title manually. The local rules are deterministic and will always produce the same slug for the same input and configuration.