What is a URL slug, and How to Optimise it?

A URL slug is a unique word or phrase that identifies a specific page on the web. A URL slug can be used to help you remember and find specific pages on the web. For example, the URL slug for the home page of CNN.com is “CNN.

URL slugs are a unique way of labelling websites. They’re also known as URL shortening, and they’re a great way to make it easy for people to remember and share your website’s address. A URL slug is simply the combination of your website’s domain name and its suffix (i.e. mysite.com/blog/).

A URL slug can help you organise your website’s content, make it easier for people to find what they’re looking for, and increase the exposure of your website. Plus, it can help you boost SEO rankings. To create a URL slug, append the domain name followed by the suffix (i.e., mysite.com/blog/ would become blog-mysite).

What Are The Uses Of URL Slug?

URL slugging is a technique webmasters use to categorise their websites according to the topic of their content. This helps users find the websites they are looking for more easily and assists search engines in returning relevant results. 

There are various purposes URL slugging can serve, including helping users find and navigate through your website’s content, improving SEO (search engine optimisation), and tracking website traffic. Slugging also makes sharing your website’s content on social media or other online platforms easy. 

To create a URL slug, replace the default domain name (e.g., “www.example.com”) with a word or phrase that best represents the topic of your website (e.g., “kids-friendly-travel-tips”).

How to edit a URL slug

You can easily change your URL slug by following these simple steps:   

1. Log into your WordPress site.  
2. Click on the “Appearance” tab at the top of the screen.  
3. Under “URLs,” click on the button that says “Edit Slug.”  
4. In the “Slug Name” field, type in the new slug for your website.  

Change any other relevant fields as needed, and then click on the “Save Changes” button.

How to Create the Best URL Slugs for SEO

Creating the best URL slugs for SEO is an important part of a website’s overall strategy.

1. Use the “-” Symbol

Include the -symbol. The – symbol indicates that the term is a URL slug, so make sure to include it when you’re creating them.

2. Keep Your Slugs Short

Make sure your slug is short and easy to remember. Try to use only two or three words and ensure they are relevant to your website content. For example, if you sell clothing, try using “clothing” as your slug instead of “sales.”

3. Incorporate Target Keywords

Incorporate target keywords into your slug. Make sure to include the right words in your slug so that search engines can easily find your content when users type in a keyword related to your writing. For example, if you’re writing about fashion trends, include “fashion” as a keyword in your slug (e.g., fashiontrends.com).

4. Match Slugs to Headlines

Make sure that your slug accurately reflects the content of your article. For example, using “SEO Tips” as a slug for an article about SEO tips would be inaccurate because there are many types of SEO tips that are not all related to search engine optimisation. 

5. Avoid Dating Your Slugs

Avoid using specific dates as part of your slug—this can date the site and make it difficult for search engines to identify and rank it properly.

6. Use Lowercase Letters

Use lowercase letters whenever possible to make your URLs easier to remember and type out. 

7. Update Old Slugs

Updating your old SEO slugs will increase traffic and improve site rankings. Make sure you use relevant keywords when creating new seo slugs to get top placement in Google searches. 

Why are URL slugs important for SEO?

1. Include your keyword in the URL slug

A URL slug is an important part of SEO because it helps your site rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). Including your keyword in the URL slug will help you target people specifically looking for information about that topic. This can help you attract new visitors and boost your traffic.

2. Create user-friendly URL slugs

URL slugging is an important part of SEO because it allows users to find the information they want on the internet easily. A URL slug should be user-friendly, short, and include all relevant keywords. Including appropriate keywords in your URL slug can help increase your website’s search traffic.

Conclusion

In conclusion, an SEO slug is a great way to help improve the visibility of your website in search engine results pages (SERPs). Using an SEO slug can help people find your website more easily and quickly. Use an SEO slug wisely to reflect your website’s content accurately. Additionally, call-to-action statements are always helpful in getting people to take action on your website or learn more about your product or service.

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FAQ

What does the keyphrase in slug assessment in Yoast SEO do?

When assessing the competition in your field, you want to be sure that the keywords you’re targeting are high-quality. One way to do this is by using a keyword analysis tool like Google AdWords Keyword Planner. Yoast SEO has a handy “slug assessment” feature that can tell you how strong a particular keyword is for your site.

Here’s what slug assessment does: it takes the root of your keywords and spits out a long string of numbers and letters (usually between 3 and 20). This “slug” is unique to each online destination, so it accurately indicates how competitive a given keyword is for traffic from that site. The higher the slug number, the more competitive the term is.

Is There a Difference Between a URL Slug and a URL?

URLs can be classified in two ways: as a slug or URL. Slugs are the shorter, more concise URL form used often in search engine results pages (SERPs). On the other hand, URLs are the longer, more detailed form of a URL and are used when you want to share a document or page with a friend. There is no difference between a URL slug and a URL; they’re just different ways of saying the same thing.

What is the maximum length of a URL slug?

URL slugs are a way to shorten a URL without sacrificing important information, like the domain name. URLs with slugs typically have eight or fewer characters. But just how long can a URL slug be? We tested eight different lengths and found that the maximum is 16 characters. That means you could create an entire website using just one slug!