A URL slug is the part of a URL that identifies a specific page. "How to Add Prefix to Lines" becomes how-to-add-prefix-to-lines in the URL devstringtools.com/blog/how-to-add-prefix-to-lines. Clean slugs improve both SEO and user experience—search engines and humans can read them easily.
The problem? Creating proper slugs manually means handling special characters, unicode normalization, duplicate hyphens, and length limits. The URL slug generator automates this instantly.
How the Slug Generator Works
Basic Title to Slug Conversion
Input:
How to Add Prefix to Lines
Output:
how-to-add-prefix-to-lines
The tool:
- Converts to lowercase
- Replaces spaces with hyphens
- Removes special characters
- Handles duplicate hyphens
Unicode Normalization
Special characters from non-English text are normalized to ASCII equivalents:
Input:
The Café Menu
Hôtel de Ville
Niño Español
München Oktoberfest
Output:
the-cafe-menu
hotel-de-ville
nino-espanol
munchen-oktoberfest
This ensures URLs work on all systems and are readable in ASCII-based environments.
Custom Separator Option
Need underscores instead of hyphens? Or maybe no separator at all?
Input:
Quick Start Guide
| Separator | Output |
|---|---|
| Hyphen (-) | quick-start-guide |
| Underscore (_) | quick_start_guide |
| None | quickstartguide |
Use underscores for file names, hyphens for web URLs.
Handling Edge Cases
Input:
What's New in 2024? (The Ultimate Guide!)
Output:
whats-new-in-2024-the-ultimate-guide
The tool removes:
- Trailing punctuation
- Special characters (!, ?, (, ))
- Excess whitespace
- Duplicate separators
When to Use This Tool
Blog Posts and Articles
Convert article titles into permalink slugs:
Before:
10 Tips for Writing Clean Code Every Developer Should Know
After:
10-tips-for-writing-clean-code-every-developer-should-know
E-commerce Product Pages
Create consistent product URL patterns:
Before:
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max (256GB) - Space Black
After:
apple-iphone-15-pro-max-256gb-space-black
Documentation Pages
Generate clean documentation URLs:
Before:
Getting Started: Installation & Configuration
After:
getting-started-installation-configuration
FAQ
What's the ideal slug length? Keep slugs under 50-60 characters for best SEO. Search engines typically display the first 50-60 characters of a URL in results.
Should I include numbers in slugs? Yes, numbers in slugs are fine and sometimes beneficial for SEO. "5-best-practices" is clear and descriptive.
How do I prevent duplicate slugs?
The tool doesn't handle duplicates—that's your URL structure's responsibility. Add category prefixes (e.g., blog-how-to-add-prefix) or post IDs for uniqueness.
Related Tools
- Case Converter — Transform text between camelCase, snake_case, and other formats
- URL Encode/Decode — Encode special characters for URLs
- Find and Replace — Batch edit text with regex support