How to Write a URL Slug That Still Makes Sense in Two Years

Short answer: keep it short — three to six words — lowercase, hyphenated, and made of the words a reader would use for the subject. Leave out dates, years, stop words that add nothing, and anything that will change, such as a count or a version. The slug does not need to match the title exactly; it needs to describe the page in a way that will still be accurate after the article is updated. Once published, do not change it. If you must, redirect the old address permanently and update internal links.

The slug is the part of the URL after the domain: the how-to-write-a-headline in yoursite.com/how-to-write-a-headline/. It is chosen in a few seconds and then lives forever, carrying every link that ever points to the page.

That imbalance — seconds to choose, years to live with — is the whole case for choosing it with a little care.

What a good slug looks like

Five properties cover it.

• Short. Three to six words. Long enough to describe, short enough to read at a glance.
• Readable. Real words, in the order a person would say them.
• Lowercase, hyphenated. No underscores, no spaces, no capitals.
• Durable. Nothing that goes out of date.
• Specific. Distinct from every other slug on the site.

WordPress generates slugs from the title automatically. Accept that as a draft, not a decision, because titles are usually longer than slugs should be.

Examples

The difference is easiest to see side by side.

In each case the better version is shorter, contains no number or date that will change, and still describes the page accurately after any reasonable update.

Keep dates and counts out

The most common slug mistake is including something that will become false.

A year in the slug means that next year you either leave a page titled 2027 at a URL saying 2026, or change the URL and lose its history. A count — 10-reasons — means you cannot add an eleventh without the address contradicting the page.

The title can carry the year or the count if the subject genuinely needs it; titles are easy to change. The slug should describe the subject, which does not change. This is also what makes pages easy to update, the subject of refreshing old posts.

Stop words and keywords

Stop words — a, the, and, of — can usually be removed without loss, and removing them shortens the slug. Keep them where the phrase reads badly without: how-to-write is clearer than how-write.

The slug should contain the main words of the subject, because it is one of the places a reader looks to understand what a page is. That is a matter of clarity, not of ranking tricks; repeating a phrase in the slug adds nothing, and a slug stuffed with keywords looks like spam to a person deciding whether to click.

Why not to change a slug later

A published URL accumulates things: links from other sites, internal links from your own posts, bookmarks, shares, and the history search engines have for it.

Changing the slug without a redirect throws all of that away and produces a 404 for everyone who follows an old link. Changing it with a redirect keeps most of it, but every internal link now travels through a redirect until you update them, which is the problem internal linking as you publish warns about.

WordPress will often create a redirect automatically when you change a post slug, but it is not guaranteed in every setup. Check the old address after any change.

When changing it is justified

A few situations do warrant a new slug.

The slug is actively misleading — the page was rewritten on a different subject. It contains something that should not be public, such as a client name. Or two pages are being merged and one address is being retired, which is covered in deleting, merging or redirecting.

In each case: create a permanent (301) redirect from the old address to the new one, update every internal link to point directly at the new address, and check in Search Console a few weeks later that the new URL is indexed and the old one is reported as a redirect.

Slugs at volume

When articles are published frequently, slugs are often generated without anyone looking at them, and they inherit every problem of the title.

The simplest defence is a rule in the standing instructions: slugs of three to six words, no years, no counts, no stop words unless needed for readability. Then check that no two articles have near-identical slugs, which is often the first sign that two articles answer the same question — the overlap problem in how many keywords one article should target.

A slug is never the reason a page ranks. A bad one is occasionally the reason a page is harder to maintain, link to or trust, and those are avoidable.

Related reading

If this was useful, these cover the questions that usually come next.

• Setting up a new blog — the permalink structure the slug sits in
• Refreshing old posts — why a stable URL makes updating easy
• Internal linking as you publish — what breaks when a slug changes

The bottom line

Three to six lowercase, hyphenated words describing the subject, with no year, count or anything else that will go stale. Treat the auto-generated slug as a draft. Once published, leave it alone; if a change is truly necessary, redirect permanently, update internal links, and confirm the result in Search Console.

FAQ

How long should a URL slug be?

Three to six words is a good range. Long enough to describe the page clearly, short enough to read at a glance and share without truncation.

Should the slug match the post title?

Not necessarily. Titles are usually longer and may include a year or a count. The slug should describe the subject durably, even if the title changes.

Should I put the year in a URL?

No. It forces a choice later between a URL that contradicts the page and a URL change that loses history. Put the year in the title if the subject needs it.

Is it bad to change a URL slug?

It costs something even with a redirect: internal links travel through the redirect until updated, and there is a period of adjustment. Without a redirect it loses the page’s links and history entirely.

Do keywords in the slug help rankings?

The main words of the subject belong there because they tell a reader what the page is. Repeating or stuffing phrases adds nothing and makes the link look less trustworthy.

Should I use underscores or hyphens?

Hyphens. They are the standard word separator in URLs, and all lowercase avoids duplicate addresses differing only in capitalisation.