What Is a Blog Slug

What Is a Slug and How to Optimise It (No, Not the Garden Kind)

Alright, so let’s talk about slugs.

And no, not the slimyy things that crawl in your garden after it rains. We’re talking blog slugs — which sounds just as weird but is actually very important when it comes to blogging and getting traffic from Google.

If you’ve ever looked at a blog post URL and thought, “Wait, what’s that part after the .com?” — you were looking at the slug. It’s that little chunk of text at the end of your URL, and yep, it has more power than most people give it credit for.

So let’s break this whole “slug” thing down, and then I’ll show you how to make yours work harder for your blog.

What is a Slug?

Okay, quick and dirty version:

A slug is the part of your blog URL that comes after your domain name.

So let’s say you wrote a post titled:
“10 Easy Meals to Cook When You’re Tired AF”
And your blog is called realfoodblog.com

Your full post URL might look like:
realfoodblog.com/easy-meals-tired

See that last bit? easy-meals-tired?
That’s your slug.

Simple, right? But here’s where it gets good…

Why Slugs Actually Matter

Let’s be real — most people don’t obsess over their blog URLs. They focus on the title, the content, the images, maybe the SEO keywords… but they forget the slug.

That’s a mistake.

Because your slug affects three big things:

SEO (Google Juice)
Google scans your slug to understand what your post is about. If it’s messy or irrelevant, it can hurt your chances of ranking well.

User Experience
Clean slugs look more trustworthy. If your slug looks like:
/postid=4567-abc-v3/?ref=social,
nobody wants to click that.
But something like /quick-dinner-ideas feels solid.

Shareability
If someone copies your link to send to a friend or post in a group, a short, readable slug looks way more appealing.

The Golden Rules of a Good Slug

You don’t have to be an SEO wizard to optimize slugs. Just follow these basic rules and you’ll be ahead of half the internet.

✅ Keep It Short and Sweet
Nobody wants to read a URL that’s longer than the blog post title.

Bad:
/10-easy-meals-you-can-cook-when-you-are-super-exhausted-and-don’t-have-groceries
Better:
/easy-meals-tired

Aim for 3-6 words, tops.

✅ Use Real Keywords
If your blog post is targeting a keyword like “vegan dinner recipes,” make sure that phrase is in the slug.

Google notices.

Example:
/vegan-dinner-recipes
That’s WAY better than something generic like /post-42.

✅ Ditch Stop Words
Words like and, or, but, the, a, is, to — they don’t add much to your slug and just make it longer.

So instead of:
/how-to-make-a-healthy-smoothie
Try:
/make-healthy-smoothie

Still readable. Still clear. Just leaner.

✅ Hyphens Are Your Friends
Use hyphens between words — not underscores or spaces.

So:
/best-blog-slug ✅
Not:
/best_blog_slug ❌
Not:
/bestblogslug ❌

Hyphens help Google (and people) read the words separately.

✅ Lowercase Only
Keep your slugs lowercase. Some servers treat uppercase and lowercase URLs differently (weird, I know).

So always stick with:
/how-to-start-a-blog
Not:
/How-To-Start-A-Blog

How to Actually Change the Slug

If you’re using WordPress (which, let’s be honest, most bloggers are), it’s super easy.

Right after you write your blog title, WordPress usually auto-generates a slug for you based on that title. But you can edit it right before you publish.

Look for a section called Permalink on your post editor.
Click “Edit,” change the slug, hit “OK” — done.

Example:
Title: How I Paid Off my $30,000 Debt in One Year
WordPress default slug: /how-i-paid-off-my-30000-debt-in-one-year
Your optimized slug: /pay-off-debt-fast

See the difference? Short, keyword-rich, to the point.

What If You Want to Fix Old Slugs?
You totally can. But WARNING: Changing slugs on already published posts can mess with your existing links.

So if a bunch of people have already shared that URL, or it’s ranking in Google — changing it could break those links and lose you traffic.

If you MUST change it (maybe the slug is awful and you’re rebranding), use a 301 redirect plugin like Redirection to automatically send people from the old URL to the new one.

Or just leave it as is and focus on optimizing new posts going forward.

Real Talk: Do Slugs Alone Make or Break Your Blog?
Nope. They’re not some magic fix. But slugs are part of a bigger picture — like choosing the right blog theme, writing with clarity, using SEO wisely, and creating content people actually want.

Think of slugs like house numbers on your street. Not super glamorous, but without them, it’s chaos.

Final Tips to Remember (Slug Style Cheat Sheet)
✅ Keep it short
✅ Use your keyword
✅ Ditch the fluff words
✅ Hyphenate your words
✅ Keep it lowercase
✅ Don’t change old ones unless you know what you’re doing

One Last Thing…

If you’re still reading, congrats — you now know more about slugs than 90% of beginner bloggers. Seriously.

And here’s a sneaky tip before we wrap:
Combine your slug game with other blog boosters like choosing the best blog theme on WordPress, using SEO-friendly layouts, and writing killer intros.

Oh, and if you’re browsing for some blog theme ideas or want a blog theme free download, look for themes that let you control your URL structure easily. Clean design + clean slugs = win-win.

You don’t need to obsess over every URL. But a little slug polish? It can go a long way.

Happy blogging. 🐌 (The good kind.)