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January 13, 2026

# The SEO-Friendly URL Slugs Checklist: What to Verify Before You Publish

Run through this before you consider SEO-friendly URL slugs actually done:

1. Keep slugs short, lowercase, and hyphen-separated — avoid underscores, which some systems don't treat as word separators the way hyphens are.
2. Include the primary keyword naturally in the slug, but don't force in every variant — a slug isn't a place for keyword stuffing.
3. Never change a slug on a page that's already indexed and getting traffic without setting up a 301 redirect from the old URL.
4. Avoid stop words and filler ('a', 'the', 'and') in slugs — they add length without adding any meaningful signal.
5. Double-check this after any site migration or major redesign, not just at launch.

None of these individually take long. The value is in doing all of them, every time, instead of remembering most of them most of the time.

Pair this with the UTM tracking parameters checklist if you're doing a fuller pre-launch pass.

Product URL / Slug Generator runs through most of this automatically.

Try Product URL / Slug Generator yourself

Everything in this guide runs directly in your browser — no signup, no install.

Open Product URL / Slug Generator →
More on SEO-friendly URL slugs
Product URL / Slug Generator vs. Doing It by Hand: Is It Worth Switching?
A practical look at what Product URL / Slug Generator actually saves you over doing SEO-friendly URL slugs manually, and when manual still makes sense.
Does SEO-Friendly URL Slugs Still Matter in 2026?
A quick, honest look at whether SEO-friendly URL slugs is still worth the effort, or a holdover from an older era of SEO.
SEO-Friendly URL Slugs FAQ: Questions People Actually Ask
Straight answers to the questions that come up most often about SEO-friendly URL slugs.
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