What Is A Slug In SEO?

SEO, or search engine optimization, is everything to do with identifying your website and web pages, so search engines know what kind of content is on a specific page.

You need to optimize every aspect of a web page to maximize your SEO efforts.

This includes keywords within your text, writing your text so it is easy to read and digest, and including the most essential keywords in your web page URLs and meta descriptions, making it easy for search engines to crawl and assess for your web page.

One of the first things search engines analyze for SEO is the URL of a web page. This is why optimizing part of the URL on your web pages with an SEO keyword slug is essential for rankings well in search engine results pages (SERPs).

In this article, we take a look at what precisely a slug is when we’re talking about SEO, why they’re essential, and how you can write your URL slugs to maximize their effectiveness in search engines.

What Is A Slug In SEO?

A slug in SEO is the portion of a URL that identifies what kind of content and information is on that page. Slugs consist of target keywords spaced with hyphens and are separate from the domain name in a URL.

For example, we’ve written an article on How to Make SEO-Friendly URLs.

The URL for this particular web page is:

/url-structure-for-seo/

The SEO slug for this article is “url-structure-for-seo”.

We’ve essentially included a mini summary of the content that signifies to search engines precisely what this page is about in this slug. You’ll notice there are no unnecessary words in this slug, making it as user-friendly as possible for search engines to assess.

This article includes a step-by-step tutorial to writing your own SEO plugs. You can use it to change your old URLs to new URLs that are better optimized for search engines.

Look at another example.

At Loganix, amongst other SEO services, we offer SEO copywriting.

This is our SEO copywriting landing page:

The URL for this web page is:

/seo-copywriting-service/

The SEO slug is “seo-copywriting-services”.

This short slug tells search engines precisely what is on this page – information about SEO copywriting services.

When writing your own SEO slugs, keep them as short as possible while covering the essential keywords.

Why are slugs important for SEO?

SEO slugs are vital as they signpost your web pages.

Think of them as street names that we use to navigate. Maps use street names to help us find where we want to go. Search engines do exactly the same with slugs in URLs.

If you want to find a web page that teaches you how to make an origami crane, search engines will look in URLs for page slugs that include the keywords related to your search query: “make”, “origami”, and “crane”.

This is why structuring your URLs with slugs is essential for effective SEO efforts and maximizing your SERP rankings to attract high search volumes of organic search traffic.

URL Slug FAQs

What is category slug?

The category slug is part of a URL that delineates the category that web page is in. Web pages fall into different categories, for example, ‘support’ (which is a common category slug.

What is a WordPress slug?

A WordPress slug is the text that follows your domain name in your WordPress permalink URL on a WordPress website.

Why is it called a URL slug?

In marketing and media, a slug is a short name given to an article for internal use. An example of this is reporters talking with their editors about an article, and instead of referring to the full title of the article, they use a condensed version or slug.

This terminology then carried over to naming web pages with short, concise summaries of the web page in their permalinks, hence a URL slug.

Is a Slug important for SEO?

A slug is essential for SEO. Without adequately strategized slugs, search engines cannot know what information is on your website or web page.

One of the best SEO tips we can offer you in writing your URLs is your SEO slugs must align with the page’s content – refer to the examples at the beginning of this article to get an idea of how to write an SEO slug that is relevant to the web page content.

Summary

Hopefully, this article has given you a better understanding of slugs for SEO.

They are a component of on-page technical SEO, and well-written SEO slugs can quickly set you apart from your competitors who neglect these technical aspects.

If you’d like to discuss how we can handle your SEO requirements, don’t hesitate to look at our services here or get in touch to arrange a commitment-free consultation.