What Is a Slug in WordPress?

If you are new to the world of web design and development, you are probably wondering what is a slug in WordPress. In this article, we’ll explain the concept of WordPress slug and why it is important. We also explain how you can use a slug to improve the competitive advantage of your website and how it influences your website’s appearance in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

What is a Slug in WordPress?

A slug in WordPress refers to the editable part of the URL of a page. This is the last part of the URL and usually contains keywords that are separated by a hyphen. In some URLs, the slug may also contain elements such as the author’s name, time, day, month, identifying numbers, and more. This is usually defined by the permalink structure of your website.

Although often confused with permalink, the two are different. A permalink is a permanent URL or a page or post on your page and cannot be changed once the page goes live. On the other hand, a slug is a name that makes it easier for readers and search engines to understand what the page or post is all about.

WordPress Slug Structure

Identifying the slug is so easy. You don’t even need to do a WordPress site audit. To give you a better understanding of what is a slug in WordPress, let’s explore its various parts. Take the following URL, for instance:

https://wpdepend.com/blog/what-is-slug-in-wordpress

Starting from left, the parts of a website URL are as follows:

• The schema: This is the very first part of the URL and includes the https:// or http:// for websites with SSL encryption
• The Subdomain: This includes the www or may not be indicated in the URL
• The Second-Level Domain: This is the name of the websites, such as wpdepend
• The Top-Level Domain: This could be a .com, .net, .org, .io, and so on.
• The Subdirectory: This is an indication of the subsection of the website that you are in and comes after the first slash. In our URL, the subdirectory is “blog.”
• The Slug: Being the last part of the URL, the slug comes after the second slash. It indicates the specific page you are in the subdirectory.

How Do You Optimize a Slug in a WordPress?

Since a slug plays an important role in describing a page or post, it is important to optimize it for humans. This means making it easy to read and remember.

Before optimizing, your post URL could be something like https://wpdepend.com/blog/post-id?=3564gkermgld

The same slug would be optimized to read: https://wpdepend.com/blog/what-is-slug-in-wordpress

By optimizing the slug this way, you make it makes it easier for visitors to read and know what to expect from the page or post. It also instills a sense of confidence in the content they are about to read. Here are some of the tips to optimize the slug for both readers and search engine algorithms:

• Include 1-2 Keywords: Since you cannot include all the keywords, focus only on the main phrase. This helps the readers and search engine algorithms to understand what the post is all about.
• Match the Title: You can keep the slug similar to the title, but not exactly the same. If you write a post about, “5 Tips to Writing a Blog Post,” the slug could be “tips-writing-blog-post.”
• Remove Unnecessary Words: Slugs are more readable and effective when you omit prepositions, articles, and pronouns. Also known as stop words, such phrases are usually ignored by search engines and add no value to the slug.

How Do You Change a Slug in WordPress URL?

When you publish a page or post, WordPress will by default use the permalink structure. Unfortunately, this structure is not friendly to the readers and search engines. By changing the permalink to a friendly structure, you improve the SEO quality of your website. Using a permalink default structure could also be the reason why your website is falling behind.

To get started, navigate your WordPress dashboard to settings, then Permalink. Then select “Post name” as this will help you to shorten the slug option to include relevant keywords. Essentially, you should change the permalink before launching the website, but is also possible to do it after. For this, you will need to redirect your old URL to new ones using any of the available redirect WordPress plugins.

Improve Overall WordPress Website Performance

In this article, we have explained what is a slug in WordPress. While changing the slug is usually easy, you may need to update other areas of your website for better performance. A site audit can help to find areas of your website that need improvements or the reasons why you are not ranking on search engines. At WP Depend, we offer quality WordPress design and development services. Contact us today so we can review your website and update it for better performance.