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We will be looking at slugs. How to create one, why to make one, and where to make one. This article will be two-part. The first part is about the general knowledge of how to create a slug for a website and the second part will be on how to create a slug for a Word press website. If it is something that interests you, stick along to find out how to create one.
It is one thing to write a good article; it is another to create a post that generates traffic for a website. There are many reasons an article can become reference material. One, it could be what users are searching for through their search engines. Two-it could be just pure luck as it contains quality content to create a standout post and got engagement. Regardless of the reasons, it is important to create an article that navigates the right track of everything for a standout post. Hence, the essence of a slug.
WHAT IS A SLUG?
A slug is a unique identity of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). URL is a web address. It is a human-readable text designed to replace the numbers (IP addresses) computers use to communicate with servers. They also identify the file structure on the given website. A URL consists of a protocol, domain name, and path (which includes the specific subfolder structure where a page is located), while a slug refers to the part at the end that identifies the exact web page the URL points to.
For instance, “hard-facts” is the slug in Merry.com. When choosing a URL slug, the slug needs to be thoughtful, precise, and effective choice. Using a default page slug without a strategy can ruin your SEO and user-friendliness.
WHY URL SLUGS ARE IMPORTANT
It aids search engines faster:- most search engines consider many factors to understand a post’s content to determine its ranking for search engines. URL includes these factors as it helps describe a post's content accurately and also increases its chances of URL click-ability. In search engine results pages (SERPs), the URL appears around your page’s title.
As a result, your page URL, including your slug, can play into a user’s choice to click on your link. This is also the case when someone sends you a link as long, as irrelevant links are suspicious or questionable.
This all goes to say that slugs are important to search engines and users, and thus, your success.
Improve your rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Make it easy for internet users to predict the content of the page being linked to.
Attract your target audience because your links look more appealing.
It improves site visibility.
HOW TO WRITE A GREAT SLUG
Follow Slug Character Best Practices :- slugs have their grammar, and though the rules are more like suggestions, it’s worth following best practices.
Avoid the use of Capital Letters :- while slugs can use capitalized letters, keeping them all lowercase looks better and breeds consistency. It prevents typos and broken links when case sensitivity is prevalent as well.
Keep Your URL Slugs Short :- short slugs make it easy for users to know what the links (and their pages) are about. You can create slugs of almost any length. However, it’s best to keep your slugs as short as possible, while still providing the information people need. By keeping your slugs brief, they are easier to remember and benefit your search engine optimization (SEO).
Note:- Short can be subjective. Keep the length between three and five words as it’s the best length for full incorporation onto SERPs.
Avoid the use of “stop words” :-these are filtered out by Google, so they make your slug longer without serving any purpose.
Avoid Special Characters :- avoid using special characters – other than dashes to indicate spaces – in a URL slug. Special characters make slugs appear less professional and are harder to read. Many characters also have special meanings within URLs and may look different or cause problems. For example, spaces in a slug will render as “%10”.
Use Hyphens for Spaces:- use dashes or underscores in slugs to show spaces between words. Hyphens are mostly recommended as they are easier to interpret compared to underscores.
Add a Trailing Slash :- a trailing slash is the “/” at the end of a URL slug. Note that it is entirely optional.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a group responsible for advising on web standards, recommends using the trailing slash to indicate a container URL.
Make Slugs Relevant to Page Content:- slugs should accurately represent the content on a page. Keeping slugs relevant helps ensure that search engines will rank your content for appropriate search queries. It doesn’t help to rank #1 for a query when those searching for it aren’t interested in what your page offers. A common tactic is to match your slug to the H1 header. For a category page, that’s usually the title of the product or category; for blog content, it’s the title of the blog post.
Incorporate Target Keywords :- by using keywords as your slugs, you can increase SERP rankings. Simply put, target keywords are phrases that attract visitors to your content. Incorporating keywords into your slugs will help place your site higher on SERPs. This can drive organic traffic to your site, which brings in qualified leads and provides you with a larger audience. Keywords aren’t hard to find, however, it’s vital to choose the right ones (i.e. those your audience is searching for). To get started, just a recommendation Using tools such as Google AdWords Keyword Planner, you can find out which keywords are ranking most highly for your audience. You can then make selections based on those results. Use long-tail keywords:- these help you to rank higher on SERPs, and they also more clearly describe what your content is all about. If you’re unsure which keyword would be best for any particular post, you can use split testing. This is a technique that enables you to see how users respond to different links. The more effort you put into your keyword research and testing, the more effective your links will be.
CONCLUSION
Slug is the part of the post at the end of a URL. It helps drive organic traffic to a website. Keep the Slug precise, concise, and accurate. The URLs should be simple, relevant, compelling, and accurate as possible to get both your users and search engines to understand them (a prerequisite to ranking well).
That’s it for now. Next time, we will discuss the remaining part of this topic. Till next time...
Sources:-SLUG Webspam conservation Learn Slug How to use URL Slug