The document provides an overview of WordPress post slugs, explaining their definition, significance, and best practices for creating effective slugs for improved SEO. It emphasizes that slugs should be unique, lowercase, and unpunctuated, while also being keyword-rich to enhance search engine ranking. The document also offers strategies for crafting optimal slugs, including removing stop words and making them concise.

1. Crash Course in WordPress Post Slugs
What you need to know, right now
Dave Doolin
Website In A Weekend
Dos Palmas
El Cerrito, CA 94530
david.doolin@gmail.com
April 15, 2011
. . . . . .
D. Dool.in WordPress Post Slugs

2. . What is a post slug, anyway?
e term ``post slug'' comes to us from typography. Back in the day, a
slug was a line of lead type used for printing ink on to paper. Now, slug
means a way to identify a resource, such as a blog post.
In WordPress, slugs are:
Unique: no two objects can
have the same slug
Metal type slug set for
letterpress work. (Image ⃝
c
2010 Elise Blaha.)
. . . . . .
D. Dool.in WordPress Post Slugs

3. . What is a post slug, anyway?
e term ``post slug'' comes to us from typography. Back in the day, a
slug was a line of lead type used for printing ink on to paper. Now, slug
means a way to identify a resource, such as a blog post.
In WordPress, slugs are:
Unique: no two objects can
have the same slug
Uniform: slugs are all
lower case letters
Metal type slug set for
letterpress work. (Image ⃝
c
2010 Elise Blaha.)
. . . . . .
D. Dool.in WordPress Post Slugs

4. . What is a post slug, anyway?
e term ``post slug'' comes to us from typography. Back in the day, a
slug was a line of lead type used for printing ink on to paper. Now, slug
means a way to identify a resource, such as a blog post.
In WordPress, slugs are:
Unique: no two objects can
have the same slug
Uniform: slugs are all
lower case letters
Unpunctuated: only a dash
(-) is used for separating
Metal type slug set for words in a slug
letterpress work. (Image ⃝
c
2010 Elise Blaha.)
. . . . . .
D. Dool.in WordPress Post Slugs

5. . What is a post slug, anyway?
e term ``post slug'' comes to us from typography. Back in the day, a
slug was a line of lead type used for printing ink on to paper. Now, slug
means a way to identify a resource, such as a blog post.
In WordPress, slugs are:
Unique: no two objects can
have the same slug
Uniform: slugs are all
lower case letters
Unpunctuated: only a dash
(-) is used for separating
Metal type slug set for words in a slug
letterpress work. (Image ⃝
c Updateable: slugs can be
2010 Elise Blaha.) changed
. . . . . .
D. Dool.in WordPress Post Slugs

6. . Why post slugs?
When you hit the ``Publish'' button on your blog post, your blog post
gets stored into a database with a URL that allows anyone to find it
using their web browser.
.
URL critical for SEO
..
is URL is an important factor in how search engines such as Google
decide ranking order in search results.
.
. . . . . .
D. Dool.in WordPress Post Slugs

7. . Keyword rich post slugs
Keyword-rich post slugs provide outsized SEO bang-for-your-buck.
Here's what they look like:
http://website-in-a-weekend.net/9245/create-permalink
In this example, ``9245'' is the post ID.
. . . . . .
D. Dool.in WordPress Post Slugs

8. . Keyword rich post slugs
Keyword-rich post slugs provide outsized SEO bang-for-your-buck.
Here's what they look like:
http://website-in-a-weekend.net/9245/create-permalink
URL
In this example, ``9245'' is the post ID.
. . . . . .
D. Dool.in WordPress Post Slugs

9. . Keyword rich post slugs
Keyword-rich post slugs provide outsized SEO bang-for-your-buck.
Here's what they look like:
http://website-in-a-weekend.net/ 9245/create-permalink
Permalink
URL
In this example, ``9245'' is the post ID.
. . . . . .
D. Dool.in WordPress Post Slugs

10. . Keyword rich post slugs
Keyword-rich post slugs provide outsized SEO bang-for-your-buck.
Here's what they look like:
Post slug
http://website-in-a-weekend.net/ 9245/ create-permalink
Permalink
URL
In this example, ``9245'' is the post ID.
. . . . . .
D. Dool.in WordPress Post Slugs

11. . Creating great post slugs
Here's how to create great post slugs for blog posts you want to rank
well in Google search results:
...
1 Choose important keywords to accurately reflect article content.
. . . . . .
D. Dool.in WordPress Post Slugs

12. . Creating great post slugs
Here's how to create great post slugs for blog posts you want to rank
well in Google search results:
...
1 Choose important keywords to accurately reflect article content.
...
2 Make it short, 2-5 keywords. Fewer keywords give each keyword
higher relative value.
. . . . . .
D. Dool.in WordPress Post Slugs

13. . Creating great post slugs
Here's how to create great post slugs for blog posts you want to rank
well in Google search results:
...
1 Choose important keywords to accurately reflect article content.
...
2 Make it short, 2-5 keywords. Fewer keywords give each keyword
higher relative value.
...
3 Remove all stop words such as ``and,'' ``the,'' ``in,'' etc.;
. . . . . .
D. Dool.in WordPress Post Slugs

14. . Creating great post slugs
Here's how to create great post slugs for blog posts you want to rank
well in Google search results:
...
1 Choose important keywords to accurately reflect article content.
...
2 Make it short, 2-5 keywords. Fewer keywords give each keyword
higher relative value.
...
3 Remove all stop words such as ``and,'' ``the,'' ``in,'' etc.;
...
4 Remove other words which are superfluous.
What remains is the post slug. e slug sits at the end of the URL to
form a unique permalink. You really want to get this right the first time
because adding web page redirects later is messy and boring, and may
hurt your search results.
. . . . . .
D. Dool.in WordPress Post Slugs

15. . Post slug example
Consider the blog post titled How to Add favicon.ico to WordPress For
Professional Appearance
Here's post slug WordPress gives us automatically, without any plugins
or permalink configuration:
how-to-add-faviconico-to-wordpress-for-professional-appearance
. . . . . .
D. Dool.in WordPress Post Slugs

16. . Post slug example
Consider the blog post titled How to Add favicon.ico to WordPress For
Professional Appearance
Here's post slug WordPress gives us automatically, without any plugins
or permalink configuration:
how-to-add-faviconico-to-wordpress-for-professional-appearance
Let's take out the stop words ``how,'' ``to,'' and ``for'' which leaves us
with:
add-favicon-wordpress-professional-appearance
. . . . . .
D. Dool.in WordPress Post Slugs

17. . Post slug example
Consider the blog post titled How to Add favicon.ico to WordPress For
Professional Appearance
Here's post slug WordPress gives us automatically, without any plugins
or permalink configuration:
how-to-add-faviconico-to-wordpress-for-professional-appearance
Let's take out the stop words ``how,'' ``to,'' and ``for'' which leaves us
with:
add-favicon-wordpress-professional-appearance
Much better. Now, since this article is pillar content on Website In A
Weekend, let's make a really short slug giving heavier weight to each
keyword in the slug:
wordpress-favicon
.
Go deeper
..
Really Fast SEO Slugs with WordPress plugin
.
. . . . . .
D. Dool.in WordPress Post Slugs

18. . ank you for your time!
is slide presentation is part of Blog Post Engineering, an electronic
course covering every aspect of writing and publishing a blog post.
Blog Post Engineering is:
Electronic: text and multimedia.
. . . . . .
D. Dool.in WordPress Post Slugs

19. . ank you for your time!
is slide presentation is part of Blog Post Engineering, an electronic
course covering every aspect of writing and publishing a blog post.
Blog Post Engineering is:
Electronic: text and multimedia.
Modular: Learn what you need
to know, at your own pace.
. . . . . .
D. Dool.in WordPress Post Slugs

20. . ank you for your time!
is slide presentation is part of Blog Post Engineering, an electronic
course covering every aspect of writing and publishing a blog post.
Blog Post Engineering is:
Electronic: text and multimedia.
Modular: Learn what you need
to know, at your own pace.
Complete: Soup to nuts, it's all
in the course.
. . . . . .
D. Dool.in WordPress Post Slugs

21. . ank you for your time!
is slide presentation is part of Blog Post Engineering, an electronic
course covering every aspect of writing and publishing a blog post.
Blog Post Engineering is:
Electronic: text and multimedia.
Modular: Learn what you need
to know, at your own pace.
Complete: Soup to nuts, it's all
in the course. Dave Doolin has had a long
Current: Updated 2 times per time interest in web
year. publishing and electronic
document construction.
For more information, visit Blog Post Engineering. You may also enjoy
Website In A Weekend, where you will find answers to the rest of your
blogging and WordPress questions. . . . . . .
D. Dool.in WordPress Post Slugs