The SEO slug is the URL path that identifies a page. A good slug is short, readable, keyword-rich, and permanent. On an e-commerce catalog, slugs generated from product titles often contain references, special characters, or unnecessary words.
SEO slug rules
- Lowercase only — no uppercase, no mixed case
- Hyphens as separators — not underscores or spaces
- No special characters — no accents, no punctuation
- No stop words — remove "the", "a", "and", "with"
- Short and descriptive — 3 to 5 keywords max
Product slug formula
/products/[brand]-[product]-[key-attribute]Example:
/products/salomon-xt-6-women-trail-blackAvoid:
/products/ref-sa-xt6-nb-2026-w-41Category slug formula
/collections/[category]-[attribute]Example:
/collections/women-trail-shoesAvoid:
/collections/cat-007-women-aSlug changes and redirects
Every slug change requires a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. On Shopify, set this up in Online Store > Navigation > URL Redirects. Without a redirect, all accumulated SEO equity is lost.
| Slug | Problem | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| /products/ref-12345 | Reference, no keyword | /products/salomon-xt-6-trail-black |
| /products/Salomon XT 6 (Black) | Spaces + uppercase + special chars | /products/salomon-xt-6-black |
| /products/the-best-trail-shoes-by-salomon | Too long, stop words | /products/salomon-trail-shoes |
| /products/a | Too short, no context | /products/salomon-xt-6 |
On Shopify, the handle is automatically generated from the product title. If your product title contains the reference, the handle will too. Edit the SEO section of each product — or bulk-edit handles via Seegea.
Audit your URL slugs
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FAQ
Modestly but yes. A slug containing the target keyword is a light ranking signal. More importantly, a clean readable slug improves CTR in search results (users trust it more) and facilitates link building (a readable URL is more likely to be shared).