URL slugs

Find and change the exact address of specific pages and collection items.

Last updated January 27, 2025

A URL slug is the exact address of a specific page or collection item on your site.

Squarespace automatically assigns a URL slug for each new page or collection item based on its title. For example, if you add a page titled "About," its automatic URL slug is /about and its full URL is https://yourdomain.com/about.

Use this guide to learn how to find and change URL slugs on your site.

Find a page's URL slug

You'll need a page slug when setting up links to specific collection items, anchor links, RSS feeds, and URL redirects. If you're logged in, the logged in URL doesn't include the page slug. Use these options to see a page's slug while logged in:

  • Full preview - Click the expand arrow in the top-right or top-left corner to open full preview. The page slug appears after your built-in domain name in the address bar.
  • Private browsing or incognito mode - Visit your site and navigate to the page or item in a private or incognito browser. The page slug appears after your domain name in the address bar.
  • Page or item settings - Follow the steps in the sections below to find and edit the URL slug for pages, blog posts, events, portfolio sub-pages, products, and more.

URL slug formatting tips

Using short, memorable URLs makes it easier for visitors to find and share your content.

When editing URL slugs, keep the following formatting requirements in mind:

Capitalization

  • URL slugs are all lowercase. Any uppercase characters you enter when editing the URL will automatically change to lowercase.
  • If you or visitors enter any uppercase letters when trying to visit a page, your site's 404 error will display instead. To prevent this from happening, you can create 301 URL redirects, which sends visitors from an incorrect, capitalized URL to the uncapitalized version your site uses.

Character limits

  • For most pages, URL slugs must be between 3 and 250 characters. Blog post, event, and product URL slugs must be between 3 and 200 characters.
  • URL slugs can't include special characters other than dashes (-).
  • If you save a blog post or event before adding a title, the URL slug will be a random string of characters.

Reusing old URLs

  • Pages and posts - URL slugs for live pages and posts can't match URL slugs for other live pages or posts. To reuse a URL slug, delete the old page or post, then update the new page or post with the URL slug.
  • Products - It's not possible to reuse the URL slug of a product that was deleted. We recommend changing all product URLs to something you don't intend to use before deleting.

Reserved URL slugs

Squarespace reserves some URL slugs for internal parts of your site, meaning you'll see an error message if you try to use them for a page's URL.

Pages for some of these resources are automatically created when you start a site and can't be deleted. For example, a /cart page exists even if you haven't built an online store.

Reserved slugs include:

  • account
  • api
  • assets
  • auth
  • campaigns
  • cart
  • checkout
  • commerce
  • config
  • debug
  • facebook
  • files
  • item
  • script
  • scripts
  • search
  • sharer
  • static
  • storage
  • universal

Collection URL slugs

When you add collection pages to your site, their URL slugs become reserved URLs. This prevents you from using URLs for other pages that include the URL slug used for your collection page. 

For example, if you have a blog page with the URL slug /projects, you can't use the URL slug /projects/example for another page.

If you change a page's URL slug, traffic won't automatically redirect to the new URL. If a visitor clicks an old link or types in the old URL, they'll see a 404 error.

There are a few ways to prevent broken links after changing a URL slug:

  • Create a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one.
  • Edit any links directing to the page. If you linked to the page using page links, update those links too.

Change a page URL

Page URLs are automatically set based on a page's title. To edit this URL, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Pages panel.
  2. Hover over the page and click  to open page settings.
  3. Update the URL in the URL slug field.
  4. Click Save.

Note

When you're logged in, collection pages display a string of numbers and letters in the browser address bar. This unique ID can't be changed, but it won't appear to visitors.

Set a default blog post URL format

To keep blog post URLs consistent, all post URLs publish in the same format by default. You can edit this format to include any combination of the post title, creation year, month, date, and custom text.

Any blog post made after you set the default blog post URL format will use the format automatically, but it won't retroactively change the URL format for existing blog posts. You can also edit blog post URL slugs manually.

To set the default blog post URL format:

  1. Open the Blog preferences panel.
  2. Edit the Post URL format using the variables below and any custom text.
  3. To remove a variable from the URL format (for example, %y, for year), click into the Post URL format field and delete the variable.
  1. Tap More, tap Settings, then tap Blogging
  2. Tap Post URL Format, then enter a new default using the variables below and any custom text.
  3. To remove a variable from the URL format (for example, %y, for year), tap into the Post URL Format field and delete the variable.

Variables:

  • %t - The post title
  • %m - The creation month for the blog post
  • %d - The creation date (day of the month) for the blog post
  • %y - The creation year for the blog post

Note

If you added custom text, spaces between characters will appear as %20. To avoid this formatting, replace spaces with dashes (-).

Change a blog post URL

Blog post URLs always begin with the blog page URL slug. The rest of the slug is set by the post title and the default post URL format in the Blog preferences panel, but you can edit this part of the slug manually.

To edit a blog post URL slug:

  1. Open the Pages panel and click a blog page.
  2. Hover over the post in the side panel and click ..., then click Settings.
  3. In the Content tab, enter a new URL slug in the Post URL field. Only the specific blog post URL slug can be edited here. To change the blog page slug, follow the steps above to change a page URL.
  4. Click Save.
  1. Open the Pages panel and click a blog page.
  2. Hover over the post you want to change and click Edit.
  3. Click the Options tab.
  4. Enter a new URL slug in the Post URL field. Only the specific blog post URL slug can be edited here. To change the blog page slug, follow the steps above to change a page URL.
  5. Click Save.

If your site is on version 7.1:

  1. Tap More, tap Pages, tap the blog, then tap the blog post.
  2. Tap ..., tap Settings, then tap Content
  3. Tap Post URL and enter a new URL slug in the URL field. Only the specific blog post URL slug can be edited here. To change the blog page slug, follow the steps above to change a page URL.
  4. Tap Back, then tap Save

If your site is on version 7.0:

  1. Tap More, tap Pages, tap the blog, then tap the blog post.
  2. Tap ..., then tap Page Settings
  3. Tap Post URL and enter a new URL slug in the URL field. Only the specific blog post URL slug can be edited here. To change the blog page slug, follow the steps above to change a page URL.
  4. Tap Back, then tap Save

Change an event URL

URLs for individual events are set by the events page URL slug followed by the event date and title. To edit an event URL slug:

  1. Open the Pages panel and click an events page.
  2. Hover over the event in the side panel and click ..., then click Settings.
  3. Click Content (in version 7.1) or Options (in version 7.0).
  4. Enter a new URL slug in the Event URL field. Only the specific event URL slug can be edited here. To change the events page slug, follow the steps above to change a page URL.
  5. Click Save.

Change a product URL

Product URLs are set by the store page URL followed by the product title. To edit a product URL slug:

  1. Open the Pages panel and click a store page.
  2. Click All, then double click the product you want to change. 
  3. Scroll to SEO and URL and click Edit
  4. Enter a new URL slug in the URL field. Only the specific product URL slug can be edited here. To change the store page slug, follow the steps above to change a page URL.
  5. Click Apply.

Keep in mind, you can't change a URL slug to a slug used by a deleted product.

Product URL structure

Your product URL comes after your domain and page URL. Structure your product URL with this format:

  • /product-url

It's not possible to add more slashes to your product URL. For example, this structure won't work:

  • /product-url/extra

If you need to add more text to the product URL, use dashes between each word:

  • /product-url-extra

Change a lesson page URL slug (version 7.1)

Lesson pages are the item pages of a course page. Their URL slugs are set by the course page URL followed by the lesson title and a random string of characters. To edit a lesson page URL slug:

  1. Open the Pages panel and click a course page.
  2. In the side panel, click Course content.
  3. Hover over the lesson and click ..., then click Lesson settings.
  4. In the General tab, enter a new URL slug in the Custom URL field. Only the specific lesson page URL slug can be edited here. To change the course page slug, follow the steps above to change a page URL.
  5. Click Save.

Change a portfolio sub-page URL (version 7.1)

Portfolio sub-page URLs are set by the portfolio page URL followed by the sub-page title. To edit a portfolio sub-page URL slug:

  1. Open the Pages panel and click a portfolio page.
  2. Hover over the sub-page you want to change and click ..., then click Settings.
  3. In the General tab, enter a new URL slug in the URL slug field. Only the specific sub-page URL slug can be edited here. To change the portfolio page slug, follow the steps above to change a page URL.
  4. Click Save.

Change a video details page URL (version 7.1)

Video details pages are the item pages of a videos page. Their URLs begin with the videos page URL slug followed by /v/ and the video title. For example, if a videos page URL slug is /yoga-library, and a video added to that page is titled Basic Flow, the video details page URL is /yoga-library/v/basic-flow.

To edit a video details page URL slug:

  1. Open the Pages panel and click a videos page.
  2. In the side panel, click All.
  3. Hover over the video and click ..., then click Edit video.
  4. In the Content tab, enter a new URL slug in the Custom URL field. Only the specific video details page URL slug can be edited here. To change the videos page slug, follow the steps above to change a page URL.
  5. Click Save.

Change an index URL (version 7.0 only)

An index page displays the content from multiple sub-pages in one location. To change the URL for the index landing page, ensure you edit the main index:

  1. Open the Pages panel.
  2. Hover over the index page title and click  to open page settings.
  3. Update the URL in the URL slug field.
  4. Click Save.
open-index-page-settings.png

Tip

Each sub-page has its own URL, called the direct URL. To change any of these, edit the sub-page directly.

Deeplink URLs, also called post URLs or image URLs, are unique URLs automatically assigned to images in many templates' gallery pages. These URLs take visitors directly to an image within a gallery page.

You can replace the automatically-generated slug for any image in a gallery page:

  1. Open the Pages panel and click a gallery page.
  2. Hover over an image in the side panel and click .
  3. Click the Options tab.
  4. The assigned deeplink URL is in the Image URL field. Edit this to change the slug.
  5. Click Save.
  1. Tap More, tap Pages, then tap the gallery page.
  2. Tap the image you want to edit.
  3. Under Options, tap Image URL, then enter a new URL slug.
  4. Tap Back, then tap Save.
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