An article's slug is the last part of its public URL. It is generated from the title when the article is created, and you can rename it at any time without breaking links that already point at the article.
Rename a slug
- Open the article in the editor.
- Click the Article settings button (the gear icon) in the header. A side panel opens.
- Edit the URL slug field. Only lowercase letters, numbers and dashes are allowed; anything else is converted as you type.
- If the field turns red with This slug is already used by another article, pick a different one.
Clear the field to generate a slug from the current title again.
On a draft, the new slug is used as soon as the article is published. On a published article, the change takes effect when you click Publish changes (see Edit a published article safely).
What happens to the old URL
HelpBento keeps the previous slug and redirects anyone who opens the old URL to the new one. Up to 10 retired slugs are remembered per article, oldest expiring first, so an article that has been renamed several times keeps all of its recent links alive.
A worked example. You publish an article titled "Getting started with the widget" and its URL is:
https://acme.helpbento.com/article/<id>-getting-started-with-the-widgetLater you shorten the slug to widget-quick-start and publish. The article now lives at:
https://acme.helpbento.com/article/<id>-widget-quick-startAnyone who bookmarked the first URL, found it in a search engine, or clicked it from an old email still lands on the article. Links from your other articles keep working too.
<id> part of the URL is the article's fixed identifier and stays the same through every rename; only the readable part after it changes.