Changing my url name? Should I do it?

[YNWA]

Hi,

I am targeting a brand called Creative Recreation, who are a trainers brand. We currently rank ok-ish for certain terms for Creative Recreation Trainers, Footwear and Creative Recreation [INSERT STYLE NAME HERE].

Our main search term I think we would like to improve on is "creative recreation trainers" as we are 6th for this.

Our domain name points to the brands page as designerboutique-online.com/all-clothing/creative-recreation/

Now what I want to know is, would it be worthwhile or would it affect my current rank/index if I changed the end of that url to read /creative-recreation-trainers/ thus getting the keyword phrase in the url?

Creative-Recreation is a hard one to crack as you have a lot of competition from the brands site etc..

Any ideas on this?

Cheers

Will

[UnderRugSwept]

Yes, it would most likely affect your current ranking. However, ranking changes due to URL changes are usually only temporary if you set up a 301 redirect. This tells both the browser and the search engine that the page has permanently been moved and it usually passes on the same ranking with a month.

[YNWA]

Thanks.

As I do not have access to the sites back end code. How long would this type of job take? As the web firm charge hourly and from my web knowledge it should only take 5 mins?

I can change the name of the URL via the CMS but I cant 301 pages from it, or go back to the old url to do anything, if you know what I mean.

Thanks

Will

[YNWA]

Also, if I didn't set up a 301 re-direct, how long would it take my pages to come back to were they were?

[UnderRugSwept]

If you provided the web firm with a complete list of the old URLs and the URLs you want them redirected to, it should only take them about 10 minutes for them to update your .htaccess file.

[UnderRugSwept]

If you're referring to search engine ranking, it usually takes about a month, give or take.

[JonathanSmith]

I agree, it would almost certainly make a difference, but using a 301 redirect is key. Changing the URL and adding a redirect should take no time at all, but may web companies have a minimum charge period.