Will changing my wordpress permalinks add SEO value?

[SamCUK]

I'm considering changing my permalinks from:

http://www.musicliveuk.com/corporate-entertainment-1

http://www.musicliveuk.com/corporate-entertainment-2

to:

http://www.musicliveuk.com/corporate-entertainment-london etc...

(these are example pages and don't actually exist)

as I want to optimise pages for specific cities. This will create a load of 404 errors which I will have to 301 redirect (I presume that's the best way of doing it?).  Does having the keyword in the url help and is the added SEO value (if their is any) worth it?

[KJ-Rodgers]

Based on the examples, I believe it would be well worth it. As indicated in several areas of SEOMoz, particularly the pro campaigns they list having the keyword in the url. I do believe that the 301's will pass on existing juice, but it will be more beneficial moving forward in the future.

On the campaign pages > On-Page Optimization> Moderate Importance Factors

<dt>Explanation</dt>

<dd>Keywords in the URL string help to add relevancy to the page for search engine rankings, assist searchers and users in identifying the page's content/topic when viewing the URL and provide value when used as the anchor text of referring links.</dd>

<dt>Recommendation</dt>

<dd>Employ the targeted keyword(s) in the URL string of the page. If you're targeting a 2+ word phrase, use hyphens to separate individual words.</dd>