Will changing a URL negatively affect ranking?

[Substance-create]

Hello Mozzers,

We would like to change the URL for a page on our website which ranks well for some our keyphrases/words. We are hoping the change of URL, through the addition of an additional keyword would help boost the rank of that URL further. At the moment out page gets 2 x A and 2 x B 1xF on the MOZ page rank tool using 5 keyphrase/word variations . One phrase ranks 4, one ranks 3 and the other 3 are 'not in the top 50'

Our plan was to change the URL, using SHF404, and use 'Fetch' in the Google search console to re-submit the page to Google.

Appreciate you can't give any guarantees how Google will behave, just wondered what your thoughts were on the wisdom of changing the URL in the first place?

Thanks

Ian

[LoganRay]

Hi,

According to this article, John Mueller says Google doesn't weigh URLs that heavily when determining rank. I always advise against changing URLs unless it's absolutely necessary, as you'll lose about 15% of the page's current PR when you redirect it.

This article also directly says to not change URLs for SEO purposes: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-urls-seo-17889.html

[EGOL]

It's a bad idea to monkey with your URLs, a really bad idea... but if you can't help yourself, do it immediately, because the longer you wait the more you will probably lose as that page accumulates authority.

[OlegKorneitchouk]

Agreed with one note... its a really bad idea if you are already ranking for the terms you like to. There will definitely be a period of time where you will lose your rankings and although they should return to their previous rankings, Google is fickle.

So if you aren't ranking in the top 50 for several terms, simply changing the URL won't get you to the first page (it may get you into the top 50 though). You would need to update the content and backlinks (internal + external) to see worthwhile movement. Otherwise you just risk losing ranking for the terms you currently do well for.

[KDeaver]

Where did you get the 15% number? Just hoping to cite it. Thanks!

[kiingugo]

i did this without a proper 301 redirect... it affected me badly..  pages where i rank the posts really dropped..  you'll need to do a proper 301 redirect... rankings would drop a little bit . but it would  boost up late on  . .