URL keyword separator best practice

[bloomletsgrow]

Hello.

Wanted to reach out see what the consensus is re-keyword separators

So just taken on a new client and all their urls are structured like /buybbqpacks rather than buy-bbq-packs - my understanding is that it comes down to readability, which influences click through, rather than search impact on the keyword.

So we usually advise on a hyphen, but the guy's going to have to change ALLOT of pages & setup redirects to change it all wasn't sure if it was worth it?

Thanks!

Stu

[Alick300]

Hi,

IMO Your assumption" is correct. Existing url structure need to change with hyphen.

According to Google "The URL http://www.example.com/green-dress.html is much more useful to us than **http://www.example.com/greendress.html**."

_Full article is here @ https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/76329?hl=en_

Hope this helps.

Thanks

[bloomletsgrow]

Thanks.

Though would changing 100s or urls adversely impact ranking? Per this: https://moz.com/community/q/will-changing-a-url-negatively-affect-ranking

so perhaps a strategy of change going forward, but don't mess with anything existing? Or otherwise?

Thanks again.

Stu

[Alick300]

are you ranking well for all or most of the keywords? if yes then I wouldn't suggest you to do that because even if you use 301 redirect you will loose some link juice. If that is not the case you can go ahead.

My suggestion was purely based on what Google's recommendation and in terms of readability.

Thanks

[bloomletsgrow]

Some yes some way off. I'll move on that basis.

Thanks

Stu