Is it still worth changing a url with half the pages target keyphrase in to the entire phrase still ?

[Dan-Lawrence]

Hi

If a pages url has half the pages target keyphrase (i.e. 1 word instead of 2) is it still worth changing to include entire keyphrase (2 words) given need to then add 301 redirects etc after ?

If it was a new page then I would definately include full keyphrase but the page is a few months old and has quite high page authority as is (i know a 301 should transfer most authority) but given this page and other sub pages would also need to be 301'd if this change occurs and the dev time/cost that would incurred/charged by the design/dev agency. Also thinking Google being cleverer now (the pages content will be about the target kw) so thinking G would work it out from rest of page content and partial match kw in url.

In other words to best target keyphrase is it best to leave url as is or change url to include keyphrase ?

For example if the pages target kw is 'swimming clubs' and the current url is

www.franksleisurecentres.com/clubs

changing it to

www.franksleisurecentres.com/swimming-clubs

:Thanks

Dan

[TomRayner]

Hi Dan

No, I really don't think this is worth it.

If having the keyword in the latter part of the URL has any effect at all, it is not a very large one.  Moreover, despite 301 redirects passing all of the link juice of a previous page, you're still losing other potential signals, such as referring IPs, anchor text and social signals (if they have an SEO effect or not, having a page with a number of social signals can look pretty positive to a reader).

Does the potential benefit of adding the full keyword to the URL outweigh the potential benefit of what is lost in a redirect?  I think it's pretty hard to say - and I for one don't like making such changes on that kind of information, particularly for pretty trivial ones.

If the on-page content is rich and about swimming clubs, the title and meta tags are present and so on,  I think that's all that you need to succeed for on-page SEO.

Hope this helps.

[Dan-Lawrence]

Good answer cheers Tom !