Changing existing URL's to improve SEO

[flyntime_tx]

Here's a general question:  At what PR/page rank (or Moz 'page authority') would you no longer change an existing URL that's cryptic to one that includes the related page keyword or at least relevant terms?   Does using a 301 redirect to the new URL preserve the page rank?    Thanks!

[Charlene-Wingfield]

301'ing the old page to the new page will keep about 90% of the trust and authority as the old page.

Regarding your first question, how critical is this page to the long-term success of you business?

[UmarKhan]

Hey Michael,

I would like to know what's the main reason that forcing you to change the existing URL? Is it because of the ranking? If yes, then how old is your current URL's format? And what about the traffic stats of this page, is it among the high ones or a last bencher?  If everything is alright then I don't think you need to take a risk of changing/updating your URL.

You can change/update the URL if:

1. It's a polluted URL (contains codes, special characters, parameters and other garbage)
2. You're no longer offering those services specifically but as the Page Authority is good you don't want to remove that page.

In the above cases, you can consider for changing the URL with a 301 redirect. As the Jason said, 301 does preserve the PR and other metrics.

Remember, you might see a temporary ranking drop after implementing the 301 redirect. So make sure to have a proper action plan before.

Hope this helps!

Umar

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

I agree with what Umar says above. Besides the points he has for reason why you should or would change a URL, it'd be great to have context!

Alot of this is going to require research, conversations, and gut instincts - remember, whatever you plan on doing, you need to have a plan that can be explained clearly and concisely. We always hear from clients that they changed URL structures when in reality they just needed a little TLC.

Check the following:

• All KPIs that matter most to your visibility / performance

• Your site's goals over time

• Google Search Console performance over time (impressions / rankings)

• Take a look at your competitors

• Is Google valuing domains that have a different or more categorized URL structure?

• Not a reason to change yours, but it could help categorize your site a bit more

• Check your on-site SEO

• Check your backlinks

• Check your content

• Check your information architecture

• Learn more about your audience

• Are you capturing your audience at the right points? Do you have content to do so?

• Are you doing everything you can do develop your brand(s) right now?

The reason you should check all of the above is because sometimes the URL structure is fine, it's a matter of other elements that could be hurting your organic visibility.

If you do your research and find that that a URL structure change would help, I would focus on the following:
URL Structures (Moz)
Information Architecture for SEO (Moz)
Moving Your Site (Google)
Website Migration Guide (Moz)

All of these resources above will help you move your site in a SEO friendly way and help you preserve as much ranking equity as you can.

Would love to hear the context though! Hope this helps, good luck!

[flyntime_tx]

Hi Jason,

Thanks for the response!   None of the pages are what I'd consider as critical.  They're basically content pages produced by a law firm that speak to various topics their clients may be interested in, but they're essentially un-optimized, i.e. only the firm name in all the title tags, no clear keyword focus, nothing relevant in the URL, poor H1 tags, etc.   Most of the pages get little traffic, but there are a few that get 30-40 views/month.

I only want to change those that are relevant to good keywords I want to optimize them for, and retaining 90% of the trust/authority is good enough.   I'm thinking the benefit of optimizing will outweigh the 10% detriment from changing the currently indexed url.

Thanks again!

[flyntime_tx]

Thanks Umar.  I'd call these 'last benchers' (like that phrase), they are relatively aged but really aren't carrying much weight.   They're mainly content pages but are fairly obscure right now, so I'm hoping by putting the 301 redirect in place, and optimizing the new page/url, we'll get a little better visibility then we can work on collecting a few links to each of them.

Thanks for your response!

[flyntime_tx]

Patrick  -  Great response, really appreciate the effort you put into that and the solid strategy.   I do have a spreadsheet where I've mapped each page and related analytics, i.e. traffic to each page over time, meta tag info, PR, age, url, etc, and very few are driving any significant traffic so those are easy decisons.   The few that ARE getting some decent traffic just make me think it's worth any temporary slippage for longer term benefit of being better optimized, presenting a clear theme for each page for both visitors and search engines.  Knowing I'll retain 90% of the trust/authority by doing the 301 redirects makes it seem clear that's the right call.

I've added several of the link references you included in your response to my reading list for this week, they look like great resources.   Thanks!