"Optimize your URL slugs for keywords."

"Optimize your URL slugs for keywords."

Marginally, once.

The slug is a weak signal and changing one on a ranking page is a real risk. Here's the decision checklist before you touch a single URL:

— Is the page ranking and getting traffic? Then stop. The redirect risk outweighs the slug gain every time.
— New page, no history? Fine — keep it short, lowercase, hyphenated, 3–5 words, no dates, no stop words.
— Drop the category folder if it adds nothing. /blog/category/sub/post is depth for depth's sake.
— Never put the publish year in an evergreen slug. You'll either lie or redirect in twelve months.
— Match the slug to the concept, not the long-tail phrase. /title-tags ages better than /best-title-tag-length-2024.

The whole "keyword-rich URL" obsession is fighting over a rounding error. (Amazon ranks number one for everything with URLs that look like a cat walked across the keyboard.)