Do URL Structure Changes Affect SEO?

If a webmaster currently going through a site migration and he'd also like to restructure the URLs on the site. So, does this impose any risks? 

This question is about tweaking a website's URL structure. Unfortunately, while this may at first sound like a small change within a website, it's not that simple for search engines. 

In particular, search engines like Google store their index on a per-page basis. So the answer is "yes" it does affect SEO because if you change the address or the URL of a page, that page's data has to be forwarded somehow. Otherwise, it gets lost. It doesn't matter if you are completely rebuilding a website or if you are just removing a slash from the end of URLs. These are all essential site moves. I provide you with extensive documentation that will help you. 

In particular, I recommend on-site moves

• Do your research and the potential effects since these changes take time and have ranking effects. It's also recommended to consider the timing of when you make the move.
• Create a list of the old and new URLs. This will help you track and check the changes afterward. 
• Implement the migration, (1) 301 redirect all the old URLs to the new ones, and (2) update all internal mentions such as links, forms, structure data, site maps, and the robots.txt file. 
• Monitor the migration, check all pages for the redirect in the Google search console's report. You should see quick changes for the most important pages and then a slower change as Google systems reprocess the rest.      

Overall, this can take several months to complete. Redirects should remain in place for at least one year. Well, these changes are not always easy. However, with good research, documentation, and preparation I'm confident that you can make them work.