Should I change existing internal urls?

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

• 
  John Pitcher: Should I change existing internal urls?
  
  I have a web design site where I created most of the key internal pages quite a few years ago when the recommended way of creating internal pages was to use keywords:
  
  mysite.co.uk / ; ; ; web-design-thetford/website-design-thetford.htm
  mysite.co.uk / ; website-design-suffolk/website-design-suffolk.htm
  mysite.co.uk / website-hosting/website-hosting.htm
  
  I don't know whether this internal url structure is now sending a spam signal about my site as a whole and is therefore ragging down my overall ranking? (Note that I am only targeting the local towns in a direct circle around me - not the whole country.)
  
  Obviously, I would not nowadays create internal urls like this but - as some of these pages are still doing well in Google  ;(generally the less competitive ones) others (generally the more competitive ones) ;have fallen, is it worth changing all of my internal urls and creating redirects?? Most external backlinks to these pages could be changed over time.
  
  I am not sure whether making this change could be (one step) towards creating a higher quality/better ranking site - or whether this will just disrupt the pages that are still ranking well?
  If I did change the urls, would a structure such as:
  
  mysite.co.uk / areas/web-design-Suffolk.html
  mysite.co.uk / areas/web-design-thetford.html
  
  be best?
  
  Would appreciate advice before proceeding.
• 
  Edwin Jonk: some of these pages are still doing well in Google
  
  If it isn't broken don't fix it.... ;-)
  
  I do think that keyword stuffing in the URL can trigger Google's anti-spam. However, a single spam signal doesn't mean you are spamming. In other words, if the page is high quality, backlinks are okay, and there aren't any other spam signals, a single issue isn't really an issue. ;
  
  Just to be clear, I don't recommend the URL's in your example these days....
• 
  John Pitcher: Many thanks +Edwin Jonk. I have now amended my original text to say that it is largely the less competitive pages that are doing well whereas the more competitive ones have fallen - but assume that you still think that this will not drag down my overall rankings?
  
  As said, I agree that these urls are not to be used nowadays.
• 
  Edwin Jonk: From the expert panel in this weeks SEO Questions hangout on air on 01:34:34 into the YouTube video: https://dumbseoquestions.com/q/should_i_change_existing_internal_urls +John Pitcher
  
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• 
  John Pitcher: Many thanks once again to the panel! Very useful advice.