Should a URL match the page's title?

Question

Should the URL of a page match its title? For example:

Http://example.com/about-cats.html

<title>About Cats</title>

Furthermore, if that title were to be changed by the page's author, should the URL change to match and the old URL be redirected (301) to the new URL?

Edit

Also, if the pages author were to decide to revert his changes after several days, would it be right to remove the redirect and set up an new redirect from the amended URL back to the old URL?

Answer 1

No, the content of the title element and the path of the URL don't have to match.

Think of all the sites that use only IDs in the URL path, e.g. YouTube:

• URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP4NMoJcFd4
• Title: Songify This - CAN'T HUG EVERY CAT (now on iTunes) -- a song about loving cats - YouTube

Also, most of the times the title content will be rather long, while it's often advisable for URLs to be short:

• URL: http://example.com/shop/cant-hug-every-cat
• Title: Music video (DVD): "Can't hug every cat" (2011) by "The Gregory Brothers" and "Cara Hartmann" – example.com

Answer 2

Yes, Very Much. If you are talking in the Point of SERP AND SEO. It does require matching Title with URL. and it should have 75 Characters in Title and URL.