Matt Cutts verifies that keywords in URL help

In a recent Q&A, Matt Cutts verified that having a keyword in a URL, does ‘help a little bit.’ Without directly answering the question of whether or not having your keyword early as opposed to later in the URL, he does (in my mind) imply that it does help to have it early in the URL by advising webmasters not to obsess over it to the point of restructuring their URLs to the point of making them look spammy.

Source: Search Engine Land – Google’s Matt Cutts On Keywords In The URL