Imagine walking through a vast supermarket, aisle after aisle, with no clear indications of how to return to the entrance. This can be annoying. This is what it feels like for users to navigate a website without breadcrumbs.
Seemingly small as they are, breadcrumbs have great significance in user experience (UX) and search engine optimization (SEO). In this guide, we will delve into details of breadcrumbs, why they are necessary for SEO success, and how you can effectively implement them on your site.
What Are Breadcrumbs, Exactly?
Breadcrumbs are navigation aids found on websites that help users know their exact position within the site’s structure and make reaching higher-level pages or the homepage easier. They usually appear like a string of links separated by greater-than symbols(>) at the top section of a webpage.
For example, an e-commerce website may display a breadcrumb trail as follows:
Home > Women’s Clothing > Dresses > Summer Dresses > Floral Sundress
What Are the Different Types of Breadcrumbs for SEO?
Let us now look at each type of breadcrumb more closely;
1. Hierarchy-Based (Location-Based):
These are commonly preferred for SEO, hence most common. They tell about the user’s current position in terms of hierarchy based on which they came up. Each link points to a category or page that is above it in its own hierarchy.
Example: Home > Products > Electronics > Smartphones > Apple iPhones
Benefits:
- This is good for search engine optimization because it makes it easier for search engines to crawl and understand your site structure.
- Users can easily determine where they are and return to broader categories.
2. Attribute-Based:
These types of breadcrumbs are mostly used in e-commerce websites, where users apply product attributes or filters before reaching the current product page.
Example: Home > Shop > Men’s Shoes > Running Shoes > Size 10> Color: Blue
Benefits:
- They can be instrumental if you have an e-commerce site with faceted navigation and filtering options.
- The users can use this to narrow their search or find related products based on their previous choices.
3. History-Based:
These breadcrumbs replicate a user’s browsing history within the website, similar to a back button in a browser; however, they are less common today.
Example: Home > Previous Page > Previous Page > Current Page
Drawbacks:
- These might need to be clarified for users who may not remember precisely how they navigated from one page to another.
- They are ineffective for SEO since they need to incorporate hierarchy or keyword relevance.
What Are 3 Key Benefits of Using Breadcrumbs?
Breadcrumbs have a lot of benefits for both website users and owners alike. Here are three main benefits which can be illustrated with the help of examples:
-
Improves User Experience:
Breadcrumbs clearly show the user’s journey through the website, making navigation more intuitive and reducing frustration. They also allow users to retrace their steps easily or explore different branches of the site.
Example: When you go to the Target website (https://www.target.com/) to access a specific product, such as a kitchen appliance, you may notice a breadcrumb trail of Home > Kitchen & Dining > Kitchen Appliances > Blenders > Specific Blender Model. This makes it easy for users to return to “Kitchen Appliances” or discover other blenders.
-
Improves SEO Performance:
Breadcrumbs create easily understood hierarchical structures for search engines. This improves crawlability so search engines can efficiently index your pages and locate relevant keywords in breadcrumb links anchor texts.
Example: On the REI website (https://www.rei.com/), breadcrumbs help visitors navigate yet contain relevant keywords. The trail, for example, could be Home > Men’s > Footwear > Hiking Boots > Specific Boot Model when describing a hiking boot product. That indicates that the product’s category is to search engines and helps the page rank better in appropriate searches.
-
Lowers Bounce Rates:
If people can navigate your site without difficulty, they will stay longer and visit multiple pages. Consequently, having a low bounce rate becomes an advantage for search engines, which indicates that your content has value.
Example: Visitors coming onto Backcountry.com (https://www.backcountry.com/) will be less likely to leave immediately if they don’t find what they were looking for on the first page they see because its breadcrumbs are clear-cut in structure. They encourage people to continue navigating to other relevant sections.
How Do Breadcrumbs Benefit SEO in More Detail?
- Improved User Experience: Breadcrumbs reduce bounce rates, make navigation intuitive, and encourage users to view more pages. Websites using clear maritime structures, including breadcrumbs, have been shown to have 20% higher conversion rates.
- Enhanced Crawlability: Breadcrumbs help search engines understand your website’s structure so that they can crawl and index your pages more efficiently.
- Keyword-Rich Anchor Text: The anchor texts of internal links within the breadcrumbs are naturally keyword-rich, boosting the ranking power of these pages.
- Reduced Bounce Rates: When people know what they are looking for on a site, easy navigation ensures that they find it quickly, thus keeping them engaged and preventing them from leaving prematurely.
How Can You Optimize Breadcrumbs for SEO?
- Use Hierarchy-Based Breadcrumbs: As mentioned earlier, these are the most effective for SEO.
- Keep It Concise: Avoid overly long breadcrumb trails.
- Use Keyword-Rich Anchor Text: Incorporate relevant keywords in your breadcrumb links, but keep it natural.
- Implement Schema Markup: Use schema.org structured data to help search engines understand your breadcrumbs and display them more prominently in search results.
How Can You Add Breadcrumbs to Your Site?
Adding breadcrumbs to your site differs across platforms or content management systems (CMS). Below are some examples and popular methods:
1. Using Plugins or Extensions (WordPress)
If you’re using WordPress, plugins are the easiest way to add breadcrumbs. Popular options like “Yoast SEO” and “Breadcrumb NavXT” offer simple settings and customization options.
Example using Yoast SEO:
- Install and activate the Yoast SEO plugin.
- Go to “SEO” > “Search Appearance” > “Breadcrumbs.”
- Enable breadcrumbs and customize the settings according to your preferences.
2. Manually Adding Code (Custom Websites)
In the case of custom websites, you have to insert breadcrumb HTML code directly into your website’s template files. Typically, this is done by PHP development service or other server-side language that enables the dynamic generation of a breadcrumb trail based on the current page.
Example using PHP:
<?php
// Get the current page’s URL.
$current_page = $_SERVER[‘REQUEST_URI’];// Create an array of breadcrumb links.
$breadcrumbs = array(
‘<a href=”/”>Home</a>’,
‘<a href=”/products/”>Products</a>’,
// … add other links based on the page hierarchy
‘<span>’ . get_the_title() . ‘</span>’ // Display the current page title
);// Output the breadcrumb trail.
echo ‘<div class=”breadcrumbs”>’;
echo implode(‘ > ‘, $breadcrumbs);
echo ‘</div>’;
?>
3. Built-in Functionality (Some CMS Platforms)
There are content management systems with inbuilt functionality for adding breadcrumbs. For instance, Shopify provides a breadcrumb schema feature that automatically creates a crumb path according to the store’s navigation.
4. Custom Development (For Complex Requirements)
Detailed websites or those with complex navigation systems may need customized development to create effective breadcrumbs. This requires hiring an experienced web development team.
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Breadcrumbs: Small Details, Big Impact
Breadcrumbs are a relatively easy-to-implement SEO checklist 2024 that can significantly improve your site’s usability and searchability. By ensuring that navigation is straightforward, intuitive, and optimized for search engines, you will lower bounce rates, keep users interested in your website, and eventually increase conversions.
