If you have ever visited a website, chances are there have been small, clickable paths of links at the top of your page that show where you are from on this URL. These are what we call breadcrumbs. They might sound simple, but they contribute significantly to better user experience and SEO execution.
We will cover everything about breadcrumbs in SEO, from the types and uses of breadcrumbs to how to add breadcrumbs. Let's start with the first and foremost question, 'What are breadcrumbs?'
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What Are Breadcrumbs?
While breadcrumbs are a critical piece of your SEO strategy, they also make your website easier to navigate and head off the problem of user abandonment. They keep people around longer by cutting down navigation time from any page or category in your site hierarchy all the way back home.
However, these helpful little morsels of information do more than just smooth the way home. They also, quite literally, point people forward or remind people where they are onto next; what decisions need making still lie ahead--after all, if you go from the finish line and then circle around again before it can even be seen, why bother running in circles at all?
Different types of breadcrumbs may produce a different user experience without difficulty. The use of breadcrumbs also helps to prevent people from 'bouncing' off its pages (leaving without finding what they want) and tick up their 'time on site' statistics. Thus giving you the most valuable breadcrumbs SEO benefit.
What Are Breadcrumbs in SEO?
Breadcrumbs in SEO refer to using this navigational structure for search engine optimization on your website. Search engines adore a pleasant user experience, so they want your website to be easy to navigate. From a practical perspective, the use of breadcrumbs offers several key benefits.
What are Different Types of Breadcrumbs?
There are types of breadcrumbs. Let's break them down:
1. Hierarchy-Based Breadcrumbs (Location-Based)
This type is more common and adheres to website hierarchy. This breadcrumb displays a position within the website about the homepage and parent pages.
Breadcrumbs SEO example:
Fashion / Women's Clothing / Dresses
This is perfect for an online store or a large blog containing various categories.
2. Path-Based Breadcrumbs (History-Based)
Path-based breadcrumbs display the steps a user took to reach the current page. These are less commonly used but can be helpful for websites where users frequently switch between pages.
Breadcrumbs SEO example:
Home > Search Results > Product A > Checkout
These breadcrumbs make a website more dynamic, which can be useful for websites with changing paths, like e-commerce platforms, where users might look at different products or categories even in the same session.
3. Attribute-Based Breadcrumbs
Attribute-based breadcrumbs are often used on e-commerce sites to reflect the attributes or filters a user selects while navigating a product category.
Breadcrumbs SEO example:
Home > Electronics > Laptops > Brand: Dell > Screen Size: 15 inches
Attribute-based breadcrumbs work well with websites with product filtering systems by size, color, or brand properties.
Why Are Breadcrumbs Important for SEO?
Now that you know what breadcrumbs and the types of breadcrumbs are, let's explore why the breadcrumbs SEO benefits are sought after.
1. Improved User Experience
Breadcrumbs help people navigate through your website. Without using the "back" button or individual main navigation, you can directly traverse to top-level categories and jump back down anytime. With this sleek new navigation, users can stay engaged and get where they need fast. Search engines love a website where visitors are likely to stay on longer, visit more pages, and then return in the future.
2. Reduced Bounce Rates
Users who reach a page without breadcrumbs can feel disoriented and tired, especially on sites with extensive content. Users who know where they are are less likely to return to the search engine.
3. Helping Google Understand Your Site Structure
Breadcrumbs add context for search engines such as Google to understand your site. Breadcrumbs provide a path for when Google's crawlers are going over your site so it knows how the pages of that website are related and linked. This makes it easier for Google to correctly categorize and index your content, which should help your SEO performance.
4. Appearing in Search Results
Another major benefit of breadcrumbs in SEO is their visibility in search results. If you were to Google for something, one of the things that might catch your eye is a breadcrumb trail in Search results being displayed instead of just a URL. This breadcrumb trail gives users a better idea of where the page is on your website, increasing their chances of clicking through to the site.
5. Supporting Mobile Usability
Since mobile traffic is skyrocketing and can comprise a large slice of the web visit pie, breadcrumbs are very useful today. The page navigation menu looks bulky and is hard to browse on mobile devices. Breadcrumbs make it less of a hassle for mobile users to navigate without losing their way.
How to Add Breadcrumbs to Your Website?
The technique to add breadcrumbs varies based on your CMS or platform. Let's go over a few common methods:
1. Using a Plugin
If you use a CMS like WordPress, adding breadcrumbs is dead simple with plugins like Yoast SEO or Breadcrumb NavXT. They allow you to easily place breadcrumbs on your website.
Action Steps:
- Get a breadcrumbs plugin (like Yoast SEO)
- Turning on the breadcrumb option in the plugin settings
- Change the way breadcrumbs are displayed (symbols, separators, etc).
2. Manually Adding Breadcrumbs
If you are using a custom website or do not use any CMS, then manually code the breadcrumbs via HTML and CSS. This method requires more technical skills, but it will allow you complete control over how your breadcrumbs are instantiated and visualized on theme/templates.
Action Steps:
- Make your breadcrumbs by adding breadcrumb markup to the header or navigation part of your website.
- Style the breadcrumbs with CSS for a neat, user-friendly layout.
3. Using a CMS with Built-In Breadcrumbs
Some content management systems, such as Wix and Shopify, provide automatic breadcrumb navigation that can be turned on within the settings. If your platform offers this, it can be enabled merely by toggling breadcrumbs.
Action Steps:
- In your CMS, navigate to settings and locate the navigation or display settings.
- Enable the Breadcrumbs and RM them.
What are Breadcrumb SEO Benefits?
Here are the breadcrumbs SEO benefits you can expect after implementing them on your site.
1. Improved CTR (Click Through Rate)
Breadcrumbs in search results can help users understand the position of your page within site architecture. Such clarity may increase click rates, as users are more inclined to search for a result that clarifies where they will land on the brand website.
2. Better Indexing on the Search Engines
Search engines should know what your content is about and index it. Sitemaps serve as a map for crawlers, showing how different pages relate. This also increases the overall site architecture, which is good for SEO.
3. Improved User Engagement
The more your visitors engage, the better their chances are to read other content on the site. This results in higher page views that will keep them on the website longer.
4. Boosted Rankings for Long-Tail Keywords
They also make it easier for your site to rank highly on long-tail keywords since you can use more specific anchor text-related categories and subcategories that closely mirror a few Google search terms. This equals more chances of appearing higher in the search and niche searches that your audience can find.
Read Also - Common WordPress Technical SEO Issues to Address
Conclusion
No matter which kind of website you are running, whether it's an e-commerce store, a blog, or a corporate site, breadcrumb helps attract more traffic to your websites. The correct types of breadcrumbs will enhance navigability on your site and increase search engine user-friendliness. Also, with the right technical SEO services, you can ensure that breadcrumbs are set up in a way that helps improve your site.
FAQs
Q1: What are breadcrumbs in SEO?
Ans: Regarding user experience, breadcrumbs in SEO help search engines discover and understand pages.
Q2: How do breadcrumbs improve SEO?
Ans: Breadcrumbs help to ensure that search engines understand how your site is organized, which benefits web marketing by lowering bounce rates and increasing user interaction.
Q3: What are the types of breadcrumbs?
Ans: There are three types of breadcrumbs (Hierarchy-Based, Path-Based, and Attribute-Based breadcrumbs). Depending on your site's structure, each type has a different purpose.
Q4: How do you add breadcrumbs to a website?
Ans: There are multiple ways to implement breadcrumbs: using a plugin like Yoast SEO (for WordPress), manually with HTML and CSS, or in-built via your CMS.
