What Are Breadcrumbs and Their Impact on SEO Efforts

Creating a website is not only about filling it with as much content as you want but also about making it accessible and navigable by users and search engine bots. To this end, you can add breadcrumbs to your site to increase user experience and SEO performance.

Read the detailed explanation below to learn what breadcrumbs are and how these navigational tools help your site’s performance!

What Is Breadcrumb?

A breadcrumb is a brief written path that indicates the user's current location on a website. It is frequently found at the top of a page. It also lets users know how they got from your homepage to the page they are currently on.

Breadcrumb becomes essential for your website since it will enhance the user experience, impacting the time on the page, bounce rate, and other aspects. In general, breadcrumb will look like this:

Breadcrumbs aid users in finding the information they need and in staying on a website, much way internal links do. Instead of using the browser's return button, users can use breadcrumbs to advance one step and continue their journey on the website if they become lost.

Why Should You Use Breadcrumbs?

If you are still in doubt about using breadcrumbs, the reasons for using ones below may enlighten you:

1. Improve User Experience

Breadcrumbs help users navigate your website better and lead them to visit other sections on it. By using breadcrumbs, users can go back to the homepage without clicking the back button many times. 

Therefore, when they want to explore your site deeper, they do not need to worry about going back to the previous page. 

2. Lower Bounce Rates

Bounce rate is the number of people leaving your site without finishing the complete journey. A higher bounce rate usually indicates poor user experience. With breadcrumbs, visitors can easily navigate your site and stay longer; therefore, lowering the bounce rates. 

Moreover, because they encourage people to click and traverse the page, which is an engagement indication that Google utilizes for ranking, preventing users from bouncing can benefit your SEO.

3. Require a Small Portion on Your Site

Breadcrumbs are usually written in smaller fonts than the content and placed on the top of the page, taking only a small part of your site. If someone views your website using a mobile device, this benefit may become even more significant. 

4. Enhance Internal Linking

Not only are breadcrumbs useful for navigation, but they are also essential for improving a website's internal linking structure. 

Google employs breadcrumbs to figure out how several pages further down the site hierarchy relate to one another.

5. Help Search Engine Learning Your Site

Search engines can determine which pages are most significant by using breadcrumbs to assist them in understanding the hierarchy of your website.

Additionally, breadcrumbs can appear on the search engine result pages (SERPs) which you can add to your structured data or set them on your Content Management System (CMS). 

Types of Breadcrumbs

There are many types of breadcrumbs in SEO that you can use based on your website, such as:

1. Attribute-Based Breadcrumbs

If you run an e-commerce website, this type of breadcrumb may suit yours. It shows what attributes users have visited before and will look like this: Home > Fall Outfits > Coat > Women. 

When the attributes are too many, you can show them in a three-dot menu which can reveal the entire previous items without looking cramped. 

2. Hierarchy-Based Breadcrumbs

Hierarchy-based, or location-based breadcrumbs are the most common ones to use that inform users of their location within the site's hierarchy and the way to return to the homepage.

3. History-Based Breadcrumbs

Seldom utilized, this kind of breadcrumb displays, the other sites a user has visited on the website, much like a browser history. However, some SEO experts do not recommend this type because it may puzzle users. 

Users may take different routes to reach the same destination; therefore, you will display a distinct breadcrumb structure each time, which could confuse users.

4. Look-ahead or Forward Breadcrumbs

In addition to displaying the user's present location within a website's structure, this kind of breadcrumb offers an overview of the actions they can take next.

How to Create Breadcrumbs on a Website?

Google reveals how you add structured data for your breadcrumbs on their documentation. Yet, you must follow their guideline because utilizing other techniques outside the guidelines will lead you to get a manual action. 

To add the structured data, you can follow the instructions below:

1. Add the primary properties.

2. Follow the guidelines. 

3. Validate the code using the Rich Results Test and repair any errors found. 

4. Deploy the pages having the structured data and inspect how Google views your page using the URL Inspection tools. 

5. Submit the sitemap. 

The steps above will make your breadcrumbs appear in Google results. In addition, you can add breadcrumbs using the CMS plugin if you build your site using CMS. For example, if you are using WordPress, you can add breadcrumbs via WordPress plugins or Yoast SEO. 

Breadcrumbs Best Practices

Aside from knowing how to add breadcrumbs, it is important to know the best practices to avoid mistakes. Below are some tips for your breadcrumbs:

1. Go Just Right

As mentioned before, breadcrumbs only take a small part of your site and are usually placed on the top of the page. However, you must consider the breadcrumbs and the website design to make it just right. 

Do not make the font too small or too big to make it appear better. You can also place it above the H1, below the hero image, or top of the page. 

2. Choose the Right Types

After learning the types of breadcrumbs, you might already choose the most suitable one for your website. However, it is best to understand the structure of your site before choosing ones because even the most common user breadcrumbs like location-based ones might not be the best choice for your site. 

3. Do Not Rely Entirely on Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs indeed serve as navigational tools, but it does not mean you can depend on them entirely since they are supplementary to your site. Thus, you must also employ other navigational features on your website. 

4. Ensure Its Function

The breadcrumbs may not accomplish much more if they simply repeat the content seen in your navigational bar. Therefore, if it does not contribute to your site, there is no need to add more coding for breadcrumbs.

Conclusion

Those are the ins and outs of breadcrumbs you should understand. This navigational tool is crucial for enhancing user experience and improving SEO.

Incorporating breadcrumbs is vital for your website's performance, and focusing on SEO is equally important. In this case, SEO Service by cmlabs can be your go-to solution. 

At cmlabs, we are here to support you in optimizing your website across on-page, off-page, content, and more. Schedule a meeting with us now to discuss your SEO needs at no cost!