Breadcrumbs help users navigate between a website’s pages. Users will always know where they are on the website. It’s important in terms of good UX (User Experience) and SEO practice because it is a way to link “child” pages to “parent” pages (homepage, category pages, product pages, content pages, etc.).
What are Breadcrumbs used for in SEO?
It makes a website’s structure visible to the user which lowers the bounce rate (important for SEO), as it guides visitors through the website. Basically, it traces the visitors’ path.
The website’s ergonomics and accessibility are improved
The breadcrumbs make upward tree structured links, it also contributes to the internal linking set up.
How to use breadcrumbs?
Breadcrumbs must be introduced on all pages, and in priority, on product pages and category pages.
If you already have breadcrumbs and want to check if they are well set up, look at the checklist below, and check directly on the website.
A checklist of rules to follow:
The breadcrumbs should show the entire path to get to the current page, starting from the homepage.
The anchored links put on each "step" of the path must obviously correspond to the step page’s semantics, but not necessarily to the precise keyword for which we want the latter to position itself.
The breadcrumbs last step, corresponding to the page you are on, must not be clickable.
Optimize your breadcrumbs position by placing it in the upper corner, to the left of the page’s headline as in the example below.
Check, by navigating in both directions (ascending and descending) that there is no inconsistency.
If the website has only one or two categories, there is no need to set up breadcrumbs since the path is short and easy to trace.
Does this path have a correct Schema.org markup?
To help Google understand the website structure even better, and in particular to display breadcrumbs instead of URLs on the search results page, we recommend that you implement structured "Breadcrumb" data tags.
Do I absolutely need to have breadcrumbs on a mobile site?
Yes!
For example here on eBay (https://www.ebay.co.uk/b/Baths/42025/bn_1623908):
On the following image from Bed, Bath & Beyond (https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/category/shop-by-room/bedroom/furnish/16347/), breadcrumbs are formatted differently, but still there:
And you can also place it lower on the page (at the bottom of the page), like La Redoute for example:
Now you’ve got all the keys to set up and/or verify a website’s breadcrumbs!
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