What is Breadcrumb & How It Eases Navigation?
To understand how breadcrumb makes navigation easier, It is necessary to answer the question “What is breadcrumb?” Breadcrumb is a set of links that enable users and search engine bots to understand and advance the hierarchical order on your site. It is a system that allows both search engine bots and users to quickly browse sites with subcategories. It not only facilitates users’ navigation within the site, but also facilitates search engine bots’ browsing.
If users navigate your site easily, this will have an impact first on the user experience and then on other areas. Remember that the success you achieve in each of the SEO factors positively affects all other factors. By using page bookmarks, you will make it easier for your users to navigate during the visit and ensure that they move smoothly and quickly. Considering all these reasons, you can understand why you should use the page bookmark method
Understanding Breadcrumbs: What Are They and How Do They Work?
Breadcrumbs are a user interface element used to make it easier for users to navigate within a website or application. They show users their location on a website or app. Breadcrumbs consist of links placed on top of each other, usually in the form of a series of text or icons, and can be found at the top of web pages or at the bottom of the page. We can call it the primary navigation menu in a site structure. Breadcrumbs offer users the ability to track and understand their position in a website hierarchy. Especially on large and complex websites, it can be difficult for users to determine where they are. Breadcrumbs reduce this complexity.
Breadcrumbs work by mirroring the hierarchical structure of the website or application. Users can understand which category, subcategory or main category the current page belongs to. For example, an e-commerce site might use a breadcrumb structure such as “Home > Category > Product”. Breadcrumbs usually consist of clickable links. When users click on breadcrumb links, they are directed to the relevant page. This page can be the previous page or the next page. This allows users to speed up navigation and provide a better user experience.
After answering questions such as “What is breadcrumb?” and “How do breadcrumbs work?” knowing breadcrumb types also contributes to the success of your websites.
Types of breadcrumbs are as follows:
| Location Based Breadcrumb | Attribute Based Breadcrumb | Path Based Breadcrumb |
| This breadcrumb is the most common type of breadcrumb on websites. They are located in the horizontal bar at the top of the page and show users how many pages there are between where they are and the home page. | This type of breadcrumb is widely used, especially on e-commerce sites, allowing users to scroll through results. Actually, we can call it a kind of filter. For example, if you’re reviewing laptops, a laptop would fall into this category, but you can also filter by features like brand and model year. You can easily find what you’re looking for with attribute-based breadcrumb. | This is the least common breadcrumb navigation type. It is also known as history-based breadcrumb. They show all the pages a user navigated through the site. It shows what steps were taken to get to a particular page. |
Why Breadcrumbs Are Essential for Modern Websites
Modern websites often have a large and complex structure. Relationships between pages can get complicated. Breadcrumbs reduce this complexity and help users understand website hierarchy. With a few clicks, users can figure out exactly where the page is.
The main goal of modern web design is to optimize user experience. Breadcrumbs improve user experience by helping users navigate the website easier and more efficiently. When users have a better experience, the website becomes more attractive to search engines.
How Breadcrumbs Contribute to SEO
Apart from the indirect effect provided through user experience, the breadcrumb structure can also have a direct effect on SEO performance, as this structure facilitates the work of not only users but also search engine bots.
Internal links are provided to the pages on the website, thanks to breadcrumb links. This allows search engine bots to better understand the intra-site hierarchy and page values.
Anchor texts used in the breadcrumb structure contain targeted keywords and provide search engine bots with information about the content of the pages.
Breadcrumbs contribute to a good user experience. Thus, they reduce the bounce rate. This is one of the important points to be at the top of Google search result pages.
Tips for Effective Breadcrumb Placement and Styling
There are some points to consider for maximum benefit from breadcrumbs. Some of these are as follows:
- Breadcrumbs should be placed carefully as they help users understand the page hierarchy. Generally, the top or bottom of the page is preferred.
- Breadcrumbs should reflect the page hierarchy. It should contain details like homepage, main category, subcategory and the current page.
- Breadcrumbs links are different colors or underlined to make users aware that they can be clicked.
- Breadcrumbs should make it easy for users to navigate back to previous pages.
- The color of the breadcrumbs should match the overall design of the website. Thus, the site design maintains its integrity.
- Breadcrumbs should automatically update each time the user’s location changes on the page. This allows users to clearly see where they are
How to Implement Breadcrumb Structured Data for SEO
Breadcrumb structured data is a special form of markup that defines the hierarchy of web pages and the user’s navigation path. This markup gives search engines a better understanding of the relationships between your pages. Breadcrumb structured data can improve your website’s SEO performance. When search engines better understand the hierarchy and relationships of your pages, your site can appear better in search results. This can lead to increased organic traffic and more clicks.
You should be careful when optimizing Breadcrumb for SEO because over-optimization can lead to discrimination by search engines. The main purpose of breadcrumb is to define the site hierarchy.
In this content, we tried to give answers to “What is breadcrumb?” and “How should you use breadcrumb?” questions. We hope this was a useful article for you. You can share your questions and comments.