Types, benefits and best practices

What is breadcrumb navigation?

Breadcrumb navigation is a trail of text links (breadcrumbs) that tell users where they are on a website and how they got there.

They usually appear high on the page.

Here is an example:

Breadcrumb navigation is an important element on your website for two main reasons:

1. This affects the user experience. Breadcrumbs make your website easier to use and navigate.
2. This benefits SEO. Google rewards sites that prioritize user experience with high rankings.

Additionally, breadcrumbs help Google understand and distribute your site hierarchy PageRank throughout your website. Which also helps your site rank higher.

In this post, you will learn about the different types of breadcrumbs and the benefits of using them. As well as tips and how to implement breadcrumbs on your WordPress site.

But first, let’s get one thing straight:

When should you use breadcrumbs?

Breadcrumbs are not for everyone.

Breadcrumbs benefit your site navigation only if you have a deep site architecture.

That is, multiple categories that divide into subcategories. And then subcategories that point to individual pages on your site.

E-commerce sites are perfect examples.

They typically offer different products grouped into various levels of categories.

Like this:

Avoid using breadcrumbs if you have a single-level, flat website architecture. Where every page is just one click away from the home page.

That’s when breadcrumbs are unnecessary. Because they won’t add any...