How to use breadcrumbs for technical SEO

Breadcrumbs are a type of navigation element that can help improve the usability and SEO of your website. They provide users with a clear and intuitive way to understand their location within the site hierarchy, and they also help search engines understand the organization of your content. In this blog post, we’ll go over how to use breadcrumbs for technical SEO, including the benefits they provide, how to implement them on your website, and best practices for using them effectively.

Benefits of Breadcrumbs for SEO:

• Improve the user experience: Breadcrumbs help users understand where they are on your website, making it easier for them to find the content they’re looking for.
• Enhance the crawlability of your website: Search engines use breadcrumbs to understand the structure and hierarchy of your website. This can help them crawl and index your content more effectively.
• Boost the visibility of your inner pages: By using breadcrumbs, you can help inner pages of your website get more visibility in search results.
• Provide context to search engines: Breadcrumbs provide a clear context to search engines about the relationship between the pages on your website. This can help them understand how your content is organized and improve their ability to rank it.

Implementing Breadcrumbs on Your Website: There are a few different ways to implement breadcrumbs on your website, but the most common method is using structured data. Structured data is a type of code that you can add to your HTML pages that helps search engines understand the content on your site.

One of the most popular formats for structured data is Schema.org. It’s a common language for marking up data that has been adopted by most major search engines, including Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

To implement breadcrumbs with Schema.org, you’ll need to add some specific code to your HTML pages. Here’s an example of what the code might look like:

Copy code<ol itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/BreadcrumbList">
  <li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope
      itemtype="https://schema.org/ListItem">
    <a itemprop="item" href="https://example.com">
    <span itemprop="name">Home</span></a>
    <meta itemprop="position" content="1" />
  </li>
  <li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope
      itemtype="https://schema.org/ListItem">
    <a itemprop="item" href="https://example.com/books">
    <span itemprop="name">Books</span></a>
    <meta itemprop="position" content="2" />
  </li>
  <li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope
      itemtype="https://schema.org/ListItem">
    <a itemprop="item" href="https://example.com/books/sciencefiction">
    <span itemprop="name">Science Fiction</span></a>
    <meta itemprop="position" content="3" />
  </li>
</ol>

This code creates an ordered list of breadcrumbs, each one with a link to a page and a name describing the page. It also includes a position value to indicate the order of the breadcrumbs.

Best Practices for Using Breadcrumbs:

• Keep breadcrumbs simple and easy to understand: Make sure that the names used in the breadcrumbs accurately describe the content of the corresponding pages.

• Make sure breadcrumbs are visible and easily clickable: The breadcrumb trail should be placed in a prominent location on the page, and each breadcrumb should be easily clickable so that users can quickly navigate to any previous page in the trail.
• Keep breadcrumb trails short: Avoid including too many levels in the breadcrumb trail, as this can make it difficult for users to understand their location on the site. Instead, focus on providing the most relevant and useful information.
• Use breadcrumbs consistently: Breadcrumbs should be used consistently across your site, and the same format should be used on every page. This will help users become familiar with the breadcrumb trail and make it easier for them to navigate your site.
• Monitor and update breadcrumbs as needed: Regularly check your breadcrumb trails to ensure that they are accurate and up-to-date. If you make changes to your site’s structure or content, make sure to update your breadcrumbs accordingly.

In conclusion, breadcrumbs can be a valuable tool for both users and search engines. By providing a clear and intuitive way for users to navigate your site, and by helping search engines understand the organization of your content, breadcrumbs can help improve the usability and SEO of your website. By implementing breadcrumbs using structured data, keeping breadcrumbs simple and easily clickable, using them consistently across your site, monitoring and updating breadcrumbs as needed, you can help boost your site’s visibility and user engagement.

Another important aspect to consider when implementing breadcrumbs is the use of proper formatting. It’s important to format your breadcrumbs in a way that is both visually appealing and easy to understand. This can include using appropriate font sizes, colors, and spacing. It’s also a good idea to use separators between the different levels of the breadcrumb trail, such as a “greater than” symbol or a forward slash, to clearly indicate the hierarchy of pages.

You should also consider the use of the “Home” link in your breadcrumb trail. Some websites include a “Home” link as the first item in the trail, while others leave it out. There is no definitive answer as to whether or not to include a “Home” link, but it can be useful for users who want to quickly navigate back to the main page of the website.

Another important aspect to consider is the use of “rel=prev/next” link tags. These tags are used to indicate the relationship between a set of paginated pages, and can help search engines understand the structure of pagination on your site. It is important to include these link tags within the head of your HTML and to link them properly when implementing pagination.

You should also make sure that your breadcrumb trails are accessible to users with disabilities. This can include providing text alternatives for images, ensuring that the breadcrumb trail can be accessed by keyboard, and providing clear and descriptive labels for each link.

Finally, it’s important to monitor the performance of your breadcrumbs and make adjustments as needed. Analyze the data of your site such as clicks, bounce rate, time spent etc. You should pay attention to the click-through rate of your breadcrumbs, and make adjustments if necessary to ensure that users are finding the content they’re looking for. This might mean changing the wording of the breadcrumb names, or reorganizing the structure of your site.

In conclusion, breadcrumbs can be a powerful tool for improving the usability and SEO of your website. By providing a clear and intuitive way for users to navigate your site, and by helping search engines understand the organization of your content, breadcrumbs can help boost your site’s visibility and user engagement. With a little attention to formatting, accessibility, and performance monitoring, you can make sure that your breadcrumbs are working effectively to improve the user experience and search engine visibility of your site.