However, if you are looking for ways to take your website’s user experience and organic search performance to the next level, breadcrumbs can be a powerful tool in your tool belt with a wide range of benefits!

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What Are Breadcrumbs?

Breadcrumbs are links placed at the top of a webpage to highlight how a given page fits into the site’s overall structure. Breadcrumbs provide a quick visual way for visitors to understand the immediate context of the page they are looking at and an easy way to navigate to related pages on the site that may help them understand the bigger picture.

For example, a product category page on an e-commerce website that highlights bed pillows could have a straightforward breadcrumb path, like the example below.

In this example, we can see that the “Bed Pillows” category page is a subcategory of “Bedding Essentials” which is a subcategory of “Bed & Bath”.

Bed & Bath

     → Bedding Essentials

         → Bed Pillows

This allows a visitor to the page to easily understand where they are in the overall site.

Why Are Breadcrumbs So Important For SEO?

Breadcrumbs serve two main purposes for SEO:

• They help visitors to the site more easily navigate back and forth from categories to subcategories to product pages.
• They help search engines understand the hierarchy of the site and how the different pages connect to and relate to each other.

Easier site navigation for visitors

Using the pillow example above, without breadcrumbs, if a user searches Google for a specific pillow, navigates directly to the product page for that pillow, and then determines that the pillow they were initially looking for does not match their needs, they will have to utilize the main navigation to try to find the bed pillows subcategory to look at other pillow options that might better fit their needs. 

In the example screenshot below, if a visitor to the site landed on this page and decided they were interested in exploring similar products, there is no clear next step for them to take other than attempting to find the right subcategory page using the main navigation.

By adding breadcrumbs, visitors to the site are immediately able to see the other pages that are relevant to this product and can quickly jump back and forth between category pages, sub-category pages, and products while quickly and easily understanding where they are within the larger structure of the site.

Improved context for search engines

Breadcrumbs are also important for SEO because they instantly add incredibly robust internal linking to your site. For instance, after adding breadcrumbs, product pages will now include internal links to all of their associated category and subcategory pages, subcategory pages will link to their parent categories, blog posts will link to the primary blog page, etc. This makes a site much easier for a search engine to crawl because all of the pages on the site are much more closely interconnected using internal links.

Breadcrumbs also help search engines understand the relationship between different pages on a site. Without breadcrumbs, it can be difficult for search engines to understand, for example, which product category a product is included in, or for informational content hubs, which page is the primary page on a given topic.

More visually appealing search results

Breadcrumbs can also impact how a page appears in Google search results. In most cases, Google will use them to simplify the URL displayed in search results to be easier to read and understand. In the example below, the URL shown in search results directly emulates the structure laid out by the breadcrumbs on the page. 

This is especially useful if a site uses a complex URL structure that is not easily to visually understand, or if the URL structure does not reflect the actual folder structure in use on the site.

How Can You Add Breadcrumbs to a Website?

Adding breadcrumbs to a site will depend mainly on the type of site and the platform it is built on.

Many popular CMS platforms, such as WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify, offer built-in breadcrumb functionality or the ability to quickly and easily add breadcrumbs using SEO plugins like Yoast. These platforms and tools allow you to add breadcrumbs as easily as clicking a button. 

If you need to add breadcrumbs to a custom site or a larger, more complex site, it may involve manually adding breadcrumb functionality. This will depend on the complexity of the site and the scale at which breadcrumbs need to be implemented. In many cases like this, adding breadcrumbs may require an experienced developer to implement breadcrumbs at scale across a site.

For more information on correctly implementing breadcrumbs for SEO, you can also read Google’s official guidance on implementing them in a search engine-friendly way!

Take Your Breadcrumb SEO to the Next Level With Schema

One way to take your breadcrumbs to the next level is to add breadcrumb schema. Schema or structured data is a snippet of code added to a page that follows a set format supported by most search engines. This allows you to directly signal the breadcrumbs in use on a page, to a search engine crawler, in a language the search engine can read and understand.

Adding breadcrumb schema to a page helps ensure search engines can read and understand your breadcrumbs and can be especially useful on larger sites that rely more heavily on Javascript rendering to load page elements.

You can create and add breadcrumb schema to a site in several ways. If you have a small site and only need to create breadcrumb schema for a few pages, using a free schema generator for individual pages and manually adding it to the site is fairly straightforward.

For complex sites that require a more scalable option, plugins like Yoast are a great way to automatically add schema to any page with breadcrumbs.

Breadcrumb SEO FAQs

Does every website need breadcrumbs?

No, breadcrumbs are not a requirement for all sites, and many sites do not use them. In general, the larger and more complex a site is, the more it can benefit from breadcrumb SEO.

For example, a large e-commerce site with hundreds of product categories and thousands of products can be very frustrating to navigate and understand without breadcrumbs. 

By comparison, a simple website for a small business with only 15 pages will likely not see significant benefits from adding breadcrumbs. While breadcrumbs are a great best practice to include on your website, they are not always necessary.

Will adding breadcrumbs improve my SEO?

No, breadcrumbs will not necessarily immediately cause your site to begin ranking better. While there are mixed opinions on how important breadcrumbs are for SEO, the consensus is that they are very valuable to add, as they can provide many benefits related to SEO.

Unleash the Power of Breadcrumb SEO!

In many cases, breadcrumbs are an easy way to improve the usability of a website and better align it with SEO best practices simultaneously. If your website struggles to perform well in organic search results without breadcrumbs, implementing them is an excellent way to improve your site’s usability and help search engines better understand your content.

Breadcrumb SEO: Why Breadcrumbs Are Important For SEO is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

If you’ve spent any time researching different digital marketing techniques, you’ve probably come across the term SEO. But what exactly is SEO, and is it something your business really needs?

What Is SEO?

SEO, or search engine optimization, is a broad term that refers to the practice of optimizing a website to rank higher in search results on popular search engines. Most people primarily view and utilize the first page of search results, so if your business does not appear on the first page, you may struggle to reach potential customers. Search engine optimization can involve retargeting a site’s content and language to use specific keywords or search terms, improving the site’s performance, and optimizing the user experience of the site to ensure that it is easy to use and navigate.

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What Is Involved in SEO?

SEO involves a combination of strategies and techniques to help improve a website. 

Conducting Keyword Research

First, keyword research helps to identify the search terms that are most commonly used by customers looking for the services or products that your businesses offer. This type of analysis is crucial to find out how to best target your site to reach your ideal customers. 

Creating and Updating Site Content

Next, this research can be translated to the content on your site. Creating quality content that highlights what your business does and what it offers helps to communicate to customers exactly what you do and how you can help them. Additionally, creating blog or informational content that answers user questions and provides value to potential customers is key for signaling your expertise in the field.

Analyzing and Improving Site Structure

Finally, a crucial step in the SEO process is to ensure that your website is easy to navigate by both search engines and users. This can involve making behind-the-scenes, technical improvements to a site, as well as analyzing how users interact with a site and where potential issues may be arising. User experience and SEO go hand in hand, so it’s important to provide a straightforward user experience

Why Is SEO Important for Your Business?

Many people never consider why they see the websites that they do when they use a search engine. As long as they are able to quickly and easily find what they are looking for, they probably won’t give it a second thought. However, behind the scenes, there are a number of factors that search engines use to determine which sites appear first when a user types in a query.

If your site is slow, confusing to use, has limited content, or experiences other issues, it will have a hard time ranking well and reaching customers. Additionally, customers who do find your site may be turned off by a poor first experience. Many customers’ first impression with a business is through its online presence. If that impression isn’t a good one, you can lose a potential customer right away.

For many businesses, their biggest challenge is competing with similar businesses in their industry. This can be a challenge for both online-only companies and companies with a local presence. Having a site that is lean, efficient, and precisely targeted at your ideal audience helps to boost user traffic and ensure that your customers have a positive experience with your business from their first impression. This is one of the best ways to stand out from the crowd and build a reputation in your industry.

Build Trust With Potential Customers and Clients

Organic search results are where many people turn to when they’re looking for information that they can trust. Companies can pay to advertise their products and services at the top of search results, but many users place higher value on the organic search results that rank beneath these advertisements because they haven’t been paid for. Any company can pay for advertising, but top organic rankings have to be earned by quality content and consistent reputations.

Building trust with your customers goes beyond just ranking well in search results. If customers reach your site but are then greeted with confusing pages and a site that is hard to navigate, doesn’t answer their questions, or seems untrustworthy, they likely aren’t going to give you a second thought. 

Provide Value From the First Impression

One of the most common ways that people utilize search engines is asking questions. Creating content that answers popular questions surrounding your business and offerings can enable your website to rank for these questions that people ask. This can not only boost the number of people visiting your site, but it can also establish authority for your brand. Customers are much more likely to do business with a company that provides solutions to their problems and doesn’t merely promise opaque services that may or may not follow through.

Competition With Similar Businesses

If your business struggles to compete with similar companies in your industry or area, one of the best ways to stand out is to implement a SEO strategy for your website. By identifying the language customers are using to identify your industry or business, you can optimize your site to best reach them. Creating informational content that answers your customers’ questions and provides them with the information that they need is one of the best ways to stand out from the competition as a trusted expert in your field. Additionally, using things like interactive content can help your website go above and beyond in standing out to your visitors.

What Are the Benefits of SEO for Your Business?

SEO can have a number of benefits for a wide range of businesses.

Increased Visibility

Having a site that ranks on the first page of search engines for valuable search terms can provide a tremendous boost in your company’s online visibility. While traditional advertising has its benefits, ranking well in search results can help to sustainably unlock a massive audience depending on your industry and offerings.

Increased Site Traffic

When was the last time you clicked to the second page of search results for a query you typed into a search engine? If you’re like most people, it probably isn’t very often. One of the biggest goals of a SEO campaign is to help a site to begin ranking on the first page of search results for their most relevant and valuable search terms. Having this prime positioning can lead to a tremendous increase in organic traffic to your website from popular search engines.

More Customers, Leads, and Sales

If you’re a business that relies on its website for more customers or sales leads, the more relevant traffic you can get, the more conversions you’ll get. The key to conversions, however, is connecting with the right customers. Your website could receive thousands of visitors a week, but if they aren’t relevant to what you offer, they’re merely going to leave. By focusing your site’s messaging to target the language your customers are using, you can connect with the right customers. 

Does My Business Need SEO?

If you have a business with an online presence, SEO can be a tremendous investment in improving the reach and reputation of your business without having to spend money on costly advertising. If you still have questions about what is involved in a SEO campaign, explore Go Fish Digital’s approach to search engine optimization. Interested in learning more about how SEO can help your business specifically? Get in touch with Go Fish Digital today to get started!

Why Is SEO Important for Your Business? is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.