What is a breadcrumb trail on your website?

A breadcrumb path, also called breadcrumbs, breadcrumbs or breadcrumb trail , shows the path from the home page to the page the visitor is on. The breadcrumb trail is widely incorporated into the top of a Web site. The breadcrumb trail is a kind of concise road map for visitors. They see at the top of the screen how they got to this page and how they can be brought back to pages they came from without having to look it up again. Visitors reach their goal faster this way.

Meaning crumb trail

The name for this online term is a logical choice. A user often starts on a home page and then clicks through to other pages he or she finds interesting. The user then leaves behind breadcrumbs, so to speak, allowing him to easily find his way back to previously visited web pages.

An example of a breadcrumb trail:
Back to overview / Online Marketing / Search Engine Optimization / Link Building

The user is currently on a web page about link building. This is where he or she ended up after visiting the Search Engine Optimization page, and so on.

Good for usability

Using a breadcrumb trail allows the user to easily navigate through your website. Therefore, this benefits usability. The user can still see the forest for the trees and knows exactly where on the website he or she is. The impact of a breadcrumb trail on usability summarized:

Visitors clearly see where they are on the website
By just glancing to the top of the page, visitors see exactly where they are on the website. A user is then less likely to choose to leave your website but, on the contrary, more likely to return to other web pages of your website.

Jump to a higher page
It will frequently happen that visitors reach your website through Google. Therefore, it is quite possible that they will end up in the middle of your website from Google. As a result, they know their way to higher pages, such as the home page or an overview page, quickly.

Target of visitors is reached faster
The usability of your website does not benefit when visitors have to perform numerous actions before they take action. The breadcrumb trail navigates the visitor to the action.

Good for your website’s SEO

If you already spend a lot of time in SEO, the term breadcrumb trail is probably familiar to you. Yet it is overlooked by many SEO specialists. So the breadcrumb trail is not only beneficial for your visitors, your search engine optimization and organic findability also benefits from this phenomenon. After all, Google loves a breadcrumb trail.

The breadcrumb trail is actually a large collection of internal links. Building several internal links in your website will automatically establish the breadcrumb trail. And as an experienced SEO specialist, you know that a good internal link structure is indispensable for SEO.

Because the breadcrumb trail means your visitors stay on the website longer instead of crossing over to competing websites, you get a lower bounce rate. This also benefits your search engine optimization. So, set up your breadcrumb trail properly for higher ranking.

Google also uses it

Perhaps the biggest SEO benefit of the breadcrumb trail is that Google understands your website better. Google uses to understand website structure through your breadcrumbs. In these cases, Google is generous with its rewards and your website rises in the infamous Google rankings. Something every website benefits from.

5 Tips and guidelines

1. Location of crumb trail
   Place the breadcrumb trail between your page title and the top bar. In this location, your breadcrumb trail is bound to be seen by users of your website.
2. Start the breadcrumb trail at the home page
   By putting the home page at the beginning of the breadcrumb trail, you give users an egg point. This makes navigating your website even more convenient.
3. Characters between breadcrumbs
   By placing a greater-than sign or backslash between your breadcrumbs, the user is aware of the order of their journey on your website.
4. Make it clickable
   You want the user to stay on your website. By making the breadcrumbs clickable, the user can easily navigate toward the last visited pages.
5. Align the breadcrumb trail on the left
   This sounds very logical. Yet sometimes a person’s creativity wants something different. However, avoid this with the breadcrumb trail and align it to the left. After all, we read from left to right. Just act normal, you’ll be crazy enough.

Complete your WordPress website

After reading this blog, you may be convinced to use breadcrumbs. You can now get to work installing this breadcrumb yourself via the WordPress Yoast plugin or Rank Math. Should you not have the time or knowledge to do this, 2manydots is always there for you. We have already built crumb trails for several companies, and we would be happy to do the same for you.

Lead your customers the way and engage 2manydots.