Today we want to talk about an element that often goes unnoticed when browsing different websites, we refer to the Breadcrumbs whose term comes from the classic tale of the Brothers Grimm, in which Hansel and Gretel were leaving little pieces of bread to find their way home.
As in the story, breadcrumbs on websites serve basically the same function, to allow the user to know their exact location, and to provide quick access to higher levels where they can get more precisely what they are looking for. They are usually placed below the header at the top left, so that they are easy to locate at all times.
There are different types of breadcrumbs:
- Location or hierarchy-based: as their name suggests, they inform the user of their location within the hierarchical structure of the website.
- Attribute-based: these are loaded dynamically, and are generally used in online stores as the breadcrumbs must adapt to the website’s functions: product attributes, searches, among others.
- Route: those that follow the user’s browsing history, these are rarely used, as it would be similar to using the back and forward buttons on the web browser.
Having defined what breadcrumbs are and having specified their variations, let’s get down to business:
What is their importance?
Considering that breadcrumbs facilitate the user’s navigation within our website, they can significantly improve the user experience, in turn increasing the likelihood of conversion.
Similarly, breadcrumbs are SEO-friendly as they help search engines understand the architecture of the website, as well as the type of content it offers. And since Google is really friendly to breadcrumbs, they can be included as part of the rich snippets of the meta description that is displayed in search results, increasing the chances of CTR and therefore a better ranking.
In summary, if you have a website with more than fifteen pages, organized in several hierarchical levels, it is essential that you make use of breadcrumbs, as this could improve the user experience, as well as the positioning of your website in search engines.
Thank you for reading, until next time.
