Good website navigation is the foundation of any online user experience. Without this, users can’t find what they need quickly and efficiently. Optimal navigation also improves user engagement and reduces bounce rate. One of the most overlooked areas of website navigation is the breadcrumb trail.
Much like in the classic story of Hansel and Gretel, the breadcrumb trail is designed to lead users through the site’s infrastructure — essential for letting them know where they are and how to make their way back again.
What Are Breadcrumbs?
Breadcrumbs are a type of secondary navigation that displays where a user currently is on a site, mapped within the hierarchy of the full site structure. They’re typically found at the top of a webpage, just below the main navigation or header.
As noted, the name comes from the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale, in which two children scatter breadcrumbs on the forest floor to help them find their way home. In web design, breadcrumbs perform a similar function by helping users find their way back to the homepage of a site. They’re typically formatted something like this:
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Types of Breadcrumbs
Hierarchy-Based Breadcrumbs
The most common type of breadcrumb is a hierarchy-based layout. This is where the user’s location is based on the site hierarchy or a folder structure based on the overall site composition. This is commonly used for e-commerce and news or blog sites.
Home > Electronics > Smartphones > iPhone 16
Attribute-Based Breadcrumbs
E-commerce sites also use attribute-based hierarchies, where breadcrumbs are determined based on the attribute or feature that the user has selected.
Home > Men > Shoes > Size 10 > Black
History-Based Breadcrumbs
If the user has been on the website for some time, they may see breadcrumbs that reflect their specific history on the site.
Home > Blog > About Us > Contact > Careers
Why Are Breadcrumbs Important?
Improved User Experience
One of the biggest reasons that breadcrumbs are important for website owners is that they improve the overall user experience on the site. Breadcrumbs serve as a visual map to help users understand where they are on the site and how they got there.
For instance, if someone lands on a subfolder page from a search engine result, they may not know where they are on the site if there’s no breadcrumb in place. The context a breadcrumb provides can be useful for first-time visitors who don’t know the site structure.
With breadcrumbs in place, users don’t have to rely solely on onsite navigation to direct them around the site. Instead, they can simply click one or two levels up from their current page to browse more content.
Reduced Bounce Rates
Since breadcrumbs make it easier for users to find related content, this encourages them to browse further and reduces the overall bounce rate on the site. A user who might otherwise leave the website after viewing only one page is more likely to click through to a broader category or a parent topic when a breadcrumb is visible. This is one of the best approaches for keeping people on your website for longer and gives them more opportunities to convert via a purchase or sign up.
Enhanced Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Breadcrumbs help Google and other search engines get a better understanding of the website’s structure, which ultimately can help support other search engine optimization techniques you might be using. Google can even display breadcrumb trails in its search results in place of longer URLs. This is a cleaner presentation overall and helps enhance click-through rates (CTR). Internal linking is a critical part of SEO on a site, and having breadcrumbs in place supports this by distributing authority across your site.
Lower Cognitive Load
Cognitive load refers to the mental effort that a user must exert trying to process information. Without clear navigational cues, users can quickly become overwhelmed and lost, especially on larger websites. Breadcrumbs reduce the overall cognitive load that a user must experience by giving them a quick reference point for where they are and where they can navigate to next.
Breadcrumb Best Practices
Keep It Simple
Use clear and concise labelling at all times and, if possible, mirror existing language on your website to maintain consistency. Avoid jargon or any page names that are too long, as this can be confusing.
Start with the Homepage
Always start your breadcrumb trail at the homepage to create a better sense of structure and uniformity for users, wherever they are on your site.
Use Separators
Common separators like > or / make it easier for users to read the breadcrumbs and know what the hierarchy looks like. Choose the style that best fits your website design and user expectations.
Make Breadcrumbs Clickable
Other than the current page that the user is on, all elements of the breadcrumb trail should be clickable. This means that a user can navigate back to any part of the hierarchy easily.
Ensure Responsive Design
Breadcrumbs should still be visible on mobile devices, but auto-responsive to resize on different screen dimensions without breaking.
How to Implement Breadcrumbs
Use a CMS Plugin
For sites built on popular CMS’s like WordPress or Shopify, there are plugins that can be added to allow for breadcrumb integration without any hard coding. Tools like Yoast SEO offer an SEO-focused breadcrumb option.
Hard-code in HTML or CSS
Developers can also hard-code breadcrumbs into a custom site structure using simple HTML or CSS. This can look like:
Build a Specific Framework
For frameworks like React or Angular, developers can use UI library resources that include breadcrumb components to add them to a site.
Key Takeaways
Breadcrumbs are a powerful, yet often underused, feature of website navigation. Their benefits are numerous and can make a significant impact on how a user journeys through your website. By implementing breadcrumbs strategically, you can create a more intuitive and engaging user experience moving forward.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How do breadcrumbs improve website usability?
Breadcrumbs help users to understand where they are on a website and make it easier for them to move to other places within the site’s hierarchy.
Do breadcrumbs help with SEO rankings?
Yes and no. While breadcrumbs are an important way to optimize your site for search engines, they don’t automatically benefit you in terms of rankings. There are hundreds of factors that impact where a site ranks in search results, with breadcrumbs and easy-to-use navigation only being one part. However, as user engagement on your site is also a ranking factor and breadcrumbs can support this, they also indirectly help improve your site SEO in this way.
What is the best way to structure breadcrumb navigation?
Hierarchy-based breadcrumbs are typically the best option for most sites, starting at the homepage and then using clearly labeled, clickable links from there.
Where should breadcrumbs be placed on a website?
Ideally, breadcrumbs should be placed just below the main navigation on the page, or the header. It’s important that breadcrumbs are visible as the page loads.
What are some examples of bad breadcrumb implementation?
Bad breadcrumbs are typically those that aren’t clickable, are missing the homepage in the trail, are inconsistent in their structure, or are overloaded with irrelevant attributes that can confuse users.
