Breadcrumbs didn’t exactly help Hansel and Gretel in the old fairy tale but they can be a big help to your business website!
Breadcrumbs help you follow a path.
What are Breadcrumbs in Website technology?
Breadcrumbs are website navigational aids to help website visitors keep track of their location on a website, i.e. to tell them what page this content came from. This display path of information is helpful because not all people come to a website via the HOME page.
When business owners are working with website developers to design their websites they often think of their website in a book-like fashion. However, people can land on any page within their website. If they landed on a page from a search engine, they may be interested in more information on this topic. Sometimes people will feel lost and will either click the back button or follow the breadcrumbs!
Breadcrumbs in WordPress
You can have breadcrumbs on any website; html, php, SquareSpace, wix, etc. Being that a large number of my clients have WordPress websites I’m focusing on WordPress. In WordPress there are plugins that will automatically implement breadcrumbs. Just go to NEW Plugins and search for “breadcrumbs”. They work really well on blogs when you have different categories set up.
Here’s an example of a WordPress Breadcrumb Plugin
In the screenshot above the breadcrumb path is circled. You would be able to click on any link in the path in front of the page that you are on.
Manually Create Your Own Breadcrumbs
There are certain situations where these automated breadcrumb plugins don’t work so well. Sometimes you want to control breadcrumbs. All you need to do is create the path and add the appropriate links. I tend to make that text smaller than the main content area and I prefer to right justify it.
You can also include similar links at the bottom of the page.
Breadcrumbs for SEO
Not only will breadcrumbs help your website visitors, but they can also help optimize your website for search engines. How? They allow you to provide links to relevant content on your website.