The internet has grown exponentially over the last few decades. In fact, web design platform Siteefy noted that there are now around 190 million active websites online. With internet users having such a wide range of similar websites to choose from, it can be difficult for most sites to stand out. To stop users from clicking away, you’ll need to ensure that your website provides them with the information they’re looking for without being bogged down by confusing navigation, cluttered pages, and other common user experience (UX) pitfalls.
A simple yet effective way to create a more user-friendly browsing experience for your visitors is to use breadcrumb navigation, a trail of links starting from the website’s home page up to the page currently being viewed. For example, if a user is browsing an e-commerce site for a jacket, the breadcrumbs may look something like this:
Home > Clothing > Women’s Apparel > Jackets & Outerwear > Hoodies > Ladies Basic Hoodie Jacket Regular (Black)
As its name suggests, breadcrumb navigation allows you to make your way back to the home page or navigate to other relevant pages by using the links as your breadcrumb trails. Learn more why breadcrumbs are helpful in enhancing both your website’s navigation and search engine optimization (SEO) through this quick overview.
How Breadcrumbs Improve Navigation
Having clear navigation is a must for any website. By using navigation tools such as drop-down menus, links, and search bars, you make it easier and faster for users to find what they’re looking for on your website. That being said, not all websites have optimised navigation.
If you think your website’s current navigation system is confusing or simply not working as intended, you may consider hiring SEO agency Singapore services to improve your navigation UX. Part of that UX overhaul will mostly likely involve adding breadcrumbs to your website, which can:
1. Help Users Easily Understand Your Website’s Hierarchy
Breadcrumbs allow users to get an idea of the website’s hierarchy in just a glance. This can be especially useful for users who landed on your page from external links or search engines, orienting them right away on where they are on the site and what else to expect from it.
To use the example above, perhaps the link to the ladies hoodie jacket came from the user’s friend. However, upon checking the item, the user soon realises that they’d much rather get formal outerwear instead. Rather than going back to the home page and starting their search from there, they can just click on Jackets & Outerwear to view the shop’s other outerwear listings instead of being restricted to hoodies.
2. Offer Quick Navigation
Breadcrumb links help users easily switch between categories in just a few clicks. This saves them time from having to click the “back” button multiple times. For instance, if the user is shopping for a full outfit, they don’t have to go back to the home page, go to the Clothing section, and then open the Women’s Apparel category for each clothing item they’re looking for. Rather, they can just click on Women’s Apparel from the breadcrumbs and choose a different category from there.
3. Encourage Exploration of Other Pages
Another benefit of breadcrumbs is that they subtly nudge your user towards exploring the rest of your website. Say they got to your website through a search engine result. Even if they happen to not like the product on the page they landed on, they can just use the breadcrumb link of a higher-tier category to check out your other products instead. Not only does this offer them a more seamless navigation experience, but you also get them to engage with your website’s other contents.
How Breadcrumbs Boost SEO Performance
In addition to making your site’s navigation much more user-friendly, breadcrumbs can also boost your SEO performance by:
1. Providing Better Internal Linking Structure
Breadcrumbs help websites with multiple categories create a more coherent internal linking structure, which then allow search engines like Google to crawl and index them more efficiently. Having a breadcrumb system also lets a website improve the flow of its link juice, which is the value that one page can pass onto another via links.
To use the earlier example, the breadcrumb path established between Women’s Apparel and Jackets & Outerwear allows the latter’s search engine rank to improve as well since it is being linked by the top-level category page Women’s Apparel, which generally receives more traffic and passes its link juice down to any pages that is connected to it.
2. Improving User Engagement
When users interact more with your website, it signals to search engines that your pages are valuable and relevant. Using breadcrumb navigation, you can organically encourage users to stay longer on your website by making it easier for them to check out your other pages. This can also lead to a lower bounce rate—the percentage in which visitors click off after viewing only one page of a site—which is another green flag for search engines.
3. Enhancing Keyword Context and Search Result Snippets
The categories linked in breadcrumbs can also be keywords that search engines utilise to better determine the context of your pages. This could then improve the chances of your pages showing up when those keywords are searched online.
In addition, breadcrumbs also provide richer search result snippets to increase your click-through rate. For example, having Home > Clothing > Women’s Apparel > Jackets & Outerwear show up in your search result snippet rather than just a link or page title can make users feel more confident that your site has multiple categories relevant to what they’re looking for.
Despite its simplicity, breadcrumb navigation contributes significantly to the way users and search engines interact with your website. Users get seamless navigation experience as they browse your site, while search engines find it easier to determine the relevance of your pages given its organised linking structure. Thus, if you’re looking to improve your website’s visibility and user engagement, make sure you don’t miss out on this powerful navigation tool.
