What are the importance of Breadcrumbs for Search Engine Optimization?

[jeiss]

Hi,

I would love if someone could explain the importance of inserting breadcrumbs on my website as I am new into website management. I once read that it improves the internal linking structure and encourages search engine bots to crawl a website easily. How effective is having breadcrumbs on a website for search engine optimization?

Thanks in advance!

 

[andrewskyler]

Because it has many advantages. Breadcrumbs enables easier navigation to all pages on a website with a large amount of content and pages. Users may feel frustrated when using the back button to return to the main category. To overcome this problem, the user can return to the desired page with just one click.
It also helps you minimal web space
You don't believe but Breadcrumb also helps in SEO: Breadcrumbs allow the search engines to have a clear picture of the site's construction and its usability to the customer. It allows SEO to know the site's page rank and rank. If the breadcrumbs contain the relevant keywords,

 

[SEOPub]

Breadcrumbs have no SEO value. They are just extra links on your page. The more links you have on a page, the weaker each link is on the page, so adding breadcrumbs throughout the site just makes all your internal links weaker.

If you feel they are good for your users, that's fine. But they have no SEO value and may actually hurt your SEO slightly.

The only time I would consider using them is if I am building a silo inside a silo. I might use them in the innermost silo. Usually for silos though I use something that more resembles a table of content.

 

[jeiss]

jeiss

Are you saying that I should try to minimize the number of links I have on a webpage? If I do, won't it make navigation difficult for users?

 

[SEOPub]

SEOPub

With SEO there is often a tradeoff betwee what is good for SEO and what is best for your users. You should minimize useless links. Breadcrumbs, unless your navigation sucks, are useless links in my opinion.

I also always tell people to eliminate duplicat links. For example, a lot of sites will have a 'Contact Us' link both in the header and the footer. Same with "About Us". Pick one. No need to put it both places. That is just diluting the link strength on every page of your site.

Sometimes I also see sites with links to Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Pintrest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Google+, etc. Do you really need all of those? Are any of your visitors really going to check out more than 2 or 3 of those?

Another example is having like 35 links in your navigation menu because there are so many drop down options. Sites with huge authority like Amazon and Best Buy can get away with that sort of stuff. Your site, probably cannot.

Obviously, some links are more vital than others. Keep those.

 

[markdenz]

markdenz

I hear you but what if i no follow the breadcrumbs links is it still bad for seo?

 

[SEOPub]

SEOPub

Adding nofollow tags to links does not keep them from leaking linkjuice through those links. They still leak the linkjuice, it just does not get passed on to the pages you are linking to. I would never, ever nofollow an internal link.

This image describes best how Google treats nofollow links now. This change was made in 2009, but many people still do not understand this and think it works the old way.

 

[Techrev]

Breadcrumbs is really important for SEO in my opinion. I find it useful to navigate the user within your website. This is specially useful when someone arrived via backlinks. Breadcrumbs are like links so the spiders pay attention to them.

 

[Antonio94]

Let say it will make your site looks more appealing on google. Though I agree Breadcrumbs don't necessary help your SEO directly, it creates more incentive for audiences to click on your site. I think you can find lots of Breadcrumbs example on the Internet. There are many Breadcrumbs applications which will make your site more appealing. More appealing means more people interested in clicking on your site, and more people going into your site means more traffic and thus helps your ranking. Of course, it also depends on your content but if you're confident in your site content, I think there is no need to worry about that.