Magento breadcrumbs have a very significant role in the SEO optimization of your Magento store. “Breadcrumbs” is a very anomalous term for the navigation chain which can be presented on a website in order to improve its usability. Breadcrumbs customization will not just improve the user experience but can also improve the performance of the SEO of your website and increase the sales of your e-commerce store.
The main task of breadcrumbs navigation is to quickly return to the previous navigated pages. In some scenarios, the users on a website while learning the content wants to reread some other texts on the website – Breadcrumbs navigation is the best thing for that. In this article, we will go through all the different aspects of the breadcrumbs in a Magento store.
What are Magento Breadcrumbs?
In simple words, Magento breadcrumb is a path to the products in your store. It is a sort of navigation tool which helps the users to know the category and subcategory of the product. These categories or subcategories will help the users to identify on which they are currently at the website. It is not a mandatory component but a suggested part to include on the website.
Types of Breadcrumbs:
There are 3 different types of breadcrumbs on the basis of features and usages. Let’s know about these 3 types of breadcrumbs:
a. Hierarchy-based breadcrumbs:
Hierarchy-based breadcrumbs are the most widely used breadcrumbs. In these breadcrumbs, the users can easily understand which category, subcategory product they are checking along with the architecture of the website. They can easily navigate to the higher category or subcategory.
b. History-based breadcrumbs:
Unlike the hierarchy-based breadcrumbs, a history or path based breadcrumb has a feature similar to the back button of the browser. The visitors can quickly return to the previous pages they visited with all of their selections intact.
These breadcrumbs are highly useful when the users just want to quickly jump back and forth on the pages after using multiple filters on the category page. This breadcrumb is more focused on the click instead of the location.
c. Attribute-based breadcrumbs:
In these types of breadcrumbs, the users can see the attributes they have selected on a page. These are highly useful in the e-commerce stores in which the products are having multiple attributes. After applying filters or attributes, they will be displayed on the top of the page. The difference between hierarchy-based breadcrumbs and attribute-based breadcrumbs is that the latter not just displays the path but also the selected filters. Also, the users can deselect filters directly from the attribute-based breadcrumbs.
From the SEO point of view, breadcrumbs have multiple functions. There are many reasons for that:
- Breadcrumbs increase the usability of the website and behavioral factors got improved
- Breadcrumbs are a part of the networks of internal linking which helps search engines to index the site better
- Such navigation is formed in the snippet of the website on SERP by which a user can open that desired section immediately without searching the website
Obviously, there is no need for breadcrumbs on a website with few pages. But on an e-commerce store with hundreds of products and categories, breadcrumbs give a lot of convenience to the users.
What to remember during the setup of breadcrumbs in your Magento store?
First of all, check whether the navigation is actually helping the users to navigate through the site. An online e-commerce store is the best example in which moving between different product categories is difficult, and breadcrumbs help in proper organisation and provide an opportunity to quickly navigate the site.
That’s why breadcrumbs should be easily visible and as a rule, they are located at the top of the page. A navigation guide is not mandatory but the most important element on the site. It should be an unobtrusive assistant. The sequence is important – if you enter this type of navigation on one page, you should use it on your entire site.
While implementing breadcrumbs navigation make sure that all the elements are well structured logically and connected together. Breadcrumbs proper use will enhance SEO and encourage users to explore those areas of the website which are important for you. This navigation is the key for Google in the structure of the website and can contribute to the SEO efforts.
Best Practices of Breadcrumbs:
It is said that the e-commerce stores should offer two different types of breadcrumbs to the users at the same time. But generally, the stores are limited to offer only one type of breadcrumbs and that is the hierarchy-based breadcrumbs.
Let’s understand in a better way, we have highlighted different perspectives to consider in breadcrumb navigation:
· Linear:
The route of the user from the main page to the current page is created. Navigation is in the description so the users can understand site structure even from the page of the issue. This is a very popular and easiest breadcrumb that everyone sees. These breadcrumbs are highly useful in the scenarios in which the user lands on the product through the search result and wants to explore more general categories. This approach will help you not lose any potential customers and maintain the depth of viewing the site.
· Inverse:
Instead of the complete route, you can add a “back” button on the page. As we mentioned above, it is like the back button of the website but is more convenient. The button is best for stores with a variety of filters. On clicking the back button of the browser, the filters get reset which means the user has to re-configure them. The back button resolves this issue by returning to the previous page with all selected settings.
· Attributive:
The breadcrumbs are formed by grouping categories, tags, and subsections of the page. It is good for large online stores or information sites. The users can select all smartphones of a particular colour, brand or size or they can check the news of any particular person, category, or country.
· Combined:
For making the site more convenient and improving the UX, it is worth considering two types of breadcrumbs. Combined breadcrumbs navigation are useful because each of their species has its own specific tasks. One is for the structure and the other is for viewing history.
Things you must know of Breadcrumb Navigation:
Here are some important points by which you can understand the working of the breadcrumbs in a better way:
- Breadcrumb navigation is generally a horizontal strip displayed on the top of the page. Vertical stripes are also possible but they are highly uncommon
- It is a navigation element and has an influence on user’s behaviour which search engines check.
- Breadcrumbs should fit organically in the overall design of your store and they should not like foreign.
- Always show the full way starting from the homepage. This is generally expected by the users.
- Use the”>” symbol to separate different elements of the path. The users commonly see this symbol as a separator in most websites and become used too for this.
- Don’t implement breadcrumbs on the homepage as they don’t make any sense.
- Boldface is the last element to demonstrate the page on which the users are currently on.
Benefits for SEO of breadcrumbs:
- Location-based breadcrumbs support search engines crawlers to relate with the website and help in gaining a better ranking on SERPs.
- Breadcrumbs can show keywords of unique pages of the website which improves the SEO of your website
- Improves the internal linking of the website that arranges link juice between pages
- SERPs are integrated with breadcrumbs to make the search results more attractive for visitors displaying a clear snippet with useful data.
How to add & remove Magento breadcrumbs in your Magento 2 store?
Follow these steps to enable breadcrumbs on your Magento 2 store:
- Login to the Admin Panel of your store.
- Navigate to Stores > Configuration
- In the General category, click on the Web tab and expand the Default pages section.
- Select Yes for Show Breadcrumbs for CMS Pages and enable it.
- After that, you click Save Config.
If you want to remove the breadcrumbs anytime from your Magento 2 store, select No in Show Breadcrumbs for CMS pages.
Wrapping Up:
In this article, we have understood the importance of breadcrumbs in an e-commerce store, how they are helpful in improving the user experience and the SEO of your Magento store. At Ceymox technologies, the best Magento development company in India, we are having expertise in implementing such features and functionalities and developing Magento stores from scratch. Let us know your requirements.
