What are breadcrumbs?

Breadcrumbs is a well-known term in the world of online marketing. Yet this is jargon that the 'average' person is not familiar with. Because what does it mean? With the term itself, you might immediately think of the breadcrumbs you leave on your plate every day. You take a bite of a sandwich and you can't prevent some small crumbs from remaining on your plate. Breadcrumbs are not very different in the world of online marketing. They are literally small crumbs that lead to the bigger picture. This way a path of crumbs is created that helps the visitor to discover the navigational structure of a site. 

Definition breadcrumbs 

Breadcrumbs are very similar to the official definition of the English word. They are small crumbs that lead to the bigger picture. Think of the crumbs in the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel. These ensured that the children knew where to go. The crumbs showed them where the bigger picture came from. It is the same with websites. In the end, every website consists of several sub-pages, articles and blogs nowadays. This makes it sometimes difficult to find your way around the site. With the help of breadcrumbs you create a path of crumbs. With a link on every page so you can always go to another page or can easily return to the homepage. 

The influence of breadcrumbs on SEO 

But how important is the use of breadcrumbs? 

First of all, it is of course essential for the user of the website. These breadcrumbs make it a lot easier for them to navigate the website. For example, think of the following at a large shoe shop: Women's shoes - brand name - size 36 to 42. With the help of these specific characteristics, the offer can not only be filtered, but the user will also find what he is looking for more easily. The user-friendliness of the site therefore increases enormously. 

Breadcrumbs, however, are not only important for the users of the website. They also play an important role in the SEO of the page. Google's crawlers do everything in their power to assess websites for quality and find relevant information. 

However, it must be taken into account that they are still robots. They do not read a site the way you and I do. That is why it is important to apply a good structure and to use breadcrumbs to make clear what can be found on the individual pages. Because the site can then be read better, this also indirectly affects the position within the search results.