Breadcrumbs make an important part of nearly every “good” website. Their purpose is to make it easier for users to navigate the website to specific subpages and to show on which pages they currently are.
Breadcrumbs as a supporting navigation
Breadcrumbs prevent clogging of every page within the main navigation. That would be plain sloppy and not user-friendly at all. Instead, the “menu”, which is just a horizontal list of hyperlinks, is placed above the content.
What are the advantages of the breadcrumb navigation?
Breadcrumbs help users understand their location. One of the key aspects when designing a modern website is Making it intuitive. Users need to be able to navigate around it in a simple manner and know in advance what each subpage is actually about. Breadcrumbs help with that, without allowing the visitors to get lost.
- It redirects visitors to other important subpages
A website is usually in constant motion. Some people enter it through referrals, others find it on Google, then others learn about it from backlinks. Not every new user, however, will end up on the main page. It is possible that the first visit will be entering a subpage located deep within the website’s structure. In such case, there’s quite a chance that the visitor will want to find other subpages of a particular category – the breadcrumb navigation will make it much easier for them. - It improves visibility on search engines
Who among us wouldn’t like to take top positions on a search engine. The position, however, isn’t the only aspect that is worth focusing on. Aside from it, it’s also about how you present yourself. The page title and description are displayed on a search engine and inform what a particular subpage is about. - It impacts positioning
Summing up all the above mentioned advantages, we can come to one important conclusion. An additional navigation system on a sophisticated website improves the overall user experience. Using it might lower the bounce rate and improve the Session duration and number of views. Which automatically means that clever use of breadcrumbs has a positive impact on positioning.
How to install breadcrumbs on WordPress
Installing the breadcrumb navigation on WordPress requires the basic knowledge of coding, since the last step consists of manually changing the theme code.
- Download the Breadcrumb NavXT plugin
Start by logging into the WordPress admin panel. Go to the “Plugins” tab and find the Breadcrumb NavXT plugin. - Configure the navigation settings
After installing and activating the plugin, go to the settings. You can choose to leave the standard configuration or apply custom plugin settings, which means choosing where and how the new navigation will be displayed. - Add breadcrumbs from a file
In order to add breadcrumbs to other pages, you need to make changes to the theme files. Depending on the website’s structure, it is required to add code in < head > or in a page theme in the < body > section.
