Magento Breadcrumbs: Types, Benefits For eCommerce Store

The role of breadcrumbs in your Magento store is not just limited to improve the SEO but also significant for improving UX. “Breadcrumbs” is a very anomalous term for the navigation chain and are usually presented on ecommerce stores for a better UX. Breadcrumbs will improve the UX, SEO optimization, and in turn, better sales in your store.

The main role of breadcrumbs is to allow users to quickly come back to the previous navigated pages. There are many incidents when the users on a particular page checking the content want to reread other content of the website. For this purpose, breadcrumb navigation is the best thing. In today’s blog, we will go through multiple aspects of the breadcrumbs in your Magento store.

What Are Magento Breadcrumbs

In easy words, Magento breadcrumbs represent the path to the products in your store. It is a type of navigation tool which allows users to identify the category or subcategory of the product. By knowing these categories or subcategories, the users will know on which page they are currently on. It is not essential to use breadcrumbs in your ecommerce store but we suggest using, as it improves the UX.

Types Of Magento Breadcrumbs

The breadcrumbs have been divided into 3 different categories on the basis of features and usage. Let’s know about these categories:

1. Hierarchy-Based Breadcrumbs

You will easily find the hierarchy-based breadcrumbs on ecommerce as they are most popular in usage. In these breadcrumbs, the users can know the product they are checking is of which category/subcategory. Thus, they can directly go to the higher category or subcategory from the product details page.

2. History-Based Breadcrumbs

Unlike the hierarchy-based breadcrumbs, these breadcrumbs work just like the back button of your browser. The customers can go to the previous pages they visited by clicking on the breadcrumb.

History-based breadcrumbs are highly useful if the users just want to go back and forth on the site after using multiple filters on the category page. This breadcrumb is more focused on the click instead of the button.

3. Attribute-Based Breadcrumbs

In the attribute-based breadcrumbs, the users can see the attributes they have selected for a product on the page. These types of breadcrumbs are highly useful in those ecommerce stores which have a huge range of products with many different attributes. When the user will apply certain filters or attributes, they will be displayed on the top of the page. Don’t find these similar to the above-discussed hierarchy-based breadcrumbs because the attribute-based breadcrumbs also show the selected filters while the hierarchy-based breadcrumbs just show the path. Also, the users can remove filters directly from these breadcrumbs.

From An SEO Perspective, There Are Multiple Uses Of Breadcrumbs.

• Breadcrumbs improve the user experience of the ecommerce store and behavioral factors also got improved
• Breadcrumbs are a part of the networks of internal linking which helps search engines to index the site better
• This navigation is formed in the snippet of the website on the Search Engine Result Pages which allow the users to open the desired section immediately without searching the whole website.

It is obvious that you may not require breadcrumbs on an ecommerce store with a few CMS pages. But if you have a huge inventory with hundreds of products and categories, then breadcrumbs will be like a boon for the user experience.

Things To Remember While Setting Up The Breadcrumbs On Your Magento Store

Firstly identify whether this extra navigation setting on your site will be helpful for the users to navigate through your site or not. An online ecommerce store is a perfect epitome in which navigating between different product categories is difficult, and breadcrumbs help in a perfect manner while providing an opportunity to navigate through the site.

That’s why users can easily find the breadcrumbs on the page and thus they are always located on the top of the product pages. Such Navigation is evitable but it is an important element of the site. It should be an unobtrusive assistant. The sequence is important – if you are offering this navigation on a page, it should be present on the entire site.

While implementing the breadcrumbs on your Magento store make sure all the elements are well structured logically and connected together. The proper use of breadcrumbs will improve the SEO and motivate users to explore some important areas of the website. This navigation is the key for Google in the structure of the website and can contribute to the SEO efforts.

Breadcrumbs Best Practices

Generally, it is being said that an ecommerce store must offer two different types of breadcrumbs simultaneously. However, ecommerce store development companies restrict themselves to only one type of breadcrumbs and that is hierarchy-based breadcrumbs. But at Emizentech, the best ecommerce development company identifies the user flow & navigation of the store and implement breadcrumbs accordingly.

Also Read: Complete Magento Review for eCommerce Store

Here Are Some Different Perspectives We Consider In The Breadcrumb Navigation

1. Linear

In the linear approach, the users’ route from the main page to the current page is created. Navigation is within the description therefore users can understand the site structure even from the issue page. You must have observed this approach in breadcrumbs as it is highly popular. The linear approach is most useful when the users land on the product through the search result and wants to explore more general categories. You will not lose any potential customers with this approach.

2. Inverse

Instead of showing the whole route, you can simply put a “back” button on the page. As we mentioned above, it is similar to the browser “back” button but more convenient. It works best for those sites which have a lot of filters. When the users click on the back button of the browser, all the filters get reset which means users have to again configure and increase the users’ efforts. The breadcrumbs resolve this issue by returning to the previous page with all previously selected filters.

3. Attributive

The attributive breadcrumbs are formed by grouping categories, tags, and page subsections. It is good for building ecommerce stores. The users will be able to select all mobile devices in a defined price range, color, and other attributes.

4. Combined

For a better UX, a single approach of breadcrumbs may not be sufficient. Thus, if required, implement two different types of breadcrumbs. Combined breadcrumbs navigation is useful because each of their species has its own specific tasks. One is for the structure and the other is for viewing history.

Important Things Of Implementing Breadcrumbs Navigation

Here Are Some Important Points To Consider

• Generally, breadcrumb navigation is a horizontal strip displayed on the top of the page. Vertical stripes are also possible but they are not used so widely
• It is a navigation element and can influence user behavior which search engines check
• Breadcrumbs should fit organically in the overall design of your store and it shouldn’t appear foreign.
• Always display the complete way beginning from the homepage. This is generally expected by the users.
• Use the “>” symbol to separate the 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 use breadcrumbs on the homepage as they have no use on the homepage.
• Boldface is the last element to demonstrate the page on which the users are currently on.

Breadcrumbs Benefits For SEO

• Location-based breadcrumbs support the crawlers of the search engines to relate with the website and helps in achieving a better ranking on SERPs.
• You can use particular keywords of the pages in your breadcrumbs which can improve the SEO
• 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 Breadcrumbs From Your Magento Store?

For enabling the breadcrumbs on your Magento store, follow these steps

1. Log in to the Admin Panel of your store

2. Navigate to Stores > Navigation

3. In the General category, click on the Web tab and expand the section of Default Pages

4. Select Yes for Show Breadcrumbs for CMS pages and enable it.

5. After that, click on the Save Config

For removing the breadcrumbs from your Magento store, select No in Show Breadcrumbs for CMS pages

Wrapping Up

In today’s article, we have gone through every aspect of the breadcrumbs in a Magento 2 store, how they are beneficial for improving the UX and SEO, and how you can set the breadcrumbs on your Magento store. At Emizentech, the best Magento development company, we are having expertise in implementing such features and functionalities with proper design. Let us know your requirements.