Breadcrumbs and Why They are Important for B2B SEO

A website’s breadcrumb navigation is a series of links typically located at the top of a page just below the main navigation that allows visitors to quickly see their current location on a website. The term comes from Hansel and Gretel, in which the children drop breadcrumbs so they can find their way back home.

Just like Hansel and Gretel, breadcrumb navigation on a website can help users find their way back to the main page or to any other previous section they may have visited. This is especially helpful on large websites with lots of pages and complex navigation.

As a business-to-business (B2B) marketer, you know that SEO is essential to driving qualified traffic to your website. But what you may not know is that breadcrumbs can play an important role in your B2B SEO strategy.

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What are breadcrumbs?

Breadcrumbs are the links that appear at the top of a web page, typically above the main navigation, that allow visitors to quickly see their location within a website.

For example, on a product page, breadcrumbs might look like this:

Home > Product Category > Product Name

Breadcrumbs are a way of showing the path that a user has taken to get to the current page. They are typically located at the top of a page, just below the header, and provide an easy way for users to navigate back to previous pages, while also helping search engines understand the structure of your site.

Including breadcrumbs on your B2B website can be beneficial for both users and search engines. Users will appreciate the extra help in navigation, and search engines will be able to better understand the structure of your site.

If you’re not sure how to add breadcrumbs to your website, there are a few different ways to do it. You can use a plugin or add-on for your content management system (CMS), or you can edit your site’s code directly.

If you’re using WordPress, there are a few different plugins that you can use to add them to your site. One popular option is the Yoast SEO plugin.

If you’re comfortable editing your site’s code, you can add breadcrumbs directly to your templates. Most CMSs have documentation that can tell you how to do this.

Including breadcrumbs on your B2B website can help improve the user experience and also help search engines understand your site better. If you’re not sure how to add them to your site, there are a few different options that you can try.

Different types of breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs come in three different types:

Location-based breadcrumbs: These show the hierarchy of pages leading up to the current page. For example, if you’re on a product page, the location-based breadcrumb will show the category and subcategory pages leading up to the product page.

Attribute-based breadcrumbs: These show the different attributes of a product. For example, if you’re looking at a product that comes in different colors and sizes, the attribute-based breadcrumb would allow you to quickly navigate to the product page for the color or size you’re interested in.

Path-based breadcrumbs: These show the steps a user has taken to get to the current page. For example, if you’re on a product page that a user reached after clicking through a search engine, the path-based breadcrumb will show the search engine results page (SERP) that the user was on.

Benefits of Using Breadcrumbs for SEO

There are several benefits of using breadcrumbs for SEO:

They improve the user experience: Breadcrumbs make it easy for visitors to navigate your website and find the content they’re looking for. They provide a clear and easy-to-follow path back to the home page or main category page. In addition, they also help search engines understand the structure of your site and can improve the way your site appears in search results.

They help search engines index your website: By including breadcrumbs on your website, you’re helping search engines understand the structure of your website and the relationships between different pages.

They improve click-through rates: Breadcrumbs can help improve your click-through rates by giving users a clear path to follow as they navigate your website.

Click-through rate (CTR) is a metric that measures the percentage of people who click on a link to your website after seeing it on a search engine results page (SERP). A high CTR means that people are finding your website relevant and useful, and it is a strong indicator of success for your SEO efforts.

Breadcrumbs can help increase your CTR by making your website more user-friendly and easy to navigate. They can also help search engine crawlers understand the structure of your site, which can lead to better indexing and ranking.

They boost your SEO: By improving the user experience and helping search engines index your website, breadcrumbs can also help boost your overall SEO.

Breadcrumbs are an important part of any SEO strategy, but they’re especially important for B2B SEO. Here’s why:

1. Breadcrumbs improve the user experience for website visitors, which can lead to higher conversion rates.
2. Breadcrumbs help search engines understand the structure of a website and its content. This can lead to better website rankings.
3. Breadcrumbs create additional opportunities for keywords, which can help improve click-through rates on search engine results pages.
4. Breadcrumbs can be used to create rich snippets, which are special search results that include additional information about a website (such as reviews, ratings, and prices). Rich snippets can improve click-through rates and help your website stand out in the search results.
5. Breadcrumbs can be used to create a hierarchy for your website’s pages, which can be helpful for both users and search engines.

Overall, breadcrumbs are a valuable tool for any B2B SEO strategy. They improve the user experience, help search engines crawl and index a website more effectively, and provide additional opportunities for keywords. If you’re not already using breadcrumbs on your website, now is the time to start!

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