You might have heard about breadcrumbs. They are the elements present on a website that aims to simplify navigation. If we look at the formal definition, we will find that it is a type of secondary navigation scheme that reveals the user’s location in a website or Web application. It assists visitors and enables them to come back to the home page from any internal page. It also defines the overall structure of a website. Hence, we can conclude that they are very essential for any website and improve its overall functionality as well as usability.
In other word, breadcrumbs are essential and vital any website or you say WordPress Website and help it to attain success. When it comes to improving the overall experience of users, breadcrumbs play an important role that cannot be underestimated. You will be surprised to know that Google likes and supports this sort of structural element in any website because it improves user’s experience and significantly reduces bounce rate as well.
Types Of Breadcrumb Navigation :
- Location Breadcrumb Navigation
- Attribute Breadcrumb Navigation
- Path Breadcrumb Navigtaion
- Title Breadcrumb Navigation
Benefits :
- Better usability
- Better rankings
- Lower bounce rate
- Increase Time on Site
It is easy to add breadcrumb to any site (WordPress) through a plugin. If you are using the Yoast SEO plugin, you have a competitive edge because breadcrumbs functionality is already built into Yoast! Besides that, The plugin Breadcrumb NavXT is also a relevant option that is customizable and works well.
Adding Breadcrumbs to your WordPress Website using Yoast :
- Install & Activate Yoast SEO Plugin
- Add the Breadcrumbs code snippet to your WordPress Theme
- Configure Breadcrumbs the Yoast Breadcrumbs in the plugin settings
Let us discuss them in detail.
Install and Activate the Yoast SEO Plugin
In order to install the Yoast SEO plugin, simply go to your WordPress Dashboard and navigate to Plugins > Add New. After that search for WordPress repository for “yoast”. As soon as see the Yoast SEO plugin, just click to install and activate the plugin.
Add the Breadcrumbs Code Snippet to your WordPress Child Theme
Now, we need to add a snippet of code to your WordPress theme files.
Enable and Configure the Yoast Breadcrumbs in the plugin settings
Once the code snippet has been added, all you have need to do is activate the Breadcrumbs in the Yoast SEO plugin settings. Here are the steps –
- Go to your WordPress Dashboard and navigate to SEO
- Search Appearance and then click the Breadcrumbs tab.
Under the Breadcrumbs settings, enable breadcrumbs by toggling the option to “enabled”. Then you can configure the breadcrumb settings as per your requirements. You may also want to choose taxonomy to show in breadcrumbs for your post.
Now let us check out how the breadcrumbs look like on one of the posts. However, you may need to adjust the style of your breadcrumbs using some external CSS.
Adding Breadcrumbs to Your WordPress Website Using NavXT
If you don’t want to install Yoast or if you are looking for something simple option, the Breadcrumb NavXT plugin is an ideal choice. To install the plugin, just go to the WordPress Dashboard and navigate to Plugins > Add New. Then search the WordPress repository for “Breadcrumb Navxt”. And install and activate it.
To call the breadcrumbs so that they get displayed, you can use the built-in Breadcrumb NavXT widget. This will allow you to drag the widget into the various widget areas provided by your theme. And to do this –
- Go to your WordPress Dashboard and navigate to Appearance > Widgets.
- Drag the widget over to the widget area or your choice and update the widget settings.
Configuring the Breadcrumbs using the plugin settings
The Breadcrumb NavXT plugin has some good and attractive options for configuring your breadcrumbs. You can customize your breadcrumbs for different taxonomies. You can get access to these settings from your WordPress Dashboard by navigating to Settings > Breadcrumb NavXT.
Breadcrumbs are highly vital aspect of a website for usability as well as SEO. So, if you are considering adding breadcrumbs to your WordPress website, just follow the above given steps. Do you have breadcrumb navigation on your site? If no, what are you waiting for?
