Breadcrumb trail and SEO

Hey guys,

I was doing some reading about breadcrumb and their effect on SEO. There is some mix reaction; some say it does help, some say it doesn't. I'd like to get some opinion from DP members.

Thanks in advance.

 

It won't do any harm and helps users.

 

dulcificum, thanks for your reply. I know it helps the users to navigate the site, but does it help in seo process?

 

Yes, it can. When used properly, that is. What I like to do is wrap the breadcrumb around a DIV and then use a STRONG tag to emphasis that this is a menu for the current location on the site. Then I'll use an ordered list that has a link on every page in the path to the current location, save for the current page. The current page gets a B tag on it (the search engines treat B and STRONG roughly equally, but I'm using them as semantic and typographical conventions, so Google can bite me if they don't like it).

To make a long story short, my breadcrumb links contain the keywords that I am trying to rank for on a given page. For example, with my upcoming site redesign, I'm going to have a breadcrumb menu on every page save the home page. If you were at my upcoming keyword research services page, this is what the HTML code would look like (I changed the links themselves to protect the guilty). Oh, and if in case you're wondering, this will be displayed as a horizontal menu with CSS.

<div id="breadcrumbs">
	<strong>You Are Here:</strong>
	<ol>
		<li><a href="http://www.example.com/">Home</a></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.example.com/services/">Services</a></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.example.com/services/seo/">Search Engine Optimization (SEO)</a></li>
		<li><b>Keyword Research Services</b></li>
	</ol>
</div>

Code (markup):

Did you notice how I included the keywords in the link text, the bold text (for the current page) and the links themselves? That's a sign of a strong internal linking profile, and when used in conjunction with a properly optimized and utilized site structure and internal link setup can reap you huge dividends SEO wise.

 

it also depends greatly on your current link structure, if its just duplicating links you already have in your nav it wont help much, if it's providing structural kw links that you dont already have, it will help a lot.

 

What CSS do you use to make it horizontal?

 

Bear in mind my margins and padding are already zeroed out on most elements (most, but not all). But here's the CSS I use:

#breadcrumb {
	background-color: #F7F7F9;
	color: inherit;
	overflow: hidden;
	padding: 0.5em 0 0 0;
}
	#breadcrumb strong {
		background: transparent;
		color: #003567;
		float: left;
		padding: 0 1em 0.5em 25px;
	}
	
	#breadcrumb ol {
		padding: 0 0 0.5em 0;
	}
		#breadcrumb li {
			display: inline;
			font-style: italic;
			list-item: none;
			padding: 0;
		}
			#breadcrumb li a {
				font-style: normal;
			}

			#breadcrumb li b {
				font-weight: normal;
			}

Code (markup):

Well, most of it anyway. I do have some background images I use as well. But for the purposes of this post, the DIV, OL and LI have their margins and padding set to zero by default (then reset specifically for this menu).

If you're wondering why I set the display on the B element to normal, it's not to fool the search engines. It's just to remove the bold text since it already has italics applied via the list item's style rule. No sense in having it bold and italic at the same time.

 

Surely there's no point bolding it at all then unless you want to fool search engines?

 

That's not what I'm doing. Those who (for whatever reason) end up seeing the site in plain HTML see the bold text, which indicates the current page. Those who see the styled page see italicized text, which serves the same purpose. If Google, or any other search engine for that matter, feels I'm trying to manipulate them by catering to the people who will be using my site, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell them.

 

you should use breadcrumbs when you are using script in navigation system or you are using flash or images for menu..
You can read more about it here. there is a heading called java script and flash in navigation. You will find the importance of breadcrumbs.

 

Who browses with CSS turned off?!

 

Ok guys, Thanks for all responses! Before posting this thread I've searched the forum for "breadcrumbs" and couldn't find any helpful info and there was mix reaction on other forums/blogs. I thought it'll help, but I wasn't sure. But I'm going to do it now.

Thanks again!

 

Some people with dialup may; you also have mobile users who are stuck using older phones (like I was until a couple months ago). Need more examples?