Breadcrumbs are a visually enticing way to show visitors where they are on your site as they navigate your site. Overall, it increases the usability of your website, especially if your website has multiple pages that need to be structured in a hiearchical order. Breadcrumbs are generally styled horizontally and can be hard to miss if styled and placed effectively. This provides your website visitor with easy access to previously visited pages.
Why Use Breadcrumbs?
There are numerous reasons why anyone would use breadcrumbs as a navigation feature on their site. One of the top choices is the massive gain in usability, which allows you website visitor to move up and down the hierarchy of pages with little or no issue. Not only that but breadcrumbs also allow users to track their location on your website, eliminating repetitive use of the browser's back button and main menu navigation.
When to Use Breadcrumbs
Use breadcrumbs when
Your users are likely to land on any given page from an external site or organic search.
The website thrives on a hierarchical structure that delivers content in a similar manner.
You have pages that are nested deep into the hierarchical structure of your site and can't be visually seen within the main navigation menu or by any other means.
You'd like to provide your users with a way to track their location and easily browse back to a higher level within your websites hierarchy.
When Not to Use Breadcrumbs
It's not recommend for you to use breadcrumbs navigation if you have a website that has no hierarchical structure and could benefit the most from a simple navigation menu. As much as breadcrumbs can help, they can also cause damage to the usability of your website if used incorrectly. Another reason to not use breadcrumbs is if your website has secondary menus below the main menu this may cause confusion over which menu your website visitor should use.
Christopher Terterian | Internet Marketing Consultant now offers breadcrumbs navigation design & implementation.