Rob Hammond noticed that Google is testing breadcrumbs showing up in the SERPs instead of site sub-folders for the URL. In the 7th and 10th position, Google displays the breadcrumbs. Screenshot below:
Leo Fogarty also came across some strange results which listed breadcrumb data before the Meta Description in the results. Screenshot below:
And here’s another example where the breadcrumb is placed beneath the title:
Breadcrumbs are a most excellent practice for site navigation and usability for the visitors. This type of navigation literally creates a trail that users can follow back to where they came from. If your website has a deep structure of nested categories and subcategories using four or more levels, the breadcrumb can often display more levels than the global navigation can accommodate. You can see some nice example of breadcrumbs here.
Now the question is – how will new breadcrumb display may have impact on Google Algorithm? It’s too early to tell as it seems Google is just testing this concept now but it does show that Google can read and understand breadcrumbs. If they will notice increase in Conversion Rates (CTRs) from the end users than they will defiantly increase importance of breadcrumbs to increase ranking.
If you are not using breadcrumb in your site than it’s right time to start adding them 🙂
Image credit: Richard Hearn