# Breadcrumb navigation

Category: [On-Page & Content](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category/on-page-content/) › [Internal linking, structure & UX](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category/on-page-content/internal-linking-structure-ux/) · Also known as: breadcrumbs, breadcrumb trail

**Breadcrumb navigation** (breadcrumbs) is a row of links, usually above the main content, that shows the path from a website's home page to the current page. It tells visitors where a page sits in the site hierarchy and lets them jump back to any higher level with one click. The name refers to the trail of bread crumbs in the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel.

## What are breadcrumbs used for?

For visitors, breadcrumbs are an orientation aid on sites with several levels, such as online stores, documentation, or large content hubs. Someone who lands on a product page from search can see at once which category it belongs to. Nielsen Norman Group recommends breadcrumbs as a supplement to the main navigation. The trail should reflect the site structure. The pages a user visited during the session don't belong in it.

For SEO, breadcrumbs add internal links that point up to category and parent pages. Google also uses breadcrumb markup to categorize the information on a page in search results. Its documentation recommends trails that represent a typical user path to the page. The trail doesn't have to mirror the URL structure.

## How are breadcrumbs marked up?

Google reads breadcrumbs from `BreadcrumbList` structured data in JSON-LD, Microdata, or RDFa. A list needs at least two `ListItem` entries. Each entry has a `position`, a `name`, and an `item` with the URL. For the last entry, `item` can be left out, and Google then uses the URL of the current page. Including the home page or the current page is optional. If a page can be reached through different paths, several trails are allowed.

For accessibility, the W3C WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices place the trail in a navigation landmark with a label and mark the link to the current page with `aria-current="page"`.

## How does Google display breadcrumbs?

Since January 2025, Google shows only the domain in the visible URL of mobile search results. The breadcrumb path no longer appears there because it was often cut off on small screens. Desktop results still show breadcrumbs, and the breadcrumb report in Search Console remains available.

## Example

Visible trail on a product page:

```html
<nav aria-label="Breadcrumb">
  <a href="/">Home</a> ›
  <a href="/shoes/">Shoes</a> ›
  <a href="/shoes/running/">Running shoes</a> ›
  <span aria-current="page">Model X</span>
</nav>
```

Matching structured data:

```html
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
  "itemListElement": [
    {"@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Shoes", "item": "https://www.example.com/shoes/"},
    {"@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Running shoes", "item": "https://www.example.com/shoes/running/"},
    {"@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Model X"}
  ]
}
</script>
```

## Common mistakes

- **Markup and visible trail differ.** Structured data should describe the trail visitors actually see.
- **History instead of hierarchy.** A trail that changes depending on how someone arrived confuses visitors and gives search engines no stable structure.
- **Breadcrumbs on flat sites.** With only one or two levels, NN/g sees little benefit.
- **The current page as a link.** NN/g recommends showing the last item as plain text.

## FAQ

**What are breadcrumbs on a website?**
A secondary navigation that shows the path from the home page to the current page as a row of links.

## At a glance

- **Type:** secondary navigation following the site hierarchy
- **Markup:** BreadcrumbList (schema.org) in JSON-LD, Microdata, or RDFa
- **Required per item:** position, name, item (optional on the last item)
- **Visible?:** in Google desktop results; on mobile only the domain since January 2025
- **Docs:** [Google: Breadcrumb structured data](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/breadcrumb)

Last checked: October 8, 2026

*Diagram: Site architecture and click depth.* Each level sits one click further from the home page. Google finds pages mainly through links and recommends that every page you care about gets a link from at least one other page on the site. The breadcrumb shows the page’s position in the hierarchy.

## Related terms

- [Website navigation](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/website-navigation/index.md)
- [Breadcrumb schema](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/breadcrumb-schema/index.md)
- [Faceted navigation](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/faceted-navigation/index.md)
- [Internal linking](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/internal-linking/index.md)

## Sources

- [Breadcrumb (BreadcrumbList) structured data – Google Search Central (last updated 2026-09-08)](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/breadcrumb)
- [Simplifying the visible URL element on mobile search results – Google Search Central Blog (January 2025)](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2025/01/simplifying-breadcrumbs)
- [Breadcrumb Pattern – W3C WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices Guide](https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/patterns/breadcrumb/)
- [BreadcrumbList – schema.org](https://schema.org/BreadcrumbList)
- [Breadcrumbs: 11 Design Guidelines for Desktop and Mobile – Nielsen Norman Group (secondary source, UX; reviewed 2026-09-01)](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/breadcrumbs/)
- [General structured data guidelines – Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/sd-policies)

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Last updated: October 8, 2026
URL: https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/breadcrumb-navigation/