Many websites have been using breadcrumbs as a navigational aid for years now, however it is only this week that this has been adopted by Google.

Onsite breadcrumbs are displayed horizontally at the top of a page; providing users with links back to previous pages. However Google’s introduction of breadcrumbs into search results has renewed interest in them and their impact on SEO.

Previously Google displayed URLs in green at the bottom of the search results, with only as much information as the original URL provided; as seen below:

However this obviously did not offer enough information for Google users so for some sites the URL display has been replaced with the new Google Breadcrumbs hierarchical system . This now gives users more information on how their search result fits into the website’s hierarchy:

The host domain is always displayed so that users will know where they are going, if there is not enough room for Google to display the hierarchy in its entirety then eclipses will be used to demonstrate the absence of less relevant categories associated with their search.

These results now show the precise location of the click through page with information gathered from the webpage itself. According to Google this new display will provide ‘valuable user context and new navigation options’. Where previously URLs showed no real information about the way the site is categorised this will now showcase broader topics for users. This provision of site information without users even having to click-through should help users decide more accurately upon a site’s relevance.

An example from Google’s own site can be shown below where I have typed in ‘Vint Cerf biography’ (the Google Evangelist):

Google has decided that “execs” and “corporate” are the important breadcrumbs to display without the aid of existing breadcrumbs. For some sites Google will use existing breacrumbs ("Home> Toys & Games> Robots") but in this example they use the page content. They have announced that their “new hierarchies come from analyzing destination web pages”.

By analysing both existing breadcrumbs and destination web pages Google has been able to create more detailed search snippets. Although this is only live for a small percentage of internet sites at the moment this looks set to expand in the future.

Google’s goal here is to get users the most relevant search results as quickly as possible but what does this means for Webmasters? Certainly this loss of control over how URLs are displayed on Google search results has had many up in arms and it is certain to increase the importance of breadcrumbs for SEO in the future.

About the author: Stephanie Villegas

SEO Executive - Stephanie Villegas-Ross

Stephanie is an SEO Executive at 4Ps Marketing. She graduated from the University of Sussex with an English Literature degree. After leaving university Stephanie worked in offline Marketing, but soon sought out a position at 4Ps Marketing after craving the fast pace of online Marketing and the constant evolution of Social Media Optimisation.

Stephanie Villegas

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 1:34 pm and is filed under 4Ps Marketing, SEO, google. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.