What is Breadcrumb Navigation?
Breadcrumb navigation consists of a one-line navigational text links that indicates the site visitor’s current page location within the website’s hierarchy. Breadcrumbs usually appear close to the top of a web page and serves the purpose to optimize site usability.
Breadcrumb navigation is sometimes called breadcrumb trails.
When to Use Breadcrumb Navigation
Site Usability Expert Jakob Nielsen
defines site navigation into 2 categories:
- Primary navigation: primary site navigation menus and site search box
- Secondary navigation: breadcrumbs and html sitemaps
Breadcrumbs use a single line of text to show a page’s location in the site hierarchy. While secondary, this navigation technique is increasingly beneficial to users.
Good breadcrumb navigation should:
- Display a visitor’s current location relative to the higher-level web pages of the site.
- Allow one-click access to the higher-level web pages to prevent visitors from getting lost after running site searches. This reduces your site’s bounce rate.
- Take up as little space as possible on the web page.