Glossary / Breadcrumb navigation

What is Breadcrumb navigation?

Breadcrumb navigation is the small trail of links near the top of a page that shows where it sits in your site, like Home / Blog / This post.

Breadcrumbs answer one question fast: where am I? They show the path from your homepage down to the page someone is reading, and every step in the trail is clickable.

They matter most on sites with real depth, like a shop with categories or a help center. A visitor who arrived from search has no idea what else exists. Breadcrumbs give them a way up and sideways instead of straight back out.

Search engines read them too, and often show the trail in place of the raw address in results. That makes your listing easier to scan. Keep the labels short and match the words you already use in your navigation.