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What is Breadcrumb Navigation? Why is it important for SEO?
Breadcrumb is a secondary guidance menu that allows easy navigation within a page, taking place horizontally under the top menu and allowing users to shift between previously visited pages with ease. This navigation menu shows us the path users take to find the targeted page and how it is classified within the site. The most basic way that the breadcrumb navigation is formed is as it is shown below:Home page > Segment Page > Subsegment PageThis secondary guidance menu allows users to easily discover the content within the site and allow on site link building.What are the different types of Breadcrumb?There are 3 different types of breadcrumbs that contribute to both new user acquisition (SEO performance and user experience) and conversion. Location and Hierarchy Based Direction Based Attribute Based According to the user's on-site journey, web architecture and the variety of services/products the most suitable breadcrumb navigation type can be preferred.Location or Hierarchy Based BreadcrumbThis specific type is referred to as the Hierarchy or Location Based Breadcrumb due to it being the most common option for complex and deep sites. This type of content mapping is the simplest and most common structure of all. Hierarchy based breadcrumb follows the architecture and hierarchy of the website and eases the user's journey of reaching to the related content.As it can be seen through the example above, it allows for users who visit a product page in an e-commerce site to continue on their experience by visiting the segment page; once they cannot find what they are looking for, or simply change their minds.Direction Based BreadcrumbThis is the least common navigation type of all. They are almost identical to the function of back buttons in browsers and provide ease in returning to the previous page. Due to the nature of content mapping, they reflect the path to the targeted page, but the path is not entirely visible as it would be with hierarchy based breadcrumbs.Through this method, users are able to go back to the previous page with the "Back to Result" button without losing any of their previous selections or restarting the journey. This type allows going back to the previous step of the users by making their preferred selections hidden.Attribute Based BreadcrumbThis type shows the selections that are chosen by the users in the related page. They show the filters in order to lead users to their desired results and product attributes.This Breadcrumb navigation generally benefits e-commerce sites where one product relays under more than one category. As it is shown on the example above, the filter choices that were made in a category page is reflected through a type of breadcrumb navigation.Why is Breadcrumb Navigation Important for SEO? Improves User Experience: Most users who experience a poor user journey do not return to a website with a difficult navigation. Content mapping fundamentally aims an easy user journey by showing users exactly where they are on the website. It also provides a user based contribution into aiding users to move backwards or forwards in accordance with their selections. Increases Page Views and Decreases Bounce Rate: The implementation of Breadcrumbs shifts the time that is spent on the website into an effective and efficient user experience. It contributes into further navigation within the website, considering the users' tendency to bounce off from a page once they cannot directly reach their desired outcomes. Thanks to content mapping, users are able to experience a journey in which they can be much faster, productive and time efficient. Contributes into the Intelligibility of the Site Architecture through Search Engine Bots: Breadcrumbs provide an outlook on the site architecture and hierarchy through SERP. This can be seen as a preview of the reliable journey that users are convinced to be on and how the site visits will be concluded. This is an extra way to illuminate search engines on what the pages are really about. Increases Impressions in Search Results and Increases CTR Rates: As content mapping allows an easier interpretation of the content within the website and a more efficient indexing performance through SERP, it concurrently contributes higher impressions for site links. Increases Crawlability: As search engine bots scan site links, breadcrumbs generate internal connections within the site's pages and increases the pages' overall crawlability. You can also learn something more from here about search engine bots from this content. Improves Indexing Performance: Since our websites will ultimately have targeted keywords, the anchot texts that are used in content maps serve as keywords within the navigation. This allows us to increase the density of keywords within the pages. How to use Breadcrumb NavigationA content map is a horizontal menu that shows the pathway between the home page and the last page there is to reach. If the site depth is above 2, this navigation will increase the efficiency on your website. After deciding to use breadcrumbs, the first thing to do is to decide which type of breadcrumb would serve the best for your website. Suggestions regarding the use of content maps can be found below; Home page is the starting point. In the attribution based breadcrumb type, the home page does not mostly take place in the navigation bars. This type of usage needs assurance that users will be able to return to the home page without having any problems. Separators must be used. Thanks to separators, the steps going to the targeted page are differentiated. The ">" symbol is mostly used as a separator. They must be placed on the furthest top of the page. Since it is placed on the upper most side of the pages as a secondary guidance menu and contributes to on site link building, it allows an easier detection of links for both users and for search engine bots. Making the targeted page or the page in question boldfaced increases the awareness. The rest of the website should have the most optimum and consistent design in terms of visibility (background, contrast rates etc.). Linking the last step, which is the targeted page itself, is not recommended. Reaching the last step of the navigation but still being linked to another page will cause an irrelevant build to the architecture. Since the home page is the beginning point of the navigation, breadcrumbs should not be used on the home page. Page titles should be used in content mapping. This is beneficial for showing the users which pages they will end up reaching and signaling anchor texts to search engine bots. The page URL should project the breadcrumb navigation. The consistency between the breadcrumb and URL allows us to build a more understandable structure. https://developers.google.com/**search/**docs/**advanced/**structured-data/breadcrumbBreadcrumb Navigation; is a secondary guidance menu that allows an easy and efficient navigation within a page that enhances the user experience. has 3 different types that consist of location/hierarchy based, direction based and attribution based. The most efficient type should be preferred according to the industry and type of content. contributes directly to the crawlability, indexing, impressions and CTR metrics of a website. increases page views and decreases bounce rates. Resources https://vwo.com/blog/why-use-breadcrumbs/ https://www.semrush.com/blog/breadcrumbs-for-websites/ https://www.bigcommerce.com/ecommerce-answers/what-is-breadcrumb-navigation/ https://www.woorank.com/en/blog/breadcrumb-navigation-a-guide-to-types-benefits-and-best-practices https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/breadcrumb-navigation-examined-best-practices-examples/ https://yoast.com/breadcrumbs-seo/ https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/navigation-breadcrumbs https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/03/breadcrumbs-in-web-design-examples-and-best-practices/
How To Create SEO Friendly URLS?
URL structures of websites differ from each other. One URL might be structured for an e-commerce site and another for a blog. In general, it is common to use different URL structures to satisfy the aims and needs of various websites. However, regardless of differences between websites, the URL structure should be SEO-friendly at the end of the day.So, below we will explain the SEO-friendly URL structure and show how to create SEO-friendly URLs for your website in detail. Yet, before moving on to that section, let’s check the structure of URLs and learn how they are constructed.WHAT IS A URL & URL STRUCTURE?A URL is an address, which directs a unique resource on the Internet. It consists of many parts named; protocol, domain name, and a path. Each part in a URL is important for SEO practices (such as; using HTTPS protocols, proper TLDs, appropriate subfolders, etc.), but one of the most significant parts of a URL is the slug part. Whenever you create a new page, you have to determine the slug. In this blog post, we will mainly focus on the slug part of URLs by showing some tips to make your URLs more SEO friendly.Let’s begin with the benefits of the SEO friendly URL structure and continue with some tips which help you to create more SEO Friendly URLs.WHAT IS THE SEO FRIENDLY URL STRUCTURE?Compared to unorganized URLs, SEO Friendly URLs are more understandable and easier to read for both users and search engines. It means that SEO Friendly URL structure focuses on meeting the needs of users and search engines in every aspect. Also, SEO Friendly URLs improve user experience by giving a clear idea about the content of the destination page and the site hierarchy. The biggest advantage of SEO Friendly URLs is offering an uncomplicated website structure for users by making content easy to find, read, and understand. Also, URLs are the first place that search engine spiders take into consideration when crawling web pages, as well. Therefore, optimized URLs help search engines deliver the most relevant results to users because they can easily detect pages that include descriptive keywords in their URLs. With the help of descriptive keywords usage in URLs, search engines can match the most relevant pages with the most suitable search queries.HOW TO CREATE STEP-BY-STEP SEO FRIENDLY URLS?1-) Customize URLs According To Your ContentSEO Friendly URLs should give information about the content of relevant pages. For this reason, do not use random numbers and characters in URLs. Instead, try to use content-related keywords to make your URLs more SEO Friendly. Additionally, always keep in mind that each page on your website has a specific purpose and target group. That’s why you should edit URLs to give an idea about your page.2-) Use Only Relevant KeywordsSEO Friendly URLs should contain 1-3 keywords that should also be in the title and meta description of the relevant page to emphasize the topic for both users and search engines. In addition to this, do not use unnecessary keywords to rank for different search queries because search engines can consider your page as spam. Use only the most relevant keywords which are related to the topic and target group of the page.3-) Don’t Use Long & Complicated URLsURL optimization aims to create readable and less confusing URL structures to enhance user experience. So, keep your URLs short and simple enough for both users and search engines to increase comprehensibility.4-) Remove Numbers & Special CharactersWhen you want to update or edit numbers of existing URLs (such as increasing the number of given tips in a post from 4 to 6 and indirectly in the URL) for pages, you have to redirect the old URLs to new ones to keep them up to date. Changing and redirecting the URLs are not a big deal, however, it’s still highly possible to forget the necessary updates each time. Thus, we recommend you remove numbers in URLs to prevent all kinds of problems that you encounter in the future.Special characters and symbols belong to the unsafe zone of SEO practices because they can cause broken linking problems. For example, square brackets ([]), backslashes (()), and percentage sign (%) are some of the unsafe characters that you should avoid using in URLs. Special characters (including commas, semicolons, etc.) make URLs harder to read for users and search engines, too. You can read more about the unsafe characters in URLs from here. Therefore, remove all special characters from your URLs to stay in the safe zone by making URLs more compatible with SEO practices.5-) Don’t Use Stop WordsStop words (such as “and", “or”, “to”, “an”, etc.) are generally ignored or filtered by search engines. They make URLs longer and more complicated to read, as well. For having more SEO-compatible URLs, remove those words to minimize redundancies in URLs because they look clear and better by deleting stop words.6-) Use Lowercase LettersTechnically speaking, URLs are case-sensitive after the domain name and uppercase letters may cause some problems, such as 404 pages or duplicate content. Thus, use lowercase letters in your SEO URLs to avoid unwanted issues with URLs.7-) Use Hyphens To Separate WordsBest SEO practices use hyphens between words instead of other special characters because hyphens are more likely to increase the readability of URLs. They are also more common to use in practice that enhances user experience. For this reason, use hyphens to make your URLs more SEO friendly.SEO Friendly URLs & MoreThese are some of the most important SEO best practices to consider while creating a customized URL structure for your page. Use these SEO URL tips to make your website more SEO friendly and attract the attention of users and search engines! If you have more questions about SEO friendly URLs or need any help related to SEO, do not hesitate to contact our team!References: https://ahrefs.com/blog/seo-friendly-urls/ https://backlinko.com/hub/seo/urls https://blog.alexa.com/how-to-write-an-seo-friendly-url-using-the-best-keywords/ https://www.designpowers.com/blog/url-best-practices https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Common_questions/What_is_a_URL https://moz.com/learn/seo/url https://perishablepress.com/stop-using-unsafe-characters-in-urls/