Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumb navigation has become a common siting these days. I’m not really a big fan of it, but if done right, can have great value where normal navigation fails. I was reviewing a SEO site today, and found a good use of breadcrumb navigation.

Looking at the screen shot below, you can see a typical example of this type of navigation.

Because this site has many topics, and many articles for each topic it is a good idea to have a “Where the heck am I” menu. Usability wise, these types of menus are perfect because they match page titles, and category titles. There is no confusion to a visitor when clicking on the link. When I begin to dislike these types of menus is when the webmaster adds them as a secondary, or tertiary menu. If your first menu does a good job at it already, I ask “Why confuse the visitor with more menus?”

In the case of this SEO site though, I believe it is very beneficial. Their main menu is a drop down, and these can some times be clumsy. Also, when a visitor clicks on the category links, the site supports the breadcrumb navigation by supplying all of the links within this category on that page. Too often I see webmasters not really understanding the full purpose of having it, and the category page they link does not show the list of items within it. The visitor would still need to use the main menu then. I think mistake is common, because it is a simple script you can download, and add to your own site. The dreaded search of “Cool things to add to my website” items.

Another beneficial item of this, and I am sure this is is why this SEO site is using it, is the case of search engine optimization. This is a great way to have keywords internally linking to your own content.