First, let me explain what a breadcrumbs are in the world of website navigation. Breadcrumbs are essentially directory links, and as you get deeper into the directory, the breadcrumb menu expands.

Here is an example of bread crumb links as you might see it on the web if you were on page “Sample” in the “Images” folder on this site:

Best Web Image>>>Images>>>Sample

It’s a natural method of navigation when you are on a directory website, but what I have been noticing lately, is that a lot of sites are including this method in support of their primary navigation system. This is not always a good thing, especially if your site is not a directory. If you use it make sure your sites hierarchy supports it.

Redundancies in content can often confuse a visitor, and this applies to menus as well. In fact, menus can have a more devastating effect because this is how a visitor begins to understand the site hierarchy. Having multiple menus conveying the same message, is similar to over using emphasis. The primary objective of a page may be lost if it is overloaded with multiple items that have been equally emphasized. If you keep the visitor focused, and use emphasis sparingly, you should only need one menu to clearly navigate your visitor. If you are using one already, don’t go rushing to delete it. Calculate it’s value, and if it is high for the space it requires on your site, keep it. Improving navigation is a good thing.

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