Unravelling the Mystery of Breadcrumbs in WordPress

Are you tired of your website visitors getting lost in the labyrinth of your website? Do you want to sprinkle a little bit of magic dust to make your website more navigable? Then, listen up, folks! It’s time to set up breadcrumbs in WordPress.

What Are Breadcrumbs?

Breadcrumbs are not just for grandma’s delicious apple pie. In the web design universe, breadcrumbs, also known as a navigation trail, are a secondary navigation system that helps website visitors have a clear understanding of where they are on a website and how they got there. The trail usually starts with the homepage, followed by the parent page, and then the current page.

Why Should You Use Breadcrumbs?

• 1. Improves Website Navigation

Breadcrumbs provide users with an easy and convenient way to navigate a website, especially if the primary navigation menu is hidden.

• 2. Reduces Bounce Rate

Breadcrumbs show visitors where they are on a website and the path they took to get to the current page; hence, they are less likely to leave a website.

• 3. Enhances User Experience

Breadcrumbs are particularly helpful for larger websites with deep site structures; they help the user understand the website’s hierarchy and how pages are related to each other.

• 4. Helps Search Engines

Breadcrumbs are particularly useful for SEO, as they give search engines a clear picture of how the pages are related to each other, making it easier for them to crawl and index your website.

How to Set Up Breadcrumbs in WordPress?

Breadcrumbs are not built into WordPress, but there are three ways to add them to your website:

1. Using A Theme That Supports Breadcrumbs

Many WordPress themes come with built-in breadcrumb navigation, so you can check your theme options to see whether they have breadcrumb support. These themes usually have breadcrumb templates built into them, making them easy to set up and customize the style to fit with the rest of your website.

2. Using A WordPress Plugin

If your current theme doesn’t support breadcrumbs, don’t fret- several WordPress plugins let you add breadcrumb navigation to your website. Here are five WordPress plugins that provide breadcrumb support for WordPress:

• Breadcrumb NavXT
• Yoast SEO
• Jetpack
• All in One SEO Pack
• SEOPress
3. Using A Code Snippet

If you’re comfortable with coding or have a developer on hand, then another way to add breadcrumbs to a WordPress website is by using a code snippet. You can add the code to your child theme’s functions.php file, but it’s essential to have a backup of your website before making any changes to the code.

Example Code Snippet

Here’s an example code snippet of how to add breadcrumbs to a WordPress website:

function wpb_custom_breadcrumbs() {

    $chevron = '›';

    if (!is_home()) {

        echo 'Home'.$chevron;

        if ( is_category() || is_single() ) { 
            the_category(', ') . $chevron;
            if ( is_single() ) {
                the_title();
            }
        } elseif ( is_page() ) {
            echo the_title();
        } elseif ( is_author() ) {
            echo 'Author Archive';
        } elseif ( is_404() ) {
            echo '404 Not Found';
        } elseif ( is_search() ) {
            echo 'Search Results for... ';
            echo '"';
            echo the_search_query();
            echo '"';
        }  
 
    }
}

Add the code to the functions.php file of your child theme and save it. It will display breadcrumbs on your WordPress website.

Conclusion

Now that you know how to set up breadcrumbs in WordPress, you can go ahead and add them to your website. Keep in mind that breadcrumbs are not only a great navigation tool for your visitors, but they also help search engines better understand the structure of your website. Therefore, consider setting them up to enhance the user experience and make your website more navigable.