The term “breadcrumb” in web terminology is a metaphor for the way-finding technique employed by Hansel in the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Hansel and Gretel. Although the metaphor is slightly misleading since within a web context, breadcrumbs do not always represent the path from which one has arrived at their current location, the term is clever, catchy and has caught on as the agreed upon name for this type of web navigational aid.
Whilst the breadcrumbs in the tale were not particularly useful, since they were eaten by the birds, breadcrumb navigation is very useful in web sites and software. Additionally, breadcrumbs present an SEO opportunity to make your site more search engine friendly. The objective of this article is to highlight the importance of breadcrumbs whilst providing guidelines for ensuring they are optimized for usability and SEO.
