Sites today on the Internet are very different, and the structure, the index in search engines, and whether a user wants to visit a particular resource will depend on the content, size.
Site owners have to solve a million issues related to the promotion of their resource, and equip the portal with all the necessary buttons and cells, plug-ins and other special systems for a comfortable user experience on the pages and fast website promotion to the top. Those who are familiar with the famous fairy tale "Grenzel and Gretel" will definitely remember the moment when the children scattered bread crumbs in order to return home later.
This is the clearest example of what breadcrumbs are for on the site, but this is too short an explanation for such an important detail. That is why its significance, the possibility of implementation is worth considering.more.
Breadcrumb navigation: what is it and how does it work?
If you carefully study the components of the site and take any online store as an example (it doesn’t matter if it’s clothes or household appliances), the site structure must have product pages that the visitor navigates and navigates perfectly. Breadcrumbs perform the same function here: due to the presence of this script on the site, the visitor can easily navigate the Internet resource, go to different categories and scroll through the catalog there, and at the same time return to the main menu with just one click.
The use of such a plugin is a necessary thing on sites that are several pages (tens, hundreds or thousands), and if they are not there, then users simply will not be able to navigate it normally. This is the main point to consider when designing a site.
When using a wordpress blog, the breadcrumbs on the site should be placed under the main header. This navigation will be a series of links from the main page to the one where the site user is located at one time or another.
Is this navigation necessary?
Not all sites care about the user's comfort and often forget to insert the breadcrumb plugin into the structure. What will happen if this system does not appear on a multi-page resource? The answer is simple: firstly, the low flow of users due to the incomprehensibility of orientation in the site structure, and secondly, the low level of indexing of the portal in search engines.systems. The second consequence plays a big role - there is no site in the top, which means that fewer users will see it. "Breadcrumbs" is an addition to the structure of the site, which is useful both for users and for the resource itself and its promotion in the top.
Remember the fairy tale…
To clearly understand what the meaning of this navigation is, it is enough to remember the fairy tale "Grenzel and Gretel" again: scattered breadcrumbs are the way home, to the main page, to the starting point. Without these clues, the young characters of the fairy tale would never get rid of the witch and return home, and in the situation with the site everything is exactly the same. No multi-page resource is complete without this navigation.
Navigation features
The above tasks are the main functions of the plugin, but it has a number of other tasks that it solves. Breadcrumb navigation has a number of features:
- Easier site navigation for the user.
- Gives an additional signal to different search engines about the structure of the site.
- Allows you to form a competent linking.
- Creates easy-to-read snippets for search engines.
- Contributes also to the correct transfer of anchor weight. As an example, take "breadcrumbs", for example, "Antivirus for laptops", which lead to a specific page of the site. This gives a signal to the search engine that the very “Antiviruses for laptops” are placed on this page.
Equipment with a plugin of this kind of resource is a necessary part,and if you need not just to develop an information site, but to promote it in order to receive income, then you should delve into the work of the “breadcrumb” system on the site. And what they are for, we found out, and how they work is also clear, but another question arises: what are the general rules for their construction?
How to make breadcrumbs? Main Structures
Like any other system, this one has its own type of construction. By the way, there are only three main types of construction for sites of different subjects:
- For pages hosting catalog categories.
- For product cards.
- For all other pages of the resource.
Types of builds, or How to fill the module into the system yourself?
Each of these types has its own structure. Briefly, each system looks like this:
1. For pages that will contain catalog information about its categories, there should be this structure:
Main page -> {Level 1 category name} -> Other pages -> {Level n category name}.
2. For product cards, a similar building system works:
Home -> {Level 1 category name} -> … -> {Level n category name} -> {Product name}.
3. For the last type of construction (other sites), the following construction works:
Main page of the portal -> {Name of any section of level 1} -> All other sections -> {Name of section of level n}.
Popular plugins with thisnavigation
The wordpress blog is the most popular among site developers, it is easy to use and easy to modify, lends itself to all sorts of changes, but if we talk about popular plugins, then wordpress “breadcrumbs” are most relevant to use with the following names: Breadcrumb NavXT and Instant Breadcrumbs. In principle, the work of these two plugins is the same, and they do not require any additional settings. Their peculiarity is that they automatically build the navigation menu. They are popular among beginners, as there is no particular confusion, but they are absolutely not suitable for complex and voluminous projects. Those who want to use breadcrumbs in joomla need to know the features of the site and how new plugins will work on it. To add them in this site, you need to find the "Navigation Settings" cell and click once on it. Then you should publish the module on the right pages of the site, placing the information in the right paragraphs, which leads to the main page of the site.
In principle, this is the only option for installing this navigation on the joomla site, but the difference from plugins in wordpress is precisely that they can be customized, and that's just how it happens for everyone in different ways. Indexing in search engines will depend on how this plugin is configured.
A thoughtful website structure is the key to its success
Having considered the example of "breadcrumbs" and the peculiarities of their work (settings, installation type and operation functions), it remains to draw a line underthe main features of this indispensable plugin. So, take for example a site that completely lacks this kind of navigation. At the same time, the portal is huge, and its focus is the sales area. The catalog includes hundreds of items, the goods are all of high quality, the price is low - everything should attract users, and the flow of visitors should increase daily. But what happens in such a situation? If you look at the statistics, then, on the contrary, this portal may have a low growth from the day of its operation, and then generally go to zero. The reason is simple: when we enter the store, we only know that there is sausage on one display and milk on the other display, but in order to reach all the products, we should go to the desired display, and if this is not possible, then the buyer will leave neither with what, looking only at the main entrance of the store.
Without navigation, the ability to move from one storefront to another, the user simply will not be interested in being in such a place, and this is a very vivid example of how breadcrumbs work in the site system.
Finding the right plugin
Not all site owners give the job of promoting their resource to professional IT managers. Often they independently carry out work on its modernization and therefore do not have a place in their arsenal of knowledge where they can find the necessary plugins, so there is one micro-markup. There are a huge number of “breadcrumbs” on the Web, and you can find this navigation for almost any working site. The largest number of navigation of this plan is available onwordpress, so you can get them on the site of this portal. The situation is the same with plugins for other sites: if something is needed, namely “breadcrumbs”, then the site’s official website provides its users with all the necessary designs.
Navigation you can't live without
In general, the history of navigation of this kind appeared a long time ago, since the advent of online stores. If one-page resources could still somehow survive without them, then the services that made money on advertising and customers in every possible way simply died without breadcrumbs. Who was the first creator of this navigation is not known, but that he took the Web a huge step forward is obvious. Not a single site today can do without navigation, we can even watch the weather forecast by turning pages (for example, choosing an hourly forecast).
Summarize
So let's draw a line under all these. This navigation is not just an ornament to the site, but a necessary and irreplaceable design. Without its presence, the resource will be bent, will cease to function correctly, and will soon cease to exist altogether. Even before the launch of the portal, you should carefully consider the operation of navigation, choose the right module. After all, if a permanent expansion of the catalog is planned, then powerful plug-ins should be chosen, and not standard ones that have automatic settings and are unchanged. It is better to spend an hour or two searching for a quality module before the service starts than to spend weeks and months restoring the resource rating insearch engines, supplementing it later with new modules. Everything that is built into the site structure at the beginning is promoted and indexed faster, so the overall work of the resource should be given much more time than it seems.
Just a fairy tale about Grenzel and Gretel, but how much sense it has for both ordinary life situations and for the work of Internet resources. These characters laid the foundation for the services that today have become global sales giants. Before you start developing websites, you should look at the largest resources and online stores, where there are more than a million products. A well-thought-out system will allow you to understand all the subtleties of navigation and its features.
