How to Add Breadcrumb in WordPress Site?

• Adding breadcrumbs in WordPress site helps users to access the higher-level categories especially for the sites having complex hierarchical structure. This may not be possible with the default navigations for each individual page on the site.
• Search engines show breadcrumbs in the search results and the keywords in the breadcrumbs can boost your ranking. Users can also understand the relative structure of the site from the search results display before they click and land on the page.

Breadcrumb Categories Showing in Google Search

• Bing search even shows the breadcrumbs with clickable links allowing users directly navigating to the category if they want.
• Breadcrumbs boost the overall SEO of the site by improving time on site through user engagement and making the search results contemporary.

How to add Breadcrumbs in WordPress Site?

Breadcrumb is part of most of themes by default including the latest twenty fifteen WordPress theme. If you are looking for a theme it is wise to choose a theme having default breadcrumb structure.

Sample Breadcrumb in WordPress Theme

Though most of themes can support basic breadcrumb navigation it may not be sufficient for your need. for example, what if you want to place the breadcrumb trail in a sidebar widget? Here you have the solution in the form of plugins. Navigate to “Plugins > Add New” in your WordPress admin dashboard and search for the word “breadcrumb”. There are plenty of free plugins for this purpose and install the one you like, here we explain with the Breadcrumb NavXT plugin.

Breadcrumb NavXT WordPress Plugin

Once installed and activated the “Breadcrumb NavXT” plugin, navigate to the menu “Settings > Breadcrumb NavXT” to check and adjust the settings.

Breadcrumb NavXT Plugin Settings

Then go to theme editor using the menu “Appearance > Editor” and open “header.php” file. Paste the below code in appropriate place and save the file.

<div class="breadcrumbs" xmlns:v="http://rdf.data-vocabulary.org/#">
    <?php if(function_exists('bcn_display'))
    {
        bcn_display();
    }?>
</div>

Check out your site to see the breadcrumbs on each post.

Breadcrumbs – A Word of Caution

• Generally when a single post is connected to multiple categories most breadcrumbs show the category falling first as per alphabetical. For example, if a post is linked to two categories “WordPress” and “AdSense”, most probably the breadcrumb trail will show “AdSense” even though the article is more relevant to “WordPress”.
• Some plugins even show all linked categories to the post in the trail and defeat the purpose of the breadcrumb. This will only confuse users instead of offering easy navigation.
• Check the placement of the breadcrumbs in mobile devices.
• Check the responsiveness of breadcrumb trail in various screen size and devices.
• Add the PHP code in correct file and location. You entire site may be down if you add the code incorrectly.