What is breadcrumb structured data?

Breadcrumb structured data is BreadcrumbList markup that describes the path from your home page to the current page, such as Home, Guides, then Sitemaps. It gives search engines your site hierarchy in a machine-readable form. Google may show that trail in a result in place of the plain web address, though display varies by device and has changed over time.

Why it matters

A breadcrumb trail helps visitors see where they are and step back to a broader section. The markup lets search engines understand the same structure, which can make a result easier to read. Visible breadcrumbs are useful to people even if a search engine chooses not to display them.

How to add it

Add a visible breadcrumb trail to the page, for example Home > Guides > Sitemaps, with each step except the last as a link.
Write the same trail as JSON-LD. Each step is a ListItem with a position starting at 1, a name and the URL of that step:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
  "itemListElement": [
    { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home",
      "item": "https://www.example.com/" },
    { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Guides",
      "item": "https://www.example.com/guides/" },
    { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Sitemaps" }
  ]
}
</script>

Use full URLs for the item values. On the last step, the current page, the item may be left out.
Keep the trail consistent with the page's real place in the site. If a page can be reached by several paths, choose one main path.
Test the page in the Rich Results Test and fix any errors reported for the Breadcrumb item.

Breadcrumbs describe site structure, not the order a visitor happened to click through, so the markup stays the same however someone arrived.

Common mistakes

Marking up a trail that does not appear on the page.
Starting position at 0, or skipping numbers.
Using relative URLs where full URLs are expected.
Listing the current page and the previous step with identical names.
Letting the markup drift out of date after pages are moved or renamed.

Frequently asked questions

Do breadcrumbs improve rankings?

Google does not describe them as a ranking factor. Their value is clearer navigation for visitors and a clearer structure for search engines.

Do I need both visible breadcrumbs and markup?

They work best together. The markup should describe a trail that visitors can see on the page.

There is no trail to show on the home page, so it is not normally used there.

To check how your structured data looks today, Try the free website sample.