What is breadcrumb on a website?

We have all come across the situation, where we have lost somewhere without having navigation tools. In particular, if you are old enough to have been a driver 20 years ago, such a situation must have happened to you. It is quite difficult to find your way out and get back on the right track. 

The same situation can be happening to the websites in which, no proper guidance is designed for users who have clicked on many links and are in the middle of your website, without a proper direction to get back. 

This is what we call breadcrumbs. The term is borrowed from the Hansel and Gretel story, where the kids made trails by bread pieces, to find their way back.

Having breadcrumb in your website is crucial and a must-have element these days. Hence, if you are looking for a service like website design in Dubai, make sure to read this article to the end. 

What does breadcrumb mean in website design

Like mentioned earlier, a breadcrumb is a short text which is normally designed to be on top of a webpage, to indicate where the user is right now and how he can get back, if the webpage is not what he was after. 

In other words, it indicates the webpage of a website that the user is on, and outlines the path that user has passed to get to a specific webpage on a website. From UX or user experience point of view, breadcrumb is quite beneficial for users who are looking for a specific product in a crowded website with a wide range of products like ecommerce. 

Considering all important elements like breadcrumb that are vital to design a shining website, the website development cost in Dubai, if it comes from a professional firm, is usually higher than freelancers and offshore and unregistered companies.

Benefits of having breadcrumb in a website

There are quite a few benefits associated with using breadcrumb in your website as outlined below.

• Proper breadcrumb motivates users to browse and surf

It happens many times that users who are after a specific product or a piece of information, realize that they have come to the wrong webpage. In this case, if a proper breadcrumb is in place,  it is most likely that the user will continue to browse, until the product is found. 

This is an important role that breadcrumb is able to play for your website. As such, even though the website design price in Dubai, if you work with a professional company is relatively high, make sure to do so, for the sake of having all important elements such as breadcrumb in your website.

• Breadcrumb clears the pathways and improves findability

In general, breadcrumb improves the findability of a website. For your better understanding, breadcrumb acts like a car navigator that shows the way to the driver and helps the driver to get back, if ended up in the wrong destination.

As an example, think of a law firm that provides multiple legal services to different clients. If a user with no legal knowledge intends to browse for a specific service in their website, it is most likely that he ends up in the wrong webpage, as the legal language is complicated for ordinary users.

 In such a case, if no breadcrumbs are available, the user would most probably bounce. As such, including a proper breadcrumb is crucial when it comes to corporate website design as well as the majority of other types of websites.

• Breadcrumb improves SEO

A clearly designed breadcrumb improves the UX of your website. In addition, if users find it easy to browse for a specific product or service, they would be eager to stay on your website, find what they are after and take action. As such, your conversion rate will improve over time. 

Think of a large ecommerce website with  thousands of products that are listed under hundreds of category names. A good breadcrumb helps to direct users to where they must be going and guide them to get back, if they end up in a wrong webpage. Obviously, with a straightforward breadcrumb in a large ecommerce website, more users will convert. 

As such, if you are looking for services like ecommerce website design in Dubai, to build your ecommerce website, pay high attention for a good breadcrumb to be in place.

How to build a proper breadcrumb

Either you are trying for an effective landing page design, or designing a website from scratch, you must be aware of the best practices to build a breadcrumb. Here are the most important ones.

• The whole path must be shown on the breadcrumb
• It must be started with the homepage
• Use bold fonts for the last item to indicate the place, where the user is at.
• The exact name or title of the web pages must be shown on the breadcrumb
• Make some contrast in terms of text color, font size and type for breadcrumb to stand out of the crowd.
• Make hyperlinks for all web pages except for the last one that the user has landed in.

Notwithstanding all important benefits associated with breadcrumbs, it is not recommended to use it for small websites with limited number of pages. There are not many pages in such websites, so using breadcrumbs might be confusing rather than helpful for users. As such, you must be careful on where to use it for the sake of avoiding web design mistakes.

A summary of breadcrumb

A proper breadcrumb is quite helpful to improve user experience for medium to large size websites. It helps users in different ways to find their way towards the service and product that they need. However, it must be noted that breadcrumb is not recommended for small websites with a few pages. To make the best decision for using breadcrumbs in your website and also designing a good breadcrumb, you must be working with a reputable web design company with a proven track record of success.

Websima DMCC, as the leading digital service provider in the UAE and international market is more than happy to help, if you are in need. Should you need any type of digital service, do not hesitate to contact us and book for your free consultation meeting. We are committed to provide the best solution possible for our esteemed clients.