As a long-time internet user, I have seen breadcrumbs really take off around the internet and recently with many of the major Wordpress websites using them. You may be asking, “Why should I use them on my blog?” Well, breadcrumbs are excellent for improving user navigation and helping the search engines establish your website's structure, otherwise known as SEO purposes. Unfortunately, Wordpress hasn't inherited the use of breadcrumbs, which is a grave disappointment in my opinion. However, there is hope. Wordpress plugin developers have created various breadcrumb plugins that enable us to enhance the functionality and SEO of our blog. The plugin that I use is a favorite of mine and gets the job done. I use yoast.
How do I install it?
- You need to download yoast. You can download it here.
- After you download the plugin, you must unzip the package and upload the file to your Wordpress installation's plugins folder.
- Go to your plugins menu and activate the plugin.
- You can adjust the settings under Settings > Breadcrumbs.
- After all the settings are correct, you just add the following code where you want your breadcrumbs to be displayed:
<?php if ( function_exists(’yoast_breadcrumb’) ) {
yoast_breadcrumb(’<p id=”breadcrumbs”>’,'</p>’);
} ?>
Now, that you have your breadcrumbs installed and working correctly, you have officially added another important asset to optimizing your blog for search engines.