Righty Guide

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What are breadcrumbs on a website?

If you’re a new webmaster, you would probably have heard of the term breadcrumbs. But, you would probably not know what’s it and how to add them to your website.

If so, don’t worry. In this blog, I’ve explained all you need to know about breadcrumbs.

Let’s get started!

Table of content:

What are breadcrumbs on a website?

What are the uses of breadcrumbs on a website?

What are the different types of breadcrumbs?

Breadcrumbs navigation best practices

How to enable breadcrumbs in a WordPress website?

Conclusion

What are breadcrumbs on a website?

Breadcrumbs are navigational aid that helps visitors understand where they are on your website.

Depending on your requirements, you can enable the breadcrumbs for a single page or the entire website. Adding the breadcrumbs to your website can help improve the user experience.

Here’s how the breadcrumbs look.

As you can see, the breadcrumbs display the site’s hierarchy.

Besides the website, breadcrumbs also appear in the Google search results.

What are the uses of breadcrumbs on a website?

The following are some of the benefits of enabling breadcrumbs on a website.

Breadcrumbs inform users about their location on a website.

Breadcrumbs usually appear as clickable links on a website. This encourages the users to view various web pages, thereby reducing the bounce rate.

Breadcrumbs help search engines understand your website’s structure and hierarchy better.

If you have an e-commerce website, the breadcrumbs can help users identify the product category of an item.

Now, some of you may think that breadcrumbs may take up many resources on a web page and slow it down.

Fortunately, that’s not the case. Breadcrumbs are just a short form of code that doesn’t impact your website’s loading speed much.

What are the different types of breadcrumbs?

There are three types of breadcrumbs.

Location-based breadcrumbs (Hierarchy-based breadcrumbs)

Path-based breadcrumbs (History trail breadcrumbs)

Attribute-based breadcrumbs

1. Location-based breadcrumbs (Hierarchy-based breadcrumbs)

Location-based breadcrumbs represent a website’s structure. They help users to navigate and know their location on your website.

Displaying the location-based breadcrumbs on your website can help improve the user experience. Moreover, it lets users easily navigate across your website’s hierarchy.

2. Path-based breadcrumbs (History trail breadcrumbs)

Path-based breadcrumbs are dynamically generated breadcrumbs that show the entire path the user has taken to reach the current page. The functionality of the path-based or history-based breadcrumbs is similar to that of the browser back button.

In my opinion, the path-based breadcrumbs aren’t that helpful because a browser’s back button can easily replace its functionality.

Path-based breadcrumbs may benefit e-commerce websites as the users can go to the previous pages without losing the filters they set. However, it’s not of much use to other types of websites.

3. Attribute-based breadcrumbs

Attribute-based breadcrumbs show the attributes a user has selected on a web page.

Usually, e-commerce websites display attribute-based breadcrumbs in their category pages to help users understand the relationship of the product.

Breadcrumbs navigation best practices

Having seen the uses and types of breadcrumbs, let’s now see how to implement them correctly on your website.

Firstly, ensure that you have a solid structure. If you want breadcrumbs to be effective, you should make sure to organize all the pages on your website.

Don’t add the link to the current page in the breadcrumbs. As the user is already on the current page, you shouldn’t make that page’s link clickable. All other links in the breadcrumbs should be clickable.

Use the standard “Greater than” (>) symbol to separate the links in the breadcrumbs.

The breadcrumbs should be a secondary navigational menu. You shouldn’t make them as a substitute for the primary navigational menu. Also, the breadcrumbs shouldn’t be too prominent such that it stands out more than the content of the page.

There should be a sufficient gap between different levels of breadcrumbs so that the users can easily click on the link they want.

How to enable breadcrumbs in a WordPress website?

Below, I’ve explained three methods of enabling breadcrumbs on a WordPress website.

1. By using the All in One SEO WordPress plugin

Step #1: Install and activate the All in One SEO WordPress plugin.

Step #2: In the left-hand side menu of the WordPress dashboard, click “All in One SEO”. Next, from the list of options, click “General Settings”.

Step #3: Click on the “Breadcrumbs” option from the top menu.

Step #4: Toggle the “Enable Breadcrumbs” switch to “On”.

Step #5: You can add breadcrumbs to your website using Shortcode, Gutenberg Block, PHP Code, and Widget.

Among these methods, adding the breadcrumbs through Shortcode is the easiest — at least in my opinion.

Moreover, using Shortcode, you can display the breadcrumbs on specific pages. You can use this method if you don’t like to display the breadcrumbs on the entire website.

Step #6: Change the other breadcrumb settings depending on your requirements. Once done, click on “Save Changes”.

Bonus tip: All in One SEO, as the name suggests, is an SEO plugin that helps increase the traffic to your website. They offer a free version; however, the features are limited. If you want advanced features like Google AMP SEO, smart schema markup, powerful sitemaps, etc., you should upgrade to their premium plans.

2. By using the Rank Math SEO WordPress plugin

Step #1: Install and activate the Rank Math SEO WordPress plugin.

Step #2: In the left-hand side menu of the WordPress dashboard, click “Rank Math”. Next, from the list of options, click “General Settings”.

Step #3: Go to the “Breadcrumbs” tab and toggle the “Enable breadcrumbs function” to “On”.

Note: Before enabling the breadcrumbs, make sure that Rank Math SEO is in “Advanced” mode.

Step #4: Change the other breadcrumb settings depending on your requirements. Once done, click “Save Changes”.

3. By using the Breadcrumb NavXT WordPress plugin

If you want to add breadcrumbs to your website and don’t want the extra SEO features, you can opt for the Breadcrumb NavXT plugin.

Step #1: Install and activate the Breadcrumb NavXT plugin.

Step #2: In the left-hand side menu of the WordPress dashboard, click on “Settings”. Next, from the list of options, click “Breadcrumb NavXT”.

Step #3: From the “General” tab, you can configure the breadcrumbs settings for the entire website.

From the “Post Types” tab, you can configure the breadcrumbs for a specific post or page.

Note: The default breadcrumb settings usually work fine for most websites.

Step #4: Once you finish making the necessary changes, click on “Save Changes”.

Conclusion

Breadcrumbs are secondary navigational aid that helps visitors know their location on the website.

Enabling breadcrumbs on your website can help improve the user experience. Also, it may help increase the Time on Site.

Adding breadcrumbs to your website is pretty simple. As demonstrated in this blog, many WordPress plugins can help you with enabling the breadcrumbs on your website.

However, before adding the breadcrumbs, ensure to optimize the pages and posts on your website.

[rightyguide]

Digital marketing trends you shouldn't ignore in 2021

Consumer interests and their behavior are changing rapidly.

Tech giants keep introducing new gadgets frequently.

Search engines like Google are changing their algorithms pretty often.

If you want to succeed in this new world of digital marketing, you should adapt to the latest digital marketing trends.

Below, I have listed the digital marketing trends that you shouldn’t ignore in 2021.

Let’s get started!

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence has changed the digital marketing and advertising industry.

According to statistics from Single Grain, AI will grow into a $190 billion industry by 2025.

Artificial intelligence can transform your company’s digital marketing strategy by collecting, analyzing, and applying the data.

With AI, you can analyze customer behavior on your website and other sales channel.

Besides analyzing customer behavior, you can also use AI in lead generation.

Many big companies and even startup businesses have successfully implemented AI.

If you haven’t implemented AI yet, you can try it because it’s cost-effective and can yield precise results.

Here’s an example of AI.

I’m pretty sure most of you would have tried the voice assistance feature at least once. But have you ever wondered how does it work?

It functions through AI!

2. Chatbots

Chatbots use AI technology to communicate with customers without human intervention.

Chatbots are one of the digital marketing trends you shouldn’t ignore, especially if your business involves selling a product or service.

If you run a small business and want a cost-effective option to interact with customers, you can employ the chatbot feature.

As chatbots function 24/7, you can provide instant replies to customer inquiries.

Besides assisting in customer support, chatbots also help in lead generation.

3. Shoppable posts

Shoppable post is a feature launched by Instagram. Using this feature, you can turn your followers into customers.

Shoppable posts look pretty similar to regular posts. However, the shoppable posts have a “View Products” button through which you can visit the brand’s website and purchase the product.

Here are the steps to set up shoppable posts on Instagram.

Check whether your business is eligible for Instagram Shopping. Usually, most businesses will be able to satisfy the eligibility requirements for Instagram Shopping.

Convert your regular Instagram account into a business account.

Connect your Instagram account with your Facebook Business Page.

Upload the product catalog.

Submit your account for review.

Once your account is approved, you can start using Instagram Shopping.

Besides Instagram, you can also try Pinterest and other platforms that offer a similar feature.

4. Live streaming of video content

Researches show that many people prefer to watch a video over reading.

Nice!

According to estimations, live streaming using Facebook and Instagram has shot up by more than 50 percent after the pandemic broke out.

With the pandemic forcing people to sit more at home, events and travel have come down tremendously. Businesses can use this opportunity to host live videos and attract the attention of the audience.

Interviews, announcements, events, behind-the-scene stories, etc., can be great ideas for live streaming.

Compared to other forms of video marketing, live streaming sessions are more interactive and highly engaging.

Moreover, streaming live videos is much easier than making recorded videos because it doesn’t involve editing and technical works.

5. Web push notifications

Web push notifications are clickable messages sent by a website to its visitors. They are similar to mobile app notifications, except that browser push notifications support multiple devices like desktop, laptop, tablet, and mobile.

Web push notifications have a better signup rate compared to newsletter campaigns. According to estimations, the signup rate of web push notifications is almost double that of newsletters.

Great.

You may also add images and CTA in web push notifications to increase conversion rates.

Ok.

If you want to send web push notifications to your website visitors, the users should grant permission to their web browser to receive notifications from you.

Here’s how the permission box looks.

Once the user clicks the “Allow” button, you can add them to your subscriber list and send them messages when necessary.

6. Personalized content

If you want to succeed in this new age of digital marketing, you should personalize your content.

I agree that it isn’t possible to personalize all types of content. However, you should at least try personalizing the content that involves direct interaction with people.

For instance, you can personalize the marketing emails you send to your subscribers.

Personalized content can yield higher click-through rates than generic content. Moreover, personalization can help you stand out from competitors.

According to statistics by Instapage, 90% of consumers find personalization appealing.

You can personalize the content using the data you collected from people.

7. Short video marketing

YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, etc., are some of the new digital marketing trends you can’t ignore.

Short videos are a fantastic way to capture the attention of your audience and promote your products.

However, you should ensure to make your videos attractive to stand out from the crowd.

8. Social media stories

In 2013, Snapchat introduced the stories feature.

Later, in 2016, Instagram released a similar feature called “My Story”.

Instagram’s story feature started to get a lot of attention, and many people started using it. Seeing the success of Instagram stories, other social media giants like Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc., also introduced the story feature.

Social media stories are usually a photo or video content that appears for a few seconds.

Stories on most social media platforms generally last only for 24 hours. However, some platforms like Instagram provide an option to save stories permanently.

Ok.

Social media stories help to engage with your audience and promote your business.

You can make the stories more engaging by adding a poll or asking questions to your audience.

9. Programmatic advertising

Programmatic advertising is the process of using software to buy and sell advertisements online.

If you have prior advertising experience, you’ll probably be aware that ad placement plays a significant role in determining the success of an advertising campaign.

Thankfully, with programmatic advertising, you can achieve better ad placement.

Programmatic advertising uses several parameters like age group, sex, behavior, demographics, etc., to segment the target audience. Moreover, programmatic advertising provides real-time insights.

All these advanced targeting features contribute to higher conversion rates and lower customer acquisition costs.

Here’s how programmatic advertising works.

A person clicks on the website.

The website owner puts the ad impression for auction.

The competing advertisers bid for the ad impression.

The advertiser willing to pay the highest amount will win the ad impression.

The advertiser will deliver the ad to the users.

The users click on the ad and purchase the product.

10. User-generated content

User-generated content (UGC) is the new marketing buzzword that you shouldn’t ignore in 2021.

User-generated content includes photos, images, videos, etc., created by people outside your business.

UGC can help to build trust among your customers. Also, they can help to get a better click-through rate.

Some people, or even many, won’t be convinced to purchase a product seeing the advertisement from a brand. However, when they see ordinary people using that product, they are more likely to buy it.

11. Voice search

Nowadays, many people have started to use voice searches.

According to Statista, 31% of smartphone users use voice search at least once a week.

According to Review42, one billion voice searches were made every month in 2018.

These trends indicate that voice search will continue to evolve in the future.

If you haven’t optimized your web pages for voice search yet, I urge you to optimize them swiftly.

The following are some of the tips to optimize your web page for voice search.

Use structured data

Ensure the page is mobile-friendly

Focus on long-tail keywords

Optimize for local searches

Write in a conversational tone

Claim Google My Business listing

Besides voice search, the usage of visual search is also growing.

As the name suggests, visual search refers to using real-world imagery to search online. This feature works with the help of AI.

12. Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing involves partnering and promoting your products with online influencers who have a dedicated fan following.

If a social media influencer has a good fan following, his audience will most likely trust the products he promotes.

For instance, if Cristiano Ronaldo recommends a product, there’s a high chance for many people to buy it.

Some of the best platforms for influencer marketing include Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, etc. However, among others, Instagram is the most popular platform.

Though influencer marketing has many advantages, the success of your campaign depends on the influencer with whom you partner.

Here are the steps to choose the right influencer to promote your products.

Step #1: Choose the right platform.

Step #2: Research and find influencers in your niche.

Step #3: Depending on your budget and requirements, choose between celebrities and micro-influencers.

Step #4: Go through the influencer’s profile and analyze the audience’s engagement with their posts. Choose the influencer with the highest engagement rate.

Conclusion

Digital marketing trends change over the years. As technology advances, digital marketing will also continue to evolve.

In this era, if you want to succeed in digital marketing, you should adapt to the latest digital marketing trends.

If you’re into digital marketing, I urge you to check whether your digital marketing strategy includes the trends mentioned in this blog post.

I hope you found this blog beneficial. It would be great to let me know your thoughts on the latest digital marketing trends in the comment section below.