Short answer: Breadcrumbs are the trail of links, such as Home › Guides › this guide, that shows where a page sits in your site. Google says a breadcrumb trail may help people understand and explore a site. With BreadcrumbList structured data, Google can use the trail to categorize the information from the page in its search results.
The parts of the breadcrumb data
| Property | What it holds | Required? |
|---|---|---|
BreadcrumbList | The whole trail | Yes, with at least two items |
itemListElement | The breadcrumbs, in order | Yes |
item | The URL of each breadcrumb | Yes, except for the last one |
name | The title people see | Yes |
position | The place in the trail, 1 for the first | Yes |
Each breadcrumb is a ListItem with its name, its position and, except for the last one, its URL. If the last item has no URL, Google uses the URL of the page that contains it. Our guide to schema markup covers structured data in general.
From Google Search Central, “Breadcrumb (BreadcrumbList) structured data”, read November 3, 2026.
What Google asks of breadcrumbs
Google recommends breadcrumbs that represent a typical user path to a page, instead of mirroring the URL structure. You don’t need an item for your domain, nor for the page itself.
The feature is available on desktop in all regions and languages where Google Search works. Pages must follow Google’s structured data guidelines to show breadcrumbs, and markup that uses techniques outside them can lead to a manual action.
How to add breadcrumbs to your site
- Write down the path a visitor follows to each type of page, such as Home › Guides › a guide.
- Show that trail on the page as links, near the top.
- Add a BreadcrumbList with at least two items, each with its name, its position and, except for the last one, its URL.
- If you use a CMS, turn on the breadcrumbs in your SEO plugin instead of writing the code by hand.
- On a site in two languages, check that each trail points to pages in its own language.
- Test a page in the Rich Results Test and fix any critical errors.
- Once Google indexes the pages, check Search Console for breadcrumb issues.
Breadcrumb links are internal links too, so our guide to internal links applies to them.
What we fixed in ours
Our guides, service pages and blog posts send a BreadcrumbList from our SEO plugin, such as Home › Guides › our robots.txt guide. Our two home pages send none.
Until 1:13 AM on November 3, our Spanish pages started the trail with “Home”, linked to our English home page. We changed it so the Spanish trail starts with “Inicio”, linked to /es/, and checked six pages as a visitor. The English trail didn’t change.
Before you publish a page
- The trail follows the path a visitor takes.
- The BreadcrumbList has at least two items.
- Each item has a name, a position and a URL, except the last.
- Each language’s trail stays in that language.
- The Rich Results Test shows no critical errors.
- The visible trail matches the structured data.
RememberBreadcrumbs show where a page sits in your site. Build the trail from the path a visitor follows, mark it up with at least two items and test it before Google crawls it.
If you want us to check the structured data across your site, see our technical SEO service.
Quick answers about breadcrumbs
Should my breadcrumbs follow my URL structure?
Google recommends the path a typical visitor takes rather than the URL structure. Build the trail from the way someone reaches the page through your menus and sections, even when the address of the page says something else.
Do I need to include my home page in the breadcrumb data?
No. Google says you don’t need a breadcrumb item for the top level of your site, its domain or host name, nor for the page itself. The list still needs at least two items.
Where does Google show breadcrumbs?
Google says the breadcrumb feature is available on desktop in all regions and languages where Google Search is available. It uses the markup to categorize the information from the page in search results.
What happens if my breadcrumb markup breaks the rules?
Your pages must follow Google’s guidelines to be eligible to appear with breadcrumbs. If Google detects markup that uses techniques outside its structured data guidelines, your site may receive a manual action.
How do I check my breadcrumb markup?
Test the page in the Rich Results Test and fix any critical errors. Then use the URL Inspection tool to see how Google sees a few published pages, and check Search Console once Google has indexed them.
Sources
Read on November 3, 2026. Google Search Central: Breadcrumb (BreadcrumbList) structured data. Our own case: the BreadcrumbList of six of our pages, read before and after our change, on November 3, 2026.