Short version: Breadcrumbs are a navigation trail that shows where a page sits inside a website’s structure.
On a website, breadcrumbs usually appear near the top of the page and link back through parent sections, such as Home, Services, Web Design, and a specific page. They help users understand location and move upward in the hierarchy without relying only on the main menu or browser back button. This is especially useful on large sites, e-commerce stores, blogs, resource hubs, and multi-level service pages.
For SEO, breadcrumb structured data can help search engines understand page hierarchy and can influence how a page is categorized in search results where the feature is available. Breadcrumbs should represent a useful user path, not a messy copy of the URL. They work best when the site’s information architecture is already logical.
Related terms: navigation, information architecture, and schema markup.