Yummy Google Breadcrumb Trails! Will It Mean More Clicks?

Many of you will have already noticed the latest enhancement to Google’s search engine results pages (SERPS) where a breadcrumb, or “clickable” hierarchy of the website, is displayed, replacing the traditional listing URL. Search listings will be replaced with the new Google breadcrumb trails when Google feels a website’s current URL structure lacks context.

Industry thinking is that not only will the Google breadcrumb trails enhance the user experience but they will provide an increase in click through rates for site owners, as users will be given more information about their search query which may in turn influence where they click.

For example, traditional URLs appear as “/selling-your-bike-on-ebay/” where keywords entered by the users search query are bolded (as shown below).

The new Google breadcrumb feature will replace traditional URLs with “> Buy > Cars, Bikes, Boats > Trailers >” providing direct links to parent pages or sections, further increasing the number of entry points to a website (as shown below).

Google announced the new “user enhanced” display on 18 November 2009 in a blog post, which outlines the objective in providing clearer navigational options for users arriving at a website via Google search.

When Google decides the breadcrumb feature will enhance the users’ experience, clickable trail links that reflect the website hierarchy will appear. The new feature provides users with information about the physical location of a webpage relative to the site as a whole, allowing them to backtrack if required.

The Google Blog states: “By analysing site breadcrumbs, we’ve been able to improve the search snippet for a small percentage of search results, and we hope to expand in the future.”

What do you think? Will the new Google breadcrumb feature help click through rates?