Smart Traffic SEO Tip #26 – Site Hierarchies Displayed in Google Search Results
Aside from Rich snippets, Google provides other additional information in Search results. Usually, Google shows only simple green URLs at the bottom of search results. In last November 2009 Google launched a new feature which displays site hierarchy showing the precise location of the page on the website. It actually provides valuable context and new navigation options for the users to easily get the information they are looking for within the site. Please see image below:
Each phrase in the green line above is a link. It actually means clicking on “Electronics” will take you to the site’s page for all electronics and clicking on “Televisions” will take you to their list of televisions. It shows the searcher more information about their search query and where within the site the target url fits.
So where does this information come from? Information like this actually comes from the standard navigational tools used throughout the web known as “breadcrumbs”. These breadcrumbs are located above the main content of the page to help the users in navigating the site. For our example, the site hierarchy shown in the image above come from the breadcrumbs of the site as shown in the image below:
Should you build breadcrumbs for your site just to have the site hierarchy display in Google Search results? Think of it this way, Google displays site hierarchy for USERS, so build one for users as well. Google could then display in search results the information about your site that is relevant.
