Will removing self-referential breadcrumb links improve organic traffic?

Start here: how our SEO split tests work

If you aren't familiar with the fundamentals of how we run controlled SEO experiments that form the basis of all our case studies, then you might find it useful to start by reading the explanation at the end of this article before digesting the details of the case study below. If you'd like to get a new case study by email every two weeks, just enter your email address here.

For this week's #SPQuiz, we asked our followers whether a breadcrumb test where we removed the self-referential link on the final breadcrumb on a product listing page would result in a positive, negative or inconclusive result.

Here is what they thought:

Poll Results:

The majority of voters on X/Twitter and LinkedIn thought that the results of this test would be inconclusive, with a portion of thinking it would be positive.

The Case Study

Breadcrumb navigation plays a significant role in the structure and user experience of a website. It helps users understand their location within the site and allows search engines to comprehend the site's hierarchy. One of our customers in the e-commerce space decided to test removing the self-referential link from the last breadcrumb on product listing pages (PLPs).

We hypothesised that removing this link could streamline the user experience and potentially improve organic traffic by simplifying the breadcrumb structure. However, the results of this test were contrary to our expectations.

What was changed

Results

This test resulted in a statistically significant negative impact on organic traffic, with a 5.5% decrease. Our new Google Search Console (GSC) insights tool indicated that this drop was due to changes in ranking.

Negative breadcrumb test results

The main issue with this negative outcome seems to be how the breadcrumb changes were handled in the schema markup. We removed the self-referential link from the breadcrumb, but this change was not updated in the schema. This inconsistency likely confused search engines. Breadcrumb schema helps search engines understand the structure of a website. When there's a mismatch between what users see and what's in the schema, search engines can misinterpret the site's structure, which can hurt rankings and organic traffic.

This test highlights the importance of ensuring that any changes to website navigation elements, such as breadcrumbs, are consistently reflected across all relevant areas, including schema markup. Inconsistent implementations can lead to unintended consequences, such as decreased search engine rankings and reduced organic traffic.

At SearchPilot, our commitment to data-driven SEO testing enables us to navigate these complexities and deliver optimal results for our clients. We learn from every test, positive or negative, and use these insights to drive ongoing improvements in search performance.

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How our SEO split tests work

The most important thing to know is that our case studies are based on controlled experiments with control and variant pages:

By detecting changes in performance of the variant pages compared to the control, we know that the measured effect was not caused by seasonality, sitewide changes, Google algorithm updates, competitor changes, or any other external impact.
The statistical analysis compares the actual outcome to a forecast, and comes with a confidence interval so we know how certain we are the effect is real.
We measure the impact on organic traffic in order to capture changes to rankings and/or changes to clickthrough rate (more here).