ECommerce Site Breadcrumbs Best Practice

[Blenny]

I'm working on an Ecom website and I was wondering -

For breadcrumbs - is there an SEO and/or UEx preference when it comes to taking them back to the homepage?

I have the option of going CATEGORY > SUB CATEGORY > SUB CATEGORY

or

HOME > CATEGORY > SUBCATEGORY > SUBCATEGORY

Each example is hyperlinked except for the lowest level.

Thanks

[marcinlejman]

I believe that in terms of UX, breadcrumbs should lead back to the home page. It's simply more convenient for users.

It is a navigation trail after all, and you should not force users to think (a.k.a. Don't Make Me Think). It would make no sense to allow them to navigate up the tree, but force them to click the logo to return to the homepage.

There are some excellent articles concerning breadcrumb usability patterns. Please refer for example to this article from Smashing Magazine.

Jakob Nielsen, a renowned UX expert, also seems to support this idea on his site.

[Blenny]

Thanks a lot Marcin. This totally confirmed what I was thinking and I appreciate the source links.