Are Breadcrumbs Really Necessary?

[Kingalan1]

An SEO provider suggested we add breadcrumbs to the top of each page about 3 years ago, which we did.

3 years later we are going thru the site and find it really busy with lots of redundant and distracting elements.

We would like to remove the breadcrumbs from the top of the pages. Is there any real SEO downside to doing so?
All URLs are listed on our site map so I don't see why Google would not index all pages.

Our domain is www.metro-manhattan.com

I have uploaded a sample page with a breadcrumb.

Thanks,
Alan

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[JordanLowry]

Breadcrumbs help with navigation purposes and are there for the user experience. Personally, I feel as though they provide a greater user experience.

I would do some analysis work and put a heat map on your site. Try using hotjar they have a free subscription model that I think will come in handy. You can also see where users are clicking the most etc. Do you some research and analysis work before removing elements. Also, Google is not going to de-index pages just because you remove bread crumbs so you have no worries there.

Personally after looking at your attachment I would remove the entire far right column and widen all the other elements. You already have the "click here" button and everything else seems a bit redundant.

[leighcounsell]

Hi Alan and Jordan,

Firstly, Alan, thanks for raising this question as I am currently in a similar predicament and was wondering if Jordan, you could provide some insight?

For my website, which is the site for a magazine I work for, the current URL structure is www.website.com/article-title

On first glance, I thought it must be that we would have to re-structure the URLs to include the category structure, for example... www.website.com/category/sub-category/article-title

However, upon deeper investigation, I've seen that we do actually have breadcrumbs enabled therefore google is indexing and following the structure from this.

With this in mind, is it actually worth re-structuring the URLs to include these categories as it will take a long time to organise and implement.

Obviously, thinking in terms of UX, it is a must-do, but I'm just trying to weigh up the pro's and cons with this..

Appreciate your help,

Leigh