How import are breadcrumbs SEO wise on a wordpress blog?

[NoahsDad]

I was recently told I should take the breadcrumbs off of our site, for if no other reason than that it would look much nicer, and I tend to agree. I was curious how much seo weight breadcrumbs add to a site, and if I would take a big hit if I removed them...

Thanks!

[Ron_McCabe]

To have or not have breadcrumbs does not affect SEO directly it affects it indirectly.   Part or what is monitored when a site is ranked is the user experience.  The analytical way that this is monitored is through your bounce rate, exit rate, time on site and your visitor flow.  Anything that makes these stats better and improves your user experience is going to improve your rankings.   So even if you don't have breadcrumbs but have very good navigation that eliminates the need for bread crumbs you will have the same positive effect on your SEO.  So it is not this type navigation in particular that is important it is providing the best navigation for your traffic.  Happy traffic = good rankings

Hope this helps,

Ron

[vmialik]

Fully agree with Ron. #1 reason = user experience. However breadcrumbs are internal links and are useful because internal links help crawlers get around your site.  Also it helps crawlers understand your sites structure and hierarchy/priority.  Also sometimes Google chooses to display breadcrumbs as a rich snippet type link/benefit.

To read more:

http://moz.com/community/q/do-we-need-breadcrumbs

http://moz.com/community/q/how-important-are-breadcrumbs

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/breadcrumbs/15022/