Will Removing My Keyword from Breadcrumb Title to Simplify UI Hurt Page SEO?

[the-coopersmith]

Working on the UI of a new site and I would like to simplify the breadcrumbs so they do not take up as much space. They will still communicate the same message to user. See example below:

• Before:  Home > Widget Dealers > Tennessee > Nashville
• After:  Home > Dealers > Tennessee > Nashville

The page title and/or menu item would still be "Widget Dealers". So my question is, if I remove the keyword "Widget" only from the breadcrumb could that hurt me in any way?

[JarnoNijzing]

if it truly is only in the breadcrumbs trail then I don't think it would hurt your rankings. But nevertheless if this really are your breadcrumbs then I think you could keep it this way. Why would you remove it?

regards

Jarno

[the-coopersmith]

The breadcrumbs take up a lot of space when site responsively sizes down for smaller devices. I do not want to hide them, so what hoping i could just simplify them down a bit.

[Shakur]

Hi,

I dont think so. The most important thing is the canonical, if your canonical matches your keyword you do not have nothing to worry about. The breadcrumbs are useful for navigation but if you are using them for seo purposes, you must know that they do not need to match your exact keyword. Google is more semantic than ever.

Hope it helps.

[the-coopersmith]

That helps a lot. Thank you!