Url structure on product pages - Should we apply canonicalized links in breadcrumbs or entry folders

[guidetoiceland]

We have products in the that go into mulitiple categories on our e-commerce site. But of course, each product is only canonicalized to one category.

My question is: what should the breadcrumbs look like when users access a product from a non-canonicalized/primary category ?Should we apply canonicalized links in breadcrumbs or entry folders?

For example:

Let´s say we have product called "glacier hiking in the alps". It is in two categories; 1) glacier hiking 2) mountain tours. And is canonicalized to the glacier hiking category.

If a user accesses it from the mountain tours category, should the url/breadcrumbs look like this:

www.example.com/glacier-hiking/glacier-hiking-in-the-alps (because that is the canonicalized version)

Or should it look like like this:

www.example.com/mountain-tours/glacier-hiking-in-the-alps (because that is where the user came from)

Thanks in advance!

[brettmandoes]

Hey there Shahin, make sure your breadcrumbs reflect the path the users took. It's a navigational aid that's meant to help the user and creating a canonical version of the breadcrumbs would just create a confusing experience. If your user was trying to get back to the mountain tours page but the breadcrumbs only listed glacier hiking, wouldn't that be odd? Since the URLs are already canonicalized it shouldn't hurt your SEO to set things up this way.