Timothy Carter

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been making the rounds in various blogs thanks to the fairly recent launch of ChatGPT. AI seems to be everywhere, and there’s no doubt it has massive potential to boost your digital marketing game. With some exceptions, AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and Google Bard can help you with SEO, content marketing, lead generation, and more. If you’ve always wanted to try using AI to improve your business, keep reading because this article will teach you how it’s done. AI is accessible to local, small business owners If you’re worried that AI tools, like ChatGPT, are just for big corporations, don’t worry – you can get in on this tech, too. In the digital marketing sphere, discussions about AI seem to gravitate toward big corporations using algorithms to scale content creation on a large scale to save time and money. Local business owners fear this might give them even less of a chance to compete in their industry. This fear is reasonable. Large corporations have the budgets required to use any tool they need to increase productivity and profits. Using AI to create content costs a fraction of hiring a human, which gives them even more leverage than before. Where budgets are concerned, large corporations already have the advantage. If they start using AI, do small business owners even stand a chance? The answer is yes. You can leverage AI just like big corporations and see success in your industry. With a strong local SEO campaign, you’ll be competing in a smaller, yet more targeted market where searches are more transactional. This is exactly what you need for success. Using AI will make digital marketing less challenging and will reduce the overwhelm of trying to keep up when you scale your efforts. 5 Ways AI helps small businesses with digital marketing There are many different forms of AI, so to keep it simple and clear, the AI referenced in this article is the type used by ChatGPT, which is generative AI. Generative AI is a large language model algorithm that can provide unique, humanlike content when given a prompt. For example, you can ask a generative AI engine to write you an article, provide answers to a question, or explain a complex topic. It can even write you a poem or some jokes if you wish. As long as the engine you’re using has been trained with content on a particular topic, it can produce unique content for you. 1. AI can write content outlines and full pieces Content is and always will be king in the digital marketing arena; your goal is to publish content your audience can’t wait to read and share with others. Whether you need full articles or just basic outlines, it can all be done with generative AI. The following types of content can be AI-generated: Informational web page content Social media posts Jokes Poems How-to articles FAQ sections Lists Recipes Regular blog articles And more The faster you can produce content, the better. Thankfully, with AI, it only takes a few minutes to get what you need. If you don’t have time to run the software yourself, it’s easy to outsource to an employee or a professional marketing company. Your best results will come from well-structured prompts. AI tools are capable of writing decent content as long as you provide the right input. If you’ve already tried an AI tool and either didn’t know how to use it or you didn’t get the results you were hoping for, learn how to write better prompts. For example, writing like you’re communicating with a human will improve your output. When you receive a response that doesn’t work, you can request another version or adjust your prompt. Over time, your AI tool will continue to learn from your interactions and will provide you with better content. No matter how good your tool seems, never publish content without reviewing it for accuracy and tone. AI bots tend to generate formal language and some of the phrases can sound a bit awkward. Always smooth these areas out so your text sounds as human as possible and reflects your brand’s voice. And don’t hesitate to insert your unique viewpoints or stories. If you content doesn’t add value to the world or if visitors don’t find it interesting, your efforts will be in vain. 2. AI can help you scale content production Being a small business owner, it’s important to stay ahead of the curve. But you probably don’t have a massive digital marketing budget like major brands. Still, you need to create regular high-quality content that appeals to your market and eventually you’ll need to scale your content production. Without a big budget, you might feel hesitant to scale. That’s where AI comes in. Scaling your content production using AI will give you an advantage as though you have a big budget. It’s fast, easy, and can produce content that requires only minimal editing on your part. There are a handful of decent online tools for creating content, including Jasper, copy.ai, and SurferSEO. By entering some text prompts and making a few selections, you can ask these tools to write you any kind of content you need, from articles and recipes to social media posts and informational pages. The output from these AI tools is surprisingly good. It’s natural, it flows, and it reads like it was written by a human. However, you’ll need to review the content and make corrections. Generative AI sometimes provides wrong answers and incorrect information. Even so, using an AI content generation tool will give you a major head start in scaling your content production. 3. AI can write your social media posts Do you ever get bored of writing posts for Facebook, or coming up with punchy one-liners for Twitter? A generative AI tool can do all of that for you, and more. Since the algorithms are trained on vast amounts of content, they are capable of creating posts on

After looking into search engine optimization (SEO), you may have realized it costs more than you thought to hire a professional. If you have the capital, that’s no big deal, but if you’re one of many business owners without a dedicated SEO budget, it makes sense to look for ways to optimize your own website for free (or with as little investment as possible). You’ll be happy to know that you can optimize your website for search engines without paying for professional services. As long as you have an SEO-friendly site design, you have a good foundation to work with, and from there, you’ll need to learn how to implement the following SEO components. 1. Keyword and subject research SEO begins with determining what queries users type into search engines when they need your product or service. You’ll use these keywords in your content, product descriptions, page titles, and anywhere else appropriate. Check out these free keyword research tools to get started. However, don’t stop at keyword research. You’ll need to research your subject matter as well. In the early days, ranking a website was largely dependent on keywords. Google and other search engines ranked websites by finding matching keywords between a user’s search and the words that appeared on a web page without much consideration for other factors. While keywords are still important, they don’t carry as much weight. You can’t expect a website to rank just by filling the pages with keywords people are typing into their search bar. While you need to research keywords, you also need to research your subject to understand it in-depth and identify related keywords and phrases. Doing this will help you rank for semantic search. In the world of SEO, this is called LSI, or Latent Semantic Indexing. LSI keywords and phrases work like this. Say you run a law firm and your main keyword phrase is “criminal defense attorney near me.” You also want to optimize your content for phrases like, “criminal defense lawyer,” “do I need a lawyer for criminal charges,” “beat criminal charges in [city],” etc. The idea is to use a handful of additional phrases that help search engines understand the full context of your web page so it will be included in search results when it’s most relevant, since users search for these additional phrases. Keyword research tips Embrace long tail keywords. Use a spreadsheet to organize your keyword lists. Use free SEO tools, but don’t be opposed to paying to get better features. Research your competitors’ keywords to get more ideas. Identify and go after keyword gaps – these are keywords you don’t rank for, but two or more competitors do. 2. Start building your internal link structure You may not realize how important internal links are for ranking. Sure, they’re links to pages on your own website, but they tell search engines how important your pages are and provide more context about your content. The more internal links you have pointing to a given page, the more equity Google will assign to that page. There is no official Google guidance on where to place internal links, but in general, they can go anywhere: blog posts, navigation menus, footers, and sidebars. To get links on your home page, use widgets that link to your latest or most popular posts. After creating a blog post, find other pages on your site with relevant content and link it in your new article. Internal link building tips Use exact match anchor text. For example, if you run a marketing blog, you might use the following anchor text options: “marketing tips,” “target market,” and “hire an agency.” Only link to target content once per page. Use links sparingly. A few per page is good. 3. Optimize your title tags Although title tags aren’t a powerful ranking factor anymore, they are absolutely important on the back end and for getting users to click. Your page titles tell Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines what your content is all about. Search engines use this information to determine how to rank pages. Your page titles will also contribute heavily to your click through rate, since users will skim titles and quickly decide whether or not the page contains the information they want. Title tag tips Keep titles short to 50 characters or less or at least get the most important words into that space. Don’t get too attached to how your titles display. Google often rewrites page titles before displaying results. To avoid having your titles rewritten, don’t use brackets, parenthesis, dashes and pipes, or repeat the same keyword multiple times. Create simple and clear titles that speak for themselves. 4. Update older content Old content isn’t necessarily bad, but Google prefers to display fresh, new content in the search results. Sometimes, users are turned off by content simply because of the publication date. Your page might be exactly what they’re looking for, but if it seems outdated, they may not click. To avoid being passed over, update your pages periodically by adding some new content, references, or images. This will trigger Google to create a new publication date that users will see in search results. Content refresh tips Don’t alter good content just to make it new. Instead, add a paragraph. Replace outdated suggestions with better options. Rework your introductions to capture more attention. 5. Go for rich and structured snippets Getting your website to rank in the search engines is great, but you also need people to click on your links in the results pages. You can increase your click through rate (CTR) by leveraging Schema markup. You may have noticed that some websites in Google’s results show additional information, like product details and starred ratings. These rich and structured snippets make search results stand out, but where does it come from? Well, Google pulls this information from two sources: Schema markup and data formatted in tables on your website. Tips for implementing snippets Use tables to display product

When it comes to SEO, everyone aims for the same thing: to get to the top of the search engines results page. Google shows 10 search results per page and the higher you are on that list, the more people find your website.  But some searches produce featured snippets that float above the other 10 website listings. We call this position zero, and in this post we will explain what it is and how you can rank for it.  What is Position Zero? Position zero is a featured snippet that appears above the traditional search engine results. Here’s an example: Usually, it is a direct answer to a search query. Featured snippets pull information directly from websites for convenience. That way, viewers get their answer at a glance. Then they can learn more by visiting the website. Featured Snippets stand out not only because they sit above the rest of the search results but because they are encased by borders. It’s Google’s way of saying this is the golden SERP spot. Featured snippets usually contain one listing, but in some cases they contain more than one. Why Aim for Position Zero? Now that you know what position zero is, let’s discuss why you should try to rank for it.  In many ways, trying to get your web pages to list at position zero is a no brainer. Who doesn’t want to be at the top of the search engine results page? But to appreciate the full impact of reaching position zero, consider the following: Position zero drives traffic. Plain and simple. The amount of web traffic you gain simply by being the top search result cannot be overstated. When position zero was first introduced, many webmasters feared it would lead to less traffic because searchers can get the information they need without clicking. But that didn’t happen. Viewers click on featured snippet websites more because they trust the site faster and want to learn more.  Position Zero helps you appear on voice searches. These days, people use smart technology more than ever. Voice Assistants like Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa are commonplace in many homes. And smartphones all have voice search capability. Ranking for position zero often means your web page is the voice search answer to a given question. So it makes sense to target featured snippets even if it’s just for voice search visibility.  12% of search results contain position zero results. Not every search query has a featured snippet, but 12% is a substantial amount. There are ample and often overlooked opportunities in position zero listings. Most featured snippets come in the form of instructions, recipes, and answers to how-to questions. In short, you’re more likely to capture a position zero result with a question/answer piece of content.  Position zero snippets steal traffic from other top search results. At the end of the day, position zero claims a significant amount of traffic on SERPs. If you let competitors rank for position zero, they will take that traffic away from you. Featured snippets simply subordinate all other search results.  When it comes to ranking in search engines, it simply doesn’t get any better than position zero. But most don’t know about it. It’s a little understood hidden gem waiting to be capitalized on.  How to Get to Position Zero The tricky part is earning the featured snippet position. While there is no simple method, the following tips will help you get you on the right track. Featured Snippet Forms First of all, featured snippets come in three main forms: paragraphs, lists, tables, and videos.  A paragraph snippet usually answers a question objectively and succinctly. A paragraph snippet typically gives a definition or a brief bit of information on a topic like why we dream while sleeping, for example. You should know that Google gives preference to answers with 40 to 50 words. This is relatively short. So if your answer to the target keyword is much longer, don’t count on it as position zero candidate.  As the name suggests, a list snippet is formatted as a list, whether bulleted or numbered, ordered or unordered, ranked or unranked. Often, list snippets show steps to a process or rank things like the richest people in the world, for example. They are ideal for featured snippets because they provide easily digestible information.  Table snippets are similar to list snippets, except they have rows and columns. So in a way, they can offer even more information at a glance. Examples of table snippets include the cost of living in Texas or the superbowl scores.  Finally, video snippets are video segment previews taken directly from YouTube. Google even timestamps the portion of the video that applies to the searched keyword. That way, you can cut straight to the chase if you choose to click play. To rank for a video snippet, make sure the video includes a voiceover or transcript because Google uses them to generate featured video snippets. Though not as common as other forms, video snippets can be a good way to attract traffic to your site.  No matter what kind of featured snippet content you aim for, it’s important to format it as either a paragraph, list, table, or video. Paragraph snippets are by far the most common kind of featured snippet, but list and table snippets make up a considerable amount, too. Featured Snippet Content Types In addition to its different forms, featured snippets contain different types of content. Here are the most common types of content you will find:  An answer to one of the 5W questions (Who, What, When, Where, and Why). When people have a question and want a quick answer, they just type the question into the search engine. Google knows this. So they curate featured snippets that most directly answer the question. Come up with 5W questions relevant to your product and you can direct more search traffic to your site. A how-to tutorial. These days, you can learn how to do just

Google is the king of search. In the web’s early days, competitors were commonplace. But today, around two-thirds of all searches are performed on Google, and the remaining few have either consolidated or dissolved. As a result, most search marketers only focus their efforts on Google rankings. The New York Times describes the power of Google’s index and some of the other reasons for Google’s search dominance: In 2000, just two years after it was founded, Google reached a milestone that would lay the foundation for its dominance over the next 20 years: It became the world’s largest search engine, with an index of more than one billion web pages… …Every Google search request provides Google with more data to make its search algorithm smarter. Google has performed so many more searches than any other or private search engine that it has established a huge advantage over rivals in understanding what consumers are looking for. That lead only continues to widen, since Google has a market share of about 90 percent. Google directs billions of users to locations across the internet, and websites, hungry for that traffic, create a different set of rules for the company. Websites often provide greater and more frequent access to Google’s so-called web crawlers — computers that automatically scour the internet and scan web pages — allowing the company to offer a more extensive and up-to-date index of what is available on the internet. It is estimated that Google has some 600 billion web pages indexed. The next closest is Bing with a mere fraction at 100 to 200 Billion. Is it any wonder why Google still dominates. The rest of the internet never caught up, and Google’s index just kept on getting bigger. However, the Internet is becoming more open, and despite the tiny amount of attention they seem to be generating, there are new (and even legacy) competitors vying to give Google a run for its money. As a search marketer, it’s probably not (yet) worth adjusting your strategy just to fit in with these new search engine or private search engine alternative or other Google alternatives—at least not yet. But it is worthwhile to learn what these competitors are up to, and why they’re putting up the effort. Knowing the landscape of the competition could prepare you for the rise of a new major search rival, or perhaps the absorption of their expertise into Google’s juggernaut algorithm. Google Flaws Justify Alternative Search Options Google and search are basically synonymous at this point. And while you should be tailoring your SEO and digital marketing strategy to Google, there’s also something to be said for untethering yourself as much as possible. Google has numerous issues, including: Privacy. This is by far the biggest strike against Google. While they may put on a good face, the truth is that Google does not prioritize the privacy of its users in any shape, form, or fashion. In fact, it’s the absence of privacy that allows them to be so successful. You’d be shocked by how much data Google has on you. And when the general public becomes more aware of this, a reckoning could come. Censorship. The bigger Google gets, the more it finds itself in a position to censor certain content. On the surface, there’s nothing wrong with censoring illicit content. However, the fact that Google spends so much time studying censorship and has developed such robust technology around it that scares people from wondering how it could be used in the future. Limited capabilities. As sleek and advanced as Google is, it’s really quite limiting for those who want to run technical queries. If you’re trying to run highly technical searches and search the deep web, you’ll need alternative search engines or private search engines. There are dozens of other issues and problems, but most of them fall under one of these three categories. And eventually, once the search industry gains some worthy competitors, people will begin to realize that Google isn’t all that it seems. At this point, healthy competition will follow. And it’s a good idea to be prepared for this shift by already having a basic understanding of what’s out there. 19 Popular Search Engine Alternatives You Should Know Again, Google should certainly be the focus of any SEO, Google search alternatives or other Google alternatives and search strategy, but savvy business owners and marketers should at least be aware of what else exists. As things stand today, these are the most worthy alternative search engines on the web: ChatGPT Recently deemed as the Google Killer, ChatGPT is a great alternative to Google search because it offers a significantly more intuitive experience for finding information. Unlike traditional search engines, ChatGPT uses natural language processing and artificial intelligence to understand the context of your query and provide you with more accurate results. This means that instead of searching through countless web pages, users can simply type their query as if they were talking to a friend and ChatGPT will understand the intent of their questions. In fact, Microsoft’s Bing, which we mention below as another good alternative to Google, has indicated that they will likely be integrating ChatGPT to their search engine after a sizeable investment in ChatGPT parent OpenAI. Additionally, ChatGPT is able to provide recommendations based on your past searches making it easier for you to find what you’re looking for even faster. With its smarter search results and better user experience, ChatGPT has become an invaluable tool in helping people find the information they need. Whether you are looking for a specific answer to a tricky question or just browsing for interesting articles, ChatGPT can help make your search easier and more effective. Google’s response to the potential challenge of ChatGPT is a more “grown-up” version of artificial intelligence called DeepMind. Search.co Our very own custom-developed ChatGPT tool is available at SEARCH.co. We developed SEARCH.co in-house to give users a means of accessing specific features available with artificial intelligence,

We all know, but sometimes forget that every website we visit looks a lot different on the back end than it does on the front end. We usually see a beautiful, inviting layout with some of the best content this website owner has to offer. But on the back end is an unintuitive, sometimes jarring smattering of computer code. If you’re familiar with HTML, or any modern programming language, you might be able to parse this, at least slightly – but even the most experienced programmers out there would probably admit it’s easier to understand and engage with a website without this code complicating things. For most people, this is the case. But the web isn’t just about “most people.” We also need to think about people with disabilities. And believe it or not, we also need to think about bots. Even though most people will never see or interact with it, the semantic HTML on the back end of your website can have a meaningful impact on your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy and make your site more accessible and navigable for millions of people. So what exactly is semantic HTML? And why is it so important? What Is Semantic HTML? Before we can understand semantic HTML, we need to understand HTML. Hypertext Markup Language (HMTL) is the standard markup language for any materials that are designed to be displayed in web browsers. In other words, it’s a system of scripting and tagging that makes it easier for websites to be interpreted and displayed by web browsers. By default, these browsers don’t display HTML tags; instead, these are featured and processed only on the back end. HTML tags are indispensable in building web pages, and you can use them to deliver specific content assets, provide structure, and even include scripts to influence how the web page is processed and used. Semantic HTML is a strategy of intentionally using HTML tags to offer meaningful descriptions of content on your website. When reviewed, these descriptive HTML tags provide context to help crawlers and bots “understand” the purpose and structure of your website. Semantic HTML elements, while arguably unnecessary for your page to be a minimum viable, functioning product, are incredibly useful for keeping things organized and described in accessible language. It’s perhaps easiest to understand semantic HTML in relation to non-semantic HTML: non-semantic HTML tags like <div> and <span> are used to hold content, but they provide no meaningful descriptions of the relevance or meaning of that content. A website without semantic HTML might have all its content housed with these two tags. In contrast, a website with semantic HTML would use a wide variety of tags and elements to appropriately structure and organize that content. Why Does Semantic HTML Matter? Why should you care about semantic HTML? Well, for starters, it makes the lives of designers and developers much easier. When you look at the HTML code of a website, semantic HTML tags make it incredibly easy to parse. You can see how the author of the website wanted the content to be organized, and even find helpful descriptions about the types of content that are offered. Think of it like a book with an in-depth table of contents, clear chapter titles, bookmarks to flag important sections, and highlighted words throughout the text; it would be much easier to read this book than a book with all of the same text, but no real formatting for navigability or readability. Second, semantic HTML is a way of making your structure, hierarchy, and context clear for bots that crawl your website. Already, you’re probably thinking of the SEO implications; semantic HTML may not be a Google ranking factor, as we’ll see, but it can be valuable in ensuring your website is crawled, indexed, “understood,” and displayed appropriately by Google and other search engines. Depending on your goals, and how you use semantic HTML, this could be a strategy for improving the relevance of specific pieces of content for specific keywords and phrases, changing how your web content is viewed or displayed, or making your best content available in search engine results pages (SERPs). Third, semantic HTML elements can make it easier for people with certain types of disabilities to consume your content and browse your website. For example, people with visual impairments may not be able to see the photos on your website, but they may have software that allows them to read/hear a description of the alt text that describes what’s happening in the photo. To this end, mastering the art of semantic HTML makes your website more accessible. Semantic HTML Elements Semantic HTML can be used across a wide range of elements, including: Header tags (H1-H6). Headings are used to establish a hierarchy with clear labels, and can be used to describe the content included in a given section. The <h1> tag is the most important, with <h6> being the least important. Onsite SEO best practices typically dictate optimizing these header tags with meaningful descriptions – and target keywords. Paragraph tags (<p>). This HTML element is used to represent a block of text. It defines a paragraph for web crawlers. Lists (<ul>/<ol>). Lists can also be used to organize content with unordered and ordered list elements. You can also use <li> to define individual list items. Tables (<table>). While you’re organizing data, you can use the <table> element to create a table, with descriptions for rows (<tr>), columns (<th>), and individual data cells (<td>). Images (<img>). As you can guess, <img> allows you to describe and provide context for photos and graphics. With the alt attribute, you can describe what’s contained in the image, which is especially important for visually impaired users. Articles (<article>). All your news stories, blog posts, and other types of reusable content can be marked with the <article> element. Sections (<section>). These tags allow you to establish different components of a cohesive piece of content, such as chapters of a bigger document. Links or anchors

While their breadcrumbs trail didn’t work out so well in Hansel and Gretel, they work exceedingly well in helping visitors and search engine bots from getting lost while wading through your website. Not only do they make your website more accessible in Google search results, but they also have some implications to your SEO that may prove beneficial enough to take the small amount of time required to implement breadcrumbs. Let’s explore the different types of breadcrumbs, how you might use them and their various implications in terms of how they might prove beneficial to your SEO efforts. What Are Breadcrumbs? Breadcrumbs allow a user to retrace their steps from your home page to the web page that they’re currently viewing. A breadcrumb trail can reflect the structure of your website, a logical path or attributes of the current page. When used properly, they can add context to your innermost web pages while reducing many of the factors that might negatively affect your site’s SEO, such as your bounce rate. The Types of Breadcrumbs While there are many variations of breadcrumbs and breadcrumb schema markup, they generally fall into one of the three following types: 1. Location Breadcrumbs – These are breadcrumbs that trace back through the different layers of your website. Following one of these breadcrumbs will allow users to visit a page that plays host to similar pages in the same category.An example of hierarchy based breadcrumbs would be: Home > Law > Finances > Bankruptcy Information. 2. Path Breadcrumbs – This type of breadcrumb trail represents the various logical paths that a user could use to reach a page. That means multiple breadcrumbs can lead to the same page. 3. Attribute or Keyword Breadcrumbs – Breadcrumbs of this nature follow a similar path as described by location breadcrumbs. The difference is that instead of using something like the page title or another unique identifier, keywords and attributes that describe the page are used. Technical support pages and e-commerce websites are two of the more common places where this breadcrumb is used. The last two types of SEO breadcrumbs can result in duplicate breadcrumbs, which may have a negative impact on how search engines interpret your website’s SEO attempts. If this is the case, then opt for location-based breadcrumbs. The Advantages of Breadcrumbs for Users Breadcrumbs are an essential part of helping users understand how your website works. They encourage positive actions, such as delving deeper into your website to look for other pages that will likely interest them in some way. When users undergo such positive actions, they reduce the negative factors like your website’s bounce rate. This helps your pages rank higher in SERPs. Below is a brief list of all the things that breadcrumbs can do for you website’s users: They help users understand the layout of your website. This makes breadcrumb navigation links one level higher to find similar content while staying on your website. They’re completely optional. They won’t overwhelm users that don’t want to use them, nor will they detract from your page due to their compact nature. They allow users to scan through your website and to view more content at a faster rate. They’re easy to implement and can be understood regardless of a user’s education, professional background or technical knowledge. The Advantages of Breadcrumbs for SEO Despite their numerous benefits for visitors, attribute based breadcrumbs have a number of advantages when it comes to search engines. Breadcrumb structured data can pass on context to the inner and outer pages of your website in a natural and logical way that search engines love. Here’s a brief list of what breadcrumbs can do to improve your SEO: They can point keywords to certain pages while helping search engines to see how one page relates to another on your website. When used in a hierarchy, this improves SEO done to both your category pages and your innermost pages. They reinforce and improve your website’s internal linking site structure. Pairing breadcrumbs with contextual linking to other related pages will result in larger gains when off-site SEO is applied. Schemas can be used to describe them. This allows Google and other advanced search engines to understand that what their robots are looking at is a breadcrumb, which in turn allows for additional functionality like the display of breadcrumbs in SERPs to become available. This can facilitate more users browsing your website’s inner pages. Optimizing Breadcrumbs for SEO Optimizing your breadcrumbs for SEO is a tedious balancing act. Too much optimization can result in over-optimization penalties, but there is no real penalty for “under-optimizing” so long as your breadcrumb structure remains intelligent. When optimizing for keywords, you should follow a structure similar to the one below: A link to your home page using your website’s main keyword > Your main keyword followed by a category keyword > Your main keyword with a keyword that describes the page the user is on As discussed earlier, it may be advantageous to omit certain parts to avoid over-optimizing. For example, it’s fine to just leave the category part as a single keyword or phrase that describes the category. Additional Tips for Usable Breadcrumbs Not all breadcrumbs are created equally, nor do they all perform as well. Below is a small list of tips that will help you ensure your breadcrumbs are friendly towards both users and search engines. If you add breadcrumbs with the right schema markup, then you can use almost any kind of styling when it comes to your breadcrumbs. It may be advantageous to style your breadcrumbs in a way that makes them appealing for visitors to use. If you can, use a plugin like Yoast SEO to quickly incorporate breadcrumbs schema markup. Don’t rely solely on your breadcrumbs. As Hansel and Gretel would likely say, relying on just breadcrumbs is a dangerous and fool-hardy move. Don’t replace the vital parts of your website like your navigation and internal linking with breadcrumbs, but do