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2

Is it good for Google?

Like this:

<h1> Home >> Services >> Toilet cleaning >> Showcase </h1>

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Why would you want to wrap your breadcrumbs in a <h1> tag? – BeEasy Jul 8 '11 at 17:43
9  
I don't know about SEO, but, showcases for toilet cleaning services?! – BoltClock Jul 8 '11 at 17:43
because the page has no title? – google Jul 8 '11 at 17:44
It looks to me like you're on a page titled showcase. It's not semantic to use an h1 in that manner. – zzzzBov Jul 8 '11 at 17:45
6  
It seems you are Google.... you should know if it's good for you. – Felix Kling Jul 8 '11 at 17:47
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migrated from stackoverflow.com Jul 8 '11 at 18:34

4 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

for SEO, you need a title that is basically the main subject of the page including the keywords you're focusing on for the page, the h1 should be the same or similar (i.e. it should say what the page is about in 1 sentence(ish)).
For the breadcrumb to be any good the elements should be links (<a>) to the corresponding pages.

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up vote 8 down vote

<H1> is where you put the page title (this is in addition to the <title> tag as they serve two similar but different purposes).

If your goal is to improve your SEO through breadcrumbs then you will want to use the breadcrumbs microformat. This specifically tells Google, and Bing, that these are breadcrumbs. They will then use that to determine a hierarchy in your site and Google will even enhance your listing by showing your breadcrumbs in their search results.

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up vote 2 down vote

The answer to this is a No for SEO reasons - I don't know why you would want to wrap your breadcrumbs in a H1.

If your concerned of your page not having a page title simply add this after your declare your doctype, within your <head> tag - <title>Page Title Goes Here</title>

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The answer to this is a No for "Why would you do that?!" reasons. – Radu Jul 8 '11 at 18:04
up vote 2 down vote

In the eyes of Google the <h1> is one of the most important descriptors of your page's content. Unless your page contains a homepage, list of services, toilet cleaning overview and showcase (which it doesn't) then no don't do it!

If you were to keyword stuff the <h1> and <title> for good rankings (which I don't recommend you do) - even then - those are terrible keywords.

An important part of Google understanding your website (and ranking you highly for good content) is to clearly show your website's structure. A clean navigation built with nested <li>s, a good HTML sitemap, strong URL structure (e.g. /services/toilet-cleaning/showcase.html) and breadcrumbs all work towards that. So yes breadcrumbs are important.

The best way to implement breadcrumbs in my opinion is through an ordered list:

<ol>
  <li><a href="/">Home</a></li>
  <li><a href="/services/">Services</a></li>
  <li><a href="/services/toilet-cleaning/">Toilet Cleaning</a></li>
  <li class="active"><a href="/services/toilet-cleaning/showcase.html">Showcase</a></li>
</ol>

Which can easily be styled to a horizontal list.

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