Client:
Ecommerce Website in the Toys Industry
Situation:
The client, an established ecommerce retailer specializing in toys, aimed to enhance the structure and clarity of their product listing pages (PLPs) to improve both user experience and SEO performance. Previously, their PLPs used overly simplistic breadcrumb structures—often just “Home > Child Category”—which made it difficult for users and search engines to understand the overall site hierarchy and product relationships.
Challenge:
The existing breadcrumb setup did not reflect the true depth of the site’s hierarchy. This lack of clarity meant users had fewer navigational cues, potentially increasing their bounce rates as they struggled to find related products or move back to a parent category. From an SEO perspective, search engines could not fully understand the site’s architecture, limiting the client’s ability to rank effectively for more competitive and broad category searches. Moreover, the suboptimal breadcrumb structure may have been influencing user decision-making, ultimately affecting conversions.
Solution:
We recommended restructuring the breadcrumbs on the PLPs to reflect the full path from the home page down through relevant parent categories before reaching the child category level. For example, updating from “Home > Child Category” to “Home > Parent Category > Child Category” made the website’s structure more transparent. These well-organized breadcrumbs would guide users more effectively and give search engines a clearer hierarchical framework, making it easier for users to discover more products and complete their purchases.
Implementation:
Our team worked closely with the client’s site authoring team to revise their breadcrumbs manually across high priority categories. We identified key parent categories for each PLP, ensured internal linking best practices were maintained, and thoroughly tested the new breadcrumb paths for accuracy and consistency. After launch, we closely monitored both user behavior metrics and search performance to validate the improvements.
Results:
Shortly after implementation, the client’s metrics reflected a notable boost in organic visibility, user engagement, and conversion performance:
- SEO Traffic: Increased by +16%
- SEO Impressions: Increased by +5%
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): Improved by +10%
- Conversions: Increased by +9%
- Conversion Rate: Increased by +13%
These enhancements confirmed that clear and hierarchical breadcrumbs not only help users navigate more intuitively—improving their path to purchase—but also provide valuable context signals to search engines, leading to better rankings, increased traffic, and stronger conversion outcomes.
Conclusion:
By updating the breadcrumb links on branded PLPs to reflect a more meaningful hierarchy, we helped the client achieve notable gains across critical performance indicators, including search visibility, user engagement, and ultimately conversions. The improved internal linking structure and navigation supported stronger SEO performance while guiding users seamlessly through the site’s toy offerings, contributing to a healthier bottom line and a more satisfying shopping experience.
