Updated:
by Wayne Smith
In the early days of SEO, search engines began analyzing how URLs were structured to better understand website content and organization. When websites grouped related pages under a main topic, it helped search engines recognize those connections. This SEO-friendly structure made it clear that certain pages were part of a larger, more in-depth subject -- giving them a better chance of ranking well.
- Main Folder – Brand Name
- About
- Author
- Grocery Ecommerce
- Produce
- Vegetables
- Corn
- Tomato
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- What's on Sale
- Produce
- About
When the full URL is visible in the browser, it also gives visitors helpful clues that more related content is available -- improving both navigation and user experience.
Breadcrumbs Evolved to Show Site Structure on the Page
Breadcrumbs have grown into a useful way to visually show how a website is structured, directly on the page. While they don’t replace the need for an SEO-friendly URL structure, they help make the relationships between pages clearer -- for both users and search engines. Used together, clean URLs and breadcrumbs are considered SEO best practices.
Why Use ARIA and Schema Breadcrumbs – with Examples
When breadcrumb schema is added, search engines often display the breadcrumb trail instead of the full URL in search results. However, they usually show only one path. This means neither breadcrumbs nor URLs alone can fully capture more complex relationships between content.
Schema Has Evolved to Support More Complex Structures
Traditional breadcrumbs and URL structures are effective for displaying simple page hierarchies, but they can fall short when trying to represent more complex relationships between content. To address this, Schema.org offers properties like "isPartOf" and "hasPart" that define how different pieces of content are connected within a larger context. For example, a blog post might indicate that it "isPartOf" a series, while the series page can show it "hasPart" multiple related posts. This helps search engines understand the full structure of your content -- beyond what's reflected in the URL.
Other schema properties, such as "mentions" and "citation," help you highlight important connections to other topics or sources. "Mentions" shows that your content refers to a specific idea, concept, or entity, while "citation" links to an external source, such as a supporting article or publication. These relationships can add context, authority, and relevance to your content, improving how search engines evaluate it.
Schema: Content Structure and Supplemental Content -- with Examples
All of these schema properties -- 'isPartOf,' 'hasPart,' 'mentions,' and 'citation' -- can reference a creative work. This helps define each entity more precisely, giving search engines and AI systems a clearer understanding of the content's depth, intent, and relevance.
Testing indicates that pages with higher relevance, beyond just the minimum, tend to rank better. While some may view this as an anomaly, the consistent performance of such pages suggests a positive correlation between content depth and search engine rankings.