Help visitors see where they are on your website

What this means for your practice

Offer a clear linked path to the page’s wider section and related information. Ask your supplier to use section names visitors recognise, with links to useful pages rather than repeated search phrases.

A practical example

For example, a preparation guide might sit within an appointments section and offer a clear link back to it. Ask your supplier to show the trail on a phone and open each link. Ask a new reader what they expect to find at the parent section. A good result helps someone explore related information without assuming they arrived through your homepage or remember which menu they used.

Keep the linked trail short enough to follow on a phone. Every step should take the person to a useful real page. If the structure needs several nearly identical section names, reconsider the labels with your supplier before adding a trail that explains the site's organisation poorly.

Make this improvement work

Choose a page people commonly reach directly, then ask what context its visitor lacks. A linked trail should explain the useful section relationship and offer a sensible way to explore nearby information. It should not simply repeat every click somebody might have taken from the homepage. Ask the supplier to show the trail on a long service page and an article, including a narrow screen. Check that every parent link has a worthwhile destination. If the site's organisation is unclear, settle that first; a breadcrumb cannot make an arbitrary page structure understandable merely by displaying it at the top.

How to check the result

Track pages without a useful route to their section.