We are designing a responsive site and I was wondering if we need to use breadcrumbs for mobile version.
I did some research and most of big brands don't use breadcrumbs on their mobile site but I heard that we need to include them it to SEO purpose. Is this true? If it's true then how come Ferragamo, Shopbop, Amazon, and etc are not using it?
The only reason to do it for SEO purposes is to increase the number of web pages. That's a bad UX reason, and that's typically why big brands avoid it.
Then again, big brands have SEO handled. So many don't need to worry about it.
Breadcrumbs are usually there, just not in the traditional sense.
For instance, Facebook has a breadcrumb when you use the search on mobile and even on desktop. The search is pre-filled, even after pressing a result. This allows the user to understand where he is and if the result isn't what they are looking for, they can back track.
Breadcrumbs are really good to help the user navigate easily when the browser's input isn't there or not easily accessible. Ideally, you would want your user to have ease of navigation without the use of manipulating the browser's URL.
