Schema & Breadcrumbs

Schema & Breadcrumbs helps you add visual breadcrumbs and structured data (JSON-LD schema) to your Shopify store without maintaining custom code by hand. The app supports both simple breadcrumb generation from your store navigation and more advanced, generated breadcrumb paths for stores that need tighter control.

In most Online Store 2.0 themes, setup is handled through theme app blocks and app embeds. For older legacy themes, some manual setup may still be required.

Table of contents

What the app does

The app focuses on two core areas:

1) Breadcrumb navigation

  • Displays breadcrumb trails on storefront pages.
  • Uses your Shopify navigation as the source of truth.
  • Lets you exclude specific navigation items from breadcrumb generation.
  • Supports manual overrides for specific products and collections.
  • Supports advanced generated paths for stores that need consistent product and collection breadcrumbs.

2) Structured data (schema markup)

  • Adds JSON-LD schema to help search engines understand your store content.
  • Supports breadcrumb schema.
  • Supports website and organization schema.
  • Supports product, collection, blog, and article-related schema output where applicable.
  • Supports FAQ schema when you add matching questions and answers inside the app.

Correct schema improves eligibility for rich results, but search engines decide whether to show them. Valid markup helps; it does not guarantee enhanced search appearance.

Plans and feature differences

Feature Standard plan Advanced plan
Navigation-based breadcrumbs for all supported resources Yes Yes
Theme app blocks and schema app embed Yes Yes
Navigation Rules (choose source menu, include/exclude links) Yes Yes
FAQ schema management Yes Yes
Advanced generated breadcrumbs for products and collections No Yes
Path selection priorities No Yes
Winning path preview tool No Yes
Generate / regenerate / remove generated breadcrumb output No Yes

Important: Navigation Rules are shared across the app. Even on the Advanced plan, the source menu and excluded links still begin on the Navigation Rules page.

Quick start

Online Store 2.0 themes

  1. Install the app and open the Dashboard.
  2. Open Navigation Rules and choose the Shopify menu you want to use as the breadcrumb source.
  3. Exclude any links you do not want to appear in breadcrumbs.
  4. In the Dashboard, use the theme shortcuts to open the correct template in the Shopify theme editor.
  5. Add the Schema & Breadcrumbs app block to the template where you want breadcrumbs to appear.
  6. Open Theme settings > App embeds and enable the structured data app embed.
  7. Optionally customize the block settings such as separator, casing, visibility, and styling.

Legacy themes

Legacy themes do not support the same theme app extension workflow as Online Store 2.0 themes. If your store is using a legacy theme, the app dashboard provides guidance and you may need manual setup. If you do not want to edit theme code yourself, contact support and we can help.

Dashboard overview

The Dashboard is the fastest way to understand your store setup status.

  • Breadcrumb setup shows your source menu, whether Advanced Breadcrumbs is enabled, and the current sync state.
  • Store readiness shows whether the theme integration and structured data setup are active.
  • Add Breadcrumbs to your Theme links directly to product, collection, article, blog, and page templates in the theme editor.
  • Toggle Structured Data for your Theme opens the area where the schema app embed can be enabled or configured.
  • Test structured data opens Google Rich Results Test and Schema Validator using a storefront URL you provide.

If you are unsure where to begin, start with the Dashboard, then move to Navigation Rules, then Advanced Breadcrumbs if your store uses the Advanced plan.

Navigation Rules is the shared source of truth for automatic breadcrumbs. This page is available on every plan.

What you do on this page

  • Select the Shopify menu that should define the breadcrumb structure.
  • Review the entire menu tree.
  • Include or exclude specific links from automatic breadcrumb generation.
  • Save changes or discard them before leaving the page.

What these rules affect

  • Shop-level fallback breadcrumbs.
  • Automatic breadcrumb logic for supported storefront resources.
  • Advanced generated breadcrumbs, if you are using the Advanced plan.

How exclusions work

Excluding a link removes it from the automatic breadcrumb source tree. This is useful if your navigation includes links that should not appear inside breadcrumb paths, such as campaign pages, duplicate category paths, or temporary links.

When to update Navigation Rules

  • When you switch to a different main menu.
  • When your navigation contains paths that should not influence breadcrumbs.
  • When you want both simple and advanced generation to start from a cleaner menu structure.

Advanced Breadcrumbs

Advanced Breadcrumbs is the Advanced-plan feature for stores that need more consistent breadcrumb paths, especially for products or collections that can be reached through multiple collection branches.

What Advanced Breadcrumbs adds

  • Generated breadcrumb output for products and collections.
  • A Path selection interface for setting collection tie-break priorities.
  • A Preview winning path tool for products.
  • Buttons to generate, regenerate, or remove generated output.
  • Background processing, so large rebuilds do not block the app UI.

How path selection works

Advanced Breadcrumbs still uses your Navigation Rules source tree. It does not replace that tree; it applies an additional decision layer when multiple matching paths exist.

  1. The app checks all matching collection-based paths for a resource.
  2. Longer paths win first.
  3. If two paths have the same depth, the app uses tie-break priorities on collection links.
  4. Higher numbers win.
  5. Blank values use automatic ordering.

Important rule

Tie-break priorities only matter when two matching paths are the same depth. They do not override a clearly deeper breadcrumb path.

Example

If a product can be reached through:

  • Home > Men > Shoes > Running
  • Home > Sale > Running

The first path wins automatically because it is deeper. Priority values only matter if two candidate paths have the same number of levels.

Generate, regenerate, and remove

  • Generate creates the first set of advanced breadcrumb records.
  • Regenerate rebuilds generated output using the latest saved rules and priorities.
  • Remove deletes generated product and collection breadcrumb output.

Preview winning path

The preview tool accepts either:

  • a product handle, or
  • a full storefront product URL

The result shows:

  • all candidate paths found for the product,
  • which path currently wins,
  • the winning depth,
  • the tie-break vector, and
  • the reason the path was selected.

How generated output stays up to date

When you save Navigation Rules or Advanced Breadcrumb settings, the app can schedule a rebuild in the background. The app also updates generated output for relevant product and collection changes.

If you make major structural changes to your menu, it is still good practice to review the result and run a regeneration if needed.

Manual breadcrumb overrides

In addition to automatic and advanced generation, the app also supports manual resource-level overrides for individual products and collections.

Where to find them

  • On product admin pages, use the Create Custom Breadcrumbs action.
  • On collection admin pages, use the Create Custom Breadcrumbs action.

What you can do

  • Add collections to the breadcrumb path.
  • Add pages to the breadcrumb path.
  • Reorder breadcrumb items.
  • Save a manual path for that specific resource.
  • Delete the override and return to automatic behavior.

When to use manual overrides

  • A flagship product needs a very specific breadcrumb path.
  • A collection belongs in a custom curated hierarchy.
  • Your navigation structure cannot represent a one-off merchandising need.

Manual overrides take precedence for the resource they are attached to.

Structured data

The app can add structured data to help search engines interpret your content more accurately. Depending on the page type and theme setup, the app can output schema such as:

  • BreadcrumbList
  • WebSite
  • Organization
  • Product / ProductGroup
  • Collection
  • Blog
  • BlogPosting
  • FAQPage (when configured)

Theme app blocks

Breadcrumb blocks are available for the following template types:

  • Product
  • Collection
  • Article
  • Blog
  • Page

Schema app embed

Structured data is managed through the app embed in your theme settings. In most Online Store 2.0 themes, you can:

  1. Open the theme editor.
  2. Go to Theme settings.
  3. Open App embeds.
  4. Enable the structured data embed.
  5. Optionally configure logo and related settings where supported.

Visual breadcrumbs vs schema markup

Breadcrumbs and schema markup are related, but not identical:

  • Visual breadcrumbs help customers move through your storefront.
  • Schema markup helps search engines understand the structure of the page.

Depending on the block settings, you can keep schema output active even if you decide not to show the visual breadcrumb trail.

FAQ schema

The app includes a dedicated FAQ schema page where you can store question-and-answer pairs for your storefront FAQ page.

How it works

  • Add each question exactly as it appears on the storefront.
  • Add the matching full answer exactly as it appears on the storefront.
  • Save the entry inside the app.
  • Remove outdated questions when your FAQ page changes.

Best practices

  • Only mark up content that is actually visible to customers.
  • Do not use FAQ schema for promotional or misleading content.
  • Keep the app content in sync with the published FAQ page.

If the visible FAQ content changes, update the app as well. Mismatched FAQ schema can cause warnings or invalid markup.

Testing and validation

The Dashboard includes a built-in testing card where you can paste any storefront URL and open:

  • Google Rich Results Test
  • Schema Validator

Recommended validation flow

  1. Set up your breadcrumb block and schema embed.
  2. Open a live product, collection, article, blog, or page URL.
  3. Paste that URL into the app’s testing card.
  4. Run both validators.
  5. Fix content mismatches or theme setup issues if warnings appear.

Validate after major menu changes, after changing breadcrumb rules, and after enabling Advanced Breadcrumbs.

Legacy themes

Stores using legacy themes have a different setup path from Online Store 2.0 themes. Theme app blocks and embeds are not available in the same way, so manual installation may still be necessary.

  • The app dashboard shows legacy-specific guidance when a legacy theme is detected.
  • Breadcrumb code may need to be inserted manually in older themes.
  • If you are migrating from a legacy theme to an Online Store 2.0 theme, review the setup again after switching themes.

If you are unsure whether your theme is legacy or 2.0, open the app Dashboard first. The app will show the current setup state there.

Support and troubleshooting

Common questions

Breadcrumbs are not visible on the storefront

  • Make sure the breadcrumb block was added to the correct template.
  • Check whether the block is hidden in theme settings.
  • Confirm the relevant menu items are not excluded in Navigation Rules.
  • For Advanced Breadcrumbs, confirm generated output exists and is current.

Structured data is not showing in validators

  • Confirm the schema app embed is enabled.
  • Test a live storefront URL, not an admin preview URL.
  • Make sure the page type is supported by the current theme setup.

Advanced breadcrumbs is not using the path I expected

  • Check the source menu in Navigation Rules.
  • Check excluded links in Navigation Rules.
  • Use the Preview winning path tool.
  • Remember that deeper paths win before tie-break priority is considered.

Menu changes are not reflected immediately

  • Save your Navigation Rules changes.
  • If you use Advanced Breadcrumbs, regenerate output if needed.
  • Wait for background jobs to complete on larger stores.

FAQ schema warnings appear

  • Make sure the app content exactly matches the storefront FAQ page.
  • Remove old questions that are no longer visible on the page.
  • Do not add promotional questions just for schema purposes.

Need help?

If you need help with setup, migration, theme compatibility, or unusual breadcrumb logic, use the in-app Contact support page.

To speed up support, include:

  • Your store URL
  • The affected page URL
  • The breadcrumb path you expected to see
  • The breadcrumb path you actually saw
  • Screenshots if the issue is visual

You can also keep these support links on the page:

Summary

If you want a simple setup, start with Navigation Rules and add the theme block plus schema embed. If your catalog needs more precise control, use Advanced Breadcrumbs to generate product and collection paths, preview path decisions, and apply tie-break priorities where needed.