Fix Breadcrumbs markup in Joomla 3

If you have recently received a message from Google Search Console Team stating that you need to Fix Breadcrumbs markup in your Joomla, here you'll get instructions on how to download, install, test and validate the fix for breadcrumbs markup issue.

Update: version 1.1 - see the changelog, or ↓ download updated files

The issue with breadcrumbs in Joomla 3 and how to fix it

The issue reported by GSC (Google Search Console) says that unless you fix the problems with the breadcrumbs, your Breadcrumbs pages might not appear as rich results in Google Search.

The original Joomla 3.9.11 breadcrumbs file does not support Google's guidelines correctly and has to be updated in order to fix the issues in your Google Search Console:

Download 

We provide two versions of the files for you to use. 

1. (recommended) Correct semantic HTML with <nav> element and aria-current="page" for better accessibility

The recommended one is version with the semantic HTML ,<nav> element instead of the <div> and with accessible support (aria-current="page" added to the last element in breadcrumb).

↓ Download: Breadcrumbs module fix (Google + HTML semantic element / WCAG) (1.84 kB 2019-09-23 22:59:51) (Unzip first)

2. Regular version (based on the original Joomla 3.9.11 breadcrumb file)

The second version is based on the current core breadcrumb file from Joomla 3.9.11 (use this one in case the first one does not work well with your template, for example, if the styling of the breadcrumb is different.)

↓ Download: Breadcrumbs module fix (Google) (1.81 kB 2019-09-23 23:02:42) (Unzip first)

Step by step instructions on how to update, test and validate breadcrumbs issue

1. Download one of the files
   
2. place it in your template folder under templates/yourtemplatename/html/mod_breadcrumbs/default.php using your favorite FTP client.
   notice: if there's no /mod_breadcrumbs/ folder in your template - just create it and put the default.php file there
3. Open GSC and enter the website property you're updating, and navigate to the Breadcrumbs section (under Enhancement menu in the left sidebar)
4. click the error information that says "Missing field "item"
5. choose one of the links that are visible there on the list and click the magnifying glass icon to see the details
6. do the "Live test" to verify all works fine
   
7. if the Live test went ok you can navigate back to the "breadcrumbs" section in GSC and click the "Validate fix" button

Here's the video presenting points 3-6 to validate the fix from our file. Be sure to first load the default.php file to your template's folder as explained in point 2 above.

Notice: We have successfully tested this solution to multiple instances of Joomla (so did our users, as you can see in the comments section below). However, we cannot guarantee that it will work everywhere. We strongly advise you to first test the solution on one of the links as mentioned below in the list (points 3 - 6, for this points we have also prepared the video that you can follow to check the results) and only if the site works and looks ok and GSC after the Live Test is happy (green) you can Validate the fix. If you have any issues or questions, please leave them in the comments section below or contact us directly.

Changelog:

ver.1.1 - fixed issue with the last item linked to the domain root

ver.1.0 - first release

Please let us know in the comments if it works fine for you. If you'll have issues, we'll try to fix them.