How to add BreadcrumbList schema (without duplicating it)

AI Search Score checks for BreadcrumbList schema, which describes where a page sits in your site’s hierarchy.

Why this matters

Breadcrumbs tell engines and agents how your content is organised — which pages are parents, which are children. That structure helps AI understand context and relationships between pages, and breadcrumb trails can appear in search results. For a content silo, they’re what ties a cluster together.

How to fix it

Most good themes and SEO plugins generate BreadcrumbList schema automatically from your page hierarchy — so the usual fix is simply to enable it, not hand-write it. Check your theme’s breadcrumb option or your SEO plugin’s breadcrumb setting.

The important rule: only ONE source should emit breadcrumb schema. If your theme and your SEO plugin both output it, you get duplicates. Pick one, disable the other.

If you do need to add it manually:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
  "itemListElement": [
    { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://example.com/" },
    { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Section", "item": "https://example.com/section/" },
    { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "This Page", "item": "https://example.com/section/this-page/" }
  ]
}
</script>

How to check it worked

Re-scan. “BreadcrumbList present” should turn green. View source and confirm there’s only one BreadcrumbList block — if two, disable one source.

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