Source: http://www.polepositionmarketing.com/emp/breadcrumbs-and-urls/
You have noticed a lot of changes lately from Google’s search results. First was the addition and removal of authorship photos followed by the redesign of the search results page by removing the underline from the title. Google continues to improve their search engine by small tweaks to reduce clutter and more intuitive for users.
Benefits of breadcrumbs
April of this year, Google announced that they will be making two changes:
1. Real-world name of the website would be used instead of the domain name.
2. URL structure would be in breadcrumb format.
Google doesn’t really use the breadcrumb placed on the website, instead it uses the hierarchical URL structure of the website itself. This change puts more emphasis on user navigation experience and to better present the page to the readers. Keep in mind that a well-structured URL can help users understand your website better.
Is it safe to assume that using breadcrumbs on your site will instantly improve rankings? No, but having a good URL structure is considered a strong signal of a quality website. Make your pages a few clicks away from your main page. From an SEO standpoint, a shallow website, or one that requires few clicks to be able to reach a page is better than a deep website which requires more clicks to reach a page.