How to update your BreadcrumbList schema – 2022

A few years ago, Google deprecated the old vocabulary-data breadcrumb list schema and replaced it with the official Schema.org BreadcrumbList one.

Structured data schemas such as schema.org and data-vocabulary.org are used to define shared meaningful structures for markup-based applications on the Web. With the increasing usage and popularity of schema.org, we decided to focus our development on a single SD scheme. As of April 6, 2020, data-vocabulary.org markup will no longer be eligible for Google rich result features.
Google Webmaster Central Blog

Now, the new schema is live. If you are getting warnings when checking for breadcrumbs rich results or via your Google Search Console, here’s what you need to do:

Old schema (before):

<p>
    <span itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Breadcrumb">
        <a href="https://www.example.com/" itemprop="url"><small itemprop="title">Home</small></a>
    </span> &raquo;
    <span itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Breadcrumb">
        <a href="https://www.example.com/about/" itemprop="url"><small itemprop="title">About</small></a>
    </span> &raquo;
    <span itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Breadcrumb">
        <a href="https://www.example.com/contact/" itemprop="url"><small itemprop="title">Contact</small></a>
    </span>
</p>

New schema (after):

<ol itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/BreadcrumbList">
    <li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ListItem">
        <a href="https://www.example.com" itemprop="item"><span itemprop="name">Home</span></a>
        <meta itemprop="position" content="1">
    </li>
    <li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ListItem">
        <a href="https://www.example.com/about/" itemprop="item"><span itemprop="name">About</span></a>
        <meta itemprop="position" content="2">
    </li>
    <li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ListItem">
        <a href="https://www.example.com/contact/" itemprop="item"><span itemprop="name">Contact</span></a>
        <meta itemprop="position" content="3">
    </li>
</ol>

Note the more structured architecture, allowing for a parent element, no more rogue separators – use CSS for that – and a new numbering sequence.