I have tested the Schema.org breadcrumb
example with Google Rich Snippets testing tool.
<div itemprop="breadcrumb">
<a href="category/books.html">Books</a> >
<a href="category/books-literature.html">Literature & Fiction</a> >
<a href="category/books-classics">Classics</a>
</div>
The result is that it is not recognized by the tool.
So, is there a bug or is there a syntax problem? If so, what is the correct syntax?
Your question is a bit the same with this one How to implement schema.org markup for a breadcrumb?
According to Google Webmaster Central Help Forum, it is not recommended by experts to use the schema.org breadcrumb markup for the time being,it's seems that "there is some sort of glitch in the schema.org breadcrumb structure".
Instead, it is exhorted to use the data-vocabulary.org breadcrumb markup, which Google and the other search engines can easily read as well.
A data-vocabulary.org Breadcrumb markup example:
<div>
<span itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Breadcrumb">
<a href="http://www.example.com/" itemprop="url">
<span itemprop="title">example</span>
</a> >
</span>
<span itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Breadcrumb">
<a href="http://www.example.com/fashion/" itemprop="url">
<span itemprop="title">Fashion</span>
</a> >
</span>
<span itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Breadcrumb">
<a href="http://www.example.com/fashion/women/" itemprop="url">
<span itemprop="title">Women</span>
</a> >
</span>
<span itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Breadcrumb">
<a href="http://www.example.com/fashion/women/boots/" itemprop="url">
<span itemprop="title">Boots</span>
</a>
</span>
</div>
You may use the microdata markup for breadcrumb as suggested in this Google link
It will surely reflect in Google Rich Snippets testing tool.
Do you have a container element with itemtype="http://schema.org/WebPage"
? See the example at http://schema.org/WebPage.
You could also see the question How to implement schema.org markup for a breadcrumb?
WebPage or MedicalWebPage should be set on the page as itemtype.
You can actually start using schema.org based Breadcrumb markup now. Google is supporting it and it's good. You can choose your format JSON-LD (preferable), RDFa, microdata. And another good thing is that you can define multiple breadcrumbs if your products need it, which will usually be the case.
With Microdata support, you can do this:
<ol itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BreadcrumbList">
<li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ListItem">
<a itemprop="item" href="https://www.yoursite.com">
<span itemprop="name">Home</span></a>
<meta itemprop="position" content="1" />
</li>
›
<li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ListItem">
<a itemprop="item" href="https://www.yoursie.com/category/books.html">
<span itemprop="name">Books</span></a>
<meta itemprop="position" content="2" />
</li>
›
<li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ListItem">
<a itemprop="item" href="https://www.yoursie.com/category/books-literature.html">
<span itemprop="name">Literature & Fiction</span></a>
<meta itemprop="position" content="3" />
</li>
›
<li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ListItem">
<a itemprop="item" href="https://www.yoursie.com/category/books-classics.html">
<span itemprop="name">Classics</span></a>
<meta itemprop="position" content="4" />
</li>
</ol>
Note the usage of position values and it's advised to use ordered list ('ol').
After you do this, you can ask google to show your site name instead of the 'Home' that's at position #1. For achieving that, use this on your homepage:
<head itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/WebSite">
<title itemprop='name'>Your Site Name</title>
<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.yoursite.com" itemprop="url">
For anything, refer here: https://developers.google.com/structured-data