Unable to click on a link - selenium-webdriver

Question

I have been trying to click on a link in my application at work , but the control failed to click on the link whichever locator I used. I test all the locators with Selenium IDE and javascript before using them in the script and it all seem fine prior to running the test. I manage to identify and click on the link with this:
#FindBy(css ="/html/body/div[4]/div/div/div[2]/div[1]/a/strong") but I ran the test the second time but it failed to click on the link same.
See below the html code:
<div class="container container-outer">
<div class="row-fluid long-text-fitted content-container" id="page-content-container">
<div class="span12">
<div class="row-fluid container-alert">
</div>
<div class="left-side-spacer-layout right-side-spacer-layout" id="page-content">
<div class="button-spacer" id="breadcrumb-content">
<a href="/shopping/marketplace/landingPage">
<strong>< Back to Search Results</strong>
</a>

Answer 1

You should click on parameter. remove strong attribute.
/#FindBy(css ="/html/body/div[4]/div/div/div[2]/div[1]/a")

Answer 2

I would avoid using XPath in general and especially an XPath that starts at the HTML tag. That makes the test very fragile. I would suggest a CSS selector like the below.
driver.findElement(By.cssSelector("#breadcrumb-content > a")).click();
The CSS selector reads find an A tag that is a child (>) of an element with an ID (#) of breadcrumb-content.
Read more about CSS Selectors.

Answer 3

Using absolute Xpath is not a good idea. As you said it is working for the first time then possible your DOM strcture is changing after click it once
You can try with below xpath:
driver.findElement(By.xpath("//strong[contains(.,'< Back to Search Results')]")).click();
If still not working, you should try to click using JavascriptExecutor as it directly working on HTML DOM. Feel free to locate element in below code according to your convenience:
WebElement element=driver.findElement(By.xpath("//strong[contains(.,'< Back to Search Results')]"));
JavascriptExecutor executor = (JavascriptExecutor) driver;
executor.executeScript("arguments[0].click();", element);