Easy Tips for an Awesome Website Footer & why it's Important
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I look at a lot of websites and one thing that is often underutilized is the website footer. Although the footer is at the bottom of your website, it is one of the hardest working sections of your site because it shows on every page and is highly likely to be seen. It also helps capture the attention of your viewer if they haven’t found what they are looking for to keep them on your website rather than clicking away.
Since your footer is highly visible on your website, you really want to make the most of that space to keep your viewer hanging around and ensure they always find what they are after. I’m here to help with that! Here’s a sneak peek at my website footer:
What to include in your Website Footer
To maximize your footer space, there are some common features you want to include so that you can really make it stand out:
Logo: This one of the biggest design elements for your brand and will reminder your viewer of who you are. Depending on the space you have, you might use an alternate logo in a different shape such as square or circle if it better fits. This will also add some visual interest to the footer rather than just text
Important Navigation Links: If your viewer hasn’t been able to find what they are after on your website, they will likely check out your footer links, so you want to include any important links on your website, such as Home, About and Contact. If you have simplified your main navigation to just a few key items (which is a good idea to do!), you can include any other relevant links here instead so that you aren’t cluttering up the top of your website
Contact Details: If you are an online business, this may just be a link to your contact page, but if you have a set location, it is a good idea to include the address, your phone number and your business hours. You could even include a map to make it super easy for your viewer to find you. This saves you cluttering up the rest of your website and the information is automatically on every page
Social Media Links: Making these easy to access will mean that someone is more likely to click over to one of your accounts and follow you. You want to skip these elsewhere on your page though, since you don’t want your viewer leaving your website too soon, as they likely won’t go back to it after
Your Instagram Feed: Including your Instagram feed in your footer will make your website come to life! If lets your viewers see who you are and what you do visually, and they are more likely to click through to follow you, which is a great way to keep in touch with them. Added bonus, it looks great! I shared how you can do this in Squarespace here. Just keep in mind that you only want to include your Instagram feed if you are regularly active on Instagram and share good quality photos or content that reflects your brand
Website Legals: There are a few important legal details that you need to include on your website to protect yourself. As I am not a lawyer, it is a good idea to speak to your lawyer to help set these up, or you can purchase templates from a lawyer as a more budget friendly option. The legal details you don’t want to miss are:
A Copyright Notice – You might write this out as Copyright or use the copyright symbol ©, along with the year current year or range of years your business has been operating and the owner of the copyright
Privacy Policy – This outlines what information you collect on your website, how the information is stored and how it might be used. If you track any sort of analytics on your website, have people submit any sort of form such as a contact form, or if you collect email sign ups, you are required to have this
Website Terms of Use – These are the terms your viewer agrees to when visiting your website. Although these are not required by law, they are highly recommended to protect yourself against people using your information inappropriately
Call to Action: If your viewer made it to the bottom of the page, they must like what they see, so including a call to action such as following you on social media or signing up for your newsletter is a great idea. You always want to leave your viewer with a clear action to take
A Search Bar: If your viewer gets to the bottom of the page and can’t find what they are after, or if they are wanting to find something specific like a blog post, having a search bar will make this super easy for them to locate, making them more likely to hang around
Other ideas for what to include in your Website Footer
Still want to add a little something different? Here are a few more ideas that you could consider that are less commonly used in a website footer and may help you stand out to your viewer:
Social Proof: Your viewer will want to know you are legit before they decide to work with you. Including testimonials or reviews, industry associations, awards you have won or certificates you have earned is a good way to show this
Latest Blog Posts, Podcast Episodes or YouTube Videos: If you share content like this, including it in your footer will let your viewer see your latest offerings and may keep them around longer. It also helps to show you as an expert at what you do and builds trust since they can see you know your topic well
Upcoming Events: If you host regular events, you can display them here so that your viewer can always see what is on. This would work best if you always have something coming up, such as a weekly market
Login Page: Whenever your website has a log in page, such as for staff or clients, you will often see this in the website footer so it is always easy to find on the website
Your Brand Tagline or Mission: This will tell your viewer who you are and what you do no matter what page of your website they land on. For example, if they find your blog post on Pinterest, they may not go to your home page to see this, so including it in your footer lets them know. If you’re not sure what to include in your tagline, this post shows you how to write yours
Some tips to maximize your Website Footer
Now you know what to include in your footer, here are a few design tips to make things easy to find and ensure your footer stands out and looks beautiful and professional!
Keep the design simple. You will likely have a lot of information to include, so using white space will help to prevent things from looking cluttered or confusing
Organize the information in categories if possible, such as all contact details together and all social media links in the one place. You can make use of columns with a category heading at the top if needed. If something doesn’t fit well with one of your categories, think about whether it is really necessary to include it, since you don’t want to go overboard. Your viewer will have an easier time finding what they need and you’ll be more likely to keep them around
Color can help break up your footer to make it easier to navigate. Most Squarespace templates will have a footer section and prefooter section that you can style with different colors to break up the space and make it easier to navigate
Make sure your footer is easy to read. This can be done using contrasting font colors, larger font sizes and simple serif or san serif fonts rather than fancy fonts
Logos and graphic elements added to your footer can add a lot of visual interest here, especially when it’s a text heavy area. One way to easily make use of this is to use social media icons rather than text links
Your design should flow with the rest of your website, since it’s part of a whole and shouldn’t look like an afterthought. This means using consistent colors, fonts, styles and graphics to the rest of your website
Each element should have a clear purpose, such as to give information to your viewer, direct them to elsewhere on your website, or encourage them to join your email list. This isn’t the best space to add something just to look good since it can often cause things to look too cluttered
If you are using Squarespace, delete the “Powered by Squarespace” note in your footer to make sure your website is branded to your business only
Your website footer is an important part of your website design and deserves more attention than it gets. It holds a lot of important information and helps your viewer easily navigate your website, so if your haven’t updated your website footer in awhile, now may be a good time to check if there is any way you can make it work harder for you!
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