10 Important Elements to Include in Your Website Footer

Website Design

Aug 15

Written By Marni Cleiman

Poor little footer.

It’s so often neglected, forgotten and treated like it doesn’t matter.

But actually, it’s a really important part of your website.

I know, I know, we always talk about how essential the information “above the fold” is. That is still true. But with the use of mobile devices, website visitors are now much more willing to scroll all the way down the page to your footer.

Your footer could be used as an opportunity to keep your visitors on your website, provide them with information or to get them to do something. What you choose to do with it really depends on the goals of you site.

Here are a few ideas on what you could include:

1 - Navigation Links

So, your visitor has come to the end of the page, but hasn’t found the info that they needed. Do they click off your site or do they click one of the links found in your footer?

Navigation links are one of my favourite things to include in the footer. You can include just your main or most important pages, create a visual site map of all (or most) of your pages or do some sort of combination.

Your footer can be a great place to add some of your secondary pages, keeping only the most important pages in your main or header navigation. This keeps your main navigation clean, organized and easy to use, but makes your other links easy to find.

2 - Your Logo

The footer is a great place to reinforce your branding including your brand colours and your logo. If you find that your main logo is too big for the footer, you may need to use a secondary or simplified logo.

3 - Copyright Notice and Other Legal Stuff

All websites have some legal stuff that they need display, and the footer is a great place for that.

This includes the copyright notice, the © or word copyright with the date and your name or company name. This is a statement helps to protect you from plagiarism.

If you are collecting names and email addresses on your website you will also need a link to your privacy policy. You may need a link to a terms and conditions page as well.

4 - Contact Information

Make sure that it’s easy for visitors to get in touch by adding contact information to the footer. You do this by adding a link to your contact page, adding a phone number or even a small contact form.

If you are a brick and mortar store you may also want to add in your hours and location.

5 - Social Media Icons

Social media is another great way to connect with your users, so you definitely want social icons on your website.

But, you need to make sure that you put those icons in a place that doesn’t lead your visitors away from your website.

That’s why I generally choose the footer instead of the header to add social media icons. That way visitors have a chance to scroll through your site before they can move to your socials.

Big Instagram user?

You could add an Instagram feed to your footer showing off your latest posts.

6 – Search Bar

Your visitor read through your page and looked at the links in your footer, but they still didn’t find what they needed. How can you help? By adding a search bar to your footer.

7 – Information about Your Business

I know that a lot of my visitors – particularly those that come from search engines land on other pages besides my home page. The same is probably true for a lot of websites.

So how do you quickly let those visitors know what your business is all about?

You can add a little blurb about your business to your footer. You could also add a statement about your mission or values. Just make sure to add in your keywords (but don’t overstuff) to help your SEO.

8 – Email Sign Up Forms

Are you looking for subscribers for that freebie or a newsletter? Having a sign up form on every page gives your visitors multiple chances to sign up. And, adding it to your footer means that your visitors have already reviewed some of your website and understand what you have to offer.

9 – Latest from the Blog

If you have an active blog you can show it off in the footer by adding links to your latest posts. You could also show selected “Featured” posts here to show your most popular content.

To do this in Squarespace, simply use a Summary Block with list view.

10 – Call to Action

Last, but certainly not least, you can add a call to action in your footer. This is your final chance to tell your website visitors how they can take that next step.

Marni Cleiman

Marni is a Canadian web designer based in Burlington, Ontario (Greater Toronto Area). She specializes in creating Squarespace websites for serviced based small businesses & creative entrepreneurs. She works one on one with her clients, creating websites that are not only strategic, beautiful and professional, but also easy to use and maintain.