Since the website’s footer is the last element a website’s visitors will find, its potentials often remain untapped, as it’s often thought that few people scroll so far down the page. Situated at the bottom of nearly all professional sites, footers have exceptional importance for website ROI. According to a Chartbeat study that checked over 25 million website visits and tracked users’ habits, it was revealed that the users scroll down thousands of pixels. There is no page too long, nor footer too far.
How is “scroll depth” measured?
There are multiple tools you can use in order to track the habits of your website visitors and see how far they scroll down a given page. Some handy tools that can track “scroll depth” are Google Analytics (the free WordPress plugin) and Crazy Egg. If you want to measure the scroll depth for an eCommerce store, then start using MonsterInsight. It enables Google Analytics tracking in WooCommerce.
How Should a Website Footer be Organized?
There’s are a good few pieces of information you should link to in your site’s footer. Here, our web design agency in Chicago presents to you 27 ideas on how to organize and design your footer in order to enhance its performance, ease the search process for your visitors, and create an overall better user experience.
1. Copyright
Although it provides somewhat shallow protection from plagiarism, it does still successfully ward off a significant amount of attempts. Look at this element like a constituent piece of your website. Just make sure to set the code so the years in the Copyright text will change automatically.
2. Sitemap
This is the one of the most common links found in footers. It sends you to the website’s HTML version upon your click. Do the visitors click on the sitemap? They usually don’t, but the sitemap is a pivotal indicator for search engines when they search and go through their ranking process. It’ll effectively help boost your ranking.
3. Privacy Policy
Assuring your visitors of their privacy is a big plus, as building trust in a digital space can be quite difficult. Using the footer to plant your Privacy Policy is a solid way to ease any apprehensions your visitors may be having.
4. Terms of Use
The terms of use are the expansive documents you often see when you install anything or utilize any piece of software. You know – the ones that ask you to agree, otherwise it’s a no-go? Websites can also feature Terms of Use. When they do, they’ll fit in perfectly down at the footer.
5. Contact
Visitors expect to find your contact information easily. Placing it at the top right side of the header and footer is now considered a web design standard. If you follow it, your users will have an easier time finding the confidence to engage with your site.
Telephone numbers, addresses, and contact forms are all good pieces of information to share, though you can find plenty more depending on your specific niche.
A map link to a relevant address, whether it be your brick and mortar store, or somewhere you’d like to direct your visitors, is also a great way to appease both users and search engine algorithms.
6. Navigation
Footers can be a great help to your visitors when they’re trying to navigate your site. If they’ve gotten to the bottom of your page, then it’s likely they haven’t found what they were seeking.
Usually, the footer contains links that are similar to the navigation dropdown menu in the header. This might be helpful, but if you want to utilize the full potential of the footer links, then go through your Google Analytics report and check the “Site Search Queries” and “Behavior Flow.” This is a way to enhance the internal linking across the website.
Bonus tip: don’t put too many links into the footer. It usually ends up confusing most visitors, which deems any effort you’ve put into designing the footer void.
7. Social Media Icons and Widgets
Social media can be a great way to generate traffic for your site. That’s also true in reverse, in which case you can direct traffic from your site to your social media links. Depending on what your goal is, that can be a positive, or a negative as in some cases you’d rather keep your visitors scrolling your official web page.
Social Media Widgets are also great elements to insert into the footer. They can give your visitors an overview of your new posts right on your web page. This is only beneficial if you are actively utilizing the given social media channel, otherwise, it might just detract from the opinion your visitors develop in regards to your business.
8. Newsletter Sign-Up
Although newsletter sign-ups usually find their place on more significant pages, like product pages and the like, placing a sign-up form in the footer still follows the “best sign-up practices”. It works as a valid form of social proof if you show how many sign-ups are already on board.
Once you’ve got the email addresses all loaded into your lists, it’s time to engage your email marketing strategy (you have one, right?) and get those follow-up emails, thank you notes, and email frequency settings inquiries out. Getting this part right can be a huge way to boost your conversions.
9. Login
Login fields are great both at the header (if your web page visitors are going to be logging in), or at the footer (if your partners and employees need to get in).
10. Press
The Press section on your web page is most commonly aimed at the media. There is no need to use precious space in the header. The footer, or as some might say, the fat footer, is the ideal spot for it.
11. Site Search Tool
Again, if a visitor has scrolled to the content at the very bottom of your page, it’s most probably because he or she hasn’t found what’s being searched for. Providing a search engine optimization field in the footer can remedy any frustrations a visitor may experience while looking for anything specific.
12. Awards and Certifications
Awards and certifications are a kind of social proof. They make it known that you’re valued in your niche, which naturally increases the positive response and confidence of your visitors to your site. Don’t forget that the footer is visible on all the pages of your web page, meaning that all those awards and certifications will be visible on every page.
At the very least you could add security badges if nothing else. These significantly boost the confidence your customers experience when shopping or otherwise utilizing the services of your site.
Lastly, remember to make use of adequate white space and ensure that you include the copyright privacy policy and terms along with the copyright symbol. Placing social icons at the bottom is also a standard practice.
13. Association Members
Being a member of a business associations, chambers of commerce or online directories is also a type of social proof that makes your site’s visitors happy. Those kind of credentials most naturally fit in the footer as that’s where most people would look for them.
14. Testimonials
Since we’re on a social proof wave, we can’t fail to mention testimonials. Having a few happy comments from customers, or even a photo or two is just about the best way to show your digital visitors that others also value the services provided by you.
Another positive of putting testimonials in your footer is the fact that they help you rank better in search engines. Research even suggests that testimonials have a huge influence on closing a sale. Don’t forget that the average consumer reads 10 online reviews before making a final decision.
15. Latest Articles
If you run an active blog with constantly puts out new and relevant content, then get it linked in the footer too. You’ll get more readers, run a better chance of pulling people down your sales funnel and you’ll get a cherry on top – search engine crawlers will love you.
16. Upcoming Events
If you have any upcoming events you’d like people to be aware of, the footer is a good place to leave them as reminders. You likely have a much more active marketing campaign going for them, but the footer is where users naturally go when they’re searching for something like that.
17. Videos
Videos aren’t so standard in the footer, yet there are many business who successfully use them to enhance their website and share information creatively. th
18. Call-to-Action
Placing a call-to-action in the footer of your website is also a good decision in some scenarios. After all, you’ll only get a response if you activate people, so why not keep that CTA visible across all the pages of your site?
19. Logo, Mission, Vision, Value
The footer is an excellent place to present your business by highlighting its core principles. Since it will follow the visitors all the way through their entire journey across your website, reminding them what you have in common is as easy as jotting down a few key bullets that resonate.
20. Keywords
Listing keywords at the footer so as to rank in search engines has been a practice for too long, hence you have to play it safe and dial in only a few, rather than the hundreds of years past. Still, an opportunity to rank is an opportunity to grab when available, and here it definitely is.
How to Design the Website Footer?
Although there are multiple options for designing your website footer, make sure it’s intuitively organized and clearly structured. It should aid in creating a better user experience and providing all the necessary data and links that will serve your visitor and your end goal.
The website footer’s design should be organized in accordance with the type of business you’re running. If you’re an eCommerce brand, then there are links specific for that. If you run a small business in another sector, then the links will follow the utility your visitors will naturally search for. That’s why running some research before designing the footer is more than a good idea.
Choosing a color scheme for your website and website footer is quite important too. It is recommended that the color of the footer differs drastically from the website color scheme.
Many experienced web designers choose colors from the darker palette, essentially transmitting the message that this is the end of the webpage. Appropriately, we also end our own article here. We hope these tips will help you level up your digital presence immensely. Till next time.
