What To Include In Your Footer

Look at your site footer as an opportunity. So design it in a way that can help your visitors navigate your pages quickly. It should also meet the goals of your company. Its role should be similar to all the parts of your site.

With that in mind, here are the things that can improve your footer to increase conversions and provide better UX.

Copyright

Copyright information is what any footer needs, no questions asked. It’s the easiest element you can include to protect your site and its content from plagiarism. And with a little coding, the year will update automatically.

Sitemap

This contains the list of your site pages. The footer usually contains your sitemap’s HTML version. And although users seldom use it, it’ll aid search engines like Google to locate and index your pages or URLs easily like the XML sitemap.

Privacy Policy

The privacy policy page is another common component in almost all footer designs. It typically details the policy of your website about information such as what is collected, how it’s stored, and how it may be used.

Some sites include it because the law requires a privacy policy page. On the other hand, some web designers consider it for email signups and form submissions, as well as tracking analytics and remarketing.

Terms of Use

Terms of Use is a bit different to a privacy policy page. It’s similar to a disclaimer which explains what your visitors are agreeing to when visiting your website.

Contact Information

The contact details on your footer will typically include a way for your visitors to get in touch with you, such as an email address and phone numbers. Additionally, it may also contain the location or address of your business and a map or a link to it. These factors will also have a massive impact on your local SEO.

Social Media Icons

In a world where social media is taking over our lives, it’s foolish not to include links to your social media accounts in your footer. This is especially true if your business is very active on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Also, putting your social icons at the lower part of your site will ensure that it will not distract your visitors from the content of your pages.

Email or Newsletter Signup

According to studies, about 24% of high-ranking marketing sites put a newsletter or email signup form in their footer. So don’t just place it on the header or as a popup. Generally, the more areas you can remind your visitors about how they can continue interacting with your business, the better. However, make sure not to go overboard.

A Call-to-Action or CTA

YCTAs direct your website visitors to take a particular action once they land on your web page. Depending on your niche, you may want to include it on all pages. It can either be a link where they can subscribe to a service or in the form of a button.

Site Search

These tools are not as common as signup forms in a site footer. Nonetheless, some sites choose to include the element at the bottom part of their page to make things even more convenient and easy for their visitors.

Navigation Links

Some users will not spend a lot of time on a page. If they don’t find what they’re looking for, they’ll scroll down to your site’s footer. This is a chance where you can use the footer to provide your audience with added options like navigation.

Some websites have a fat footer, which is a footer packed with content. Some even involve a mega menu dropdown, which contains almost every link or piece of content you’d see in a header dropdown menu.

Do’s And Don’ts Of A Professional Site Footer Design

So now that you already have an idea of what elements you need to include on your footer, here are some extra tips to make your footer design even more powerful:

• Mobile optimization.
  Design each element of your site with the mobile-first initiative of Google in mind. Mobile users typically scroll down to your site’s bottom part. As your footer receives more exposure from mobile users, it’s vital to make its design and layout optimized for mobile.
• Space.
  Ensure it has enough space so that it won’t look cluttered.
• Columns for related links.
  Design columns with related links. Categorize it by giving every section a title. Not only will it make your site easy to navigate, but it’ll also improve user experience.
• Color contrast.
  Make your footer text as readable as possible. Also, ensure that its color and your website’s overall theme go well together.
• Appropriate navigation.
  Incorporate your site with just the right amount of navigation. UX should always be your main priority and focus. If your site footer has plenty of information, consider including collapsible sub-footers. The key here is proper information hierarchy.

Bonus: Get An Exclusive Footer Layout Pack for Divi

We often overlook footer in terms of web design. We often think that since it’s at the bottom part of the page people do not pay too much attention to it. However, it’s just as important as the rest of your website.

So to help you craft a beautiful and professional-looking footer, we’re giving a new Footer Layout Pack for Divi, which you can download for free. It includes 10 professionally designed footer layouts that are easy to incorporate on your Divi site. They also have all the features your company needs to help it grow, as well as boost its online presence.