Among the most ignored element of a website often is its footer. How much – if at all – do you as a website owner think about your website’s footer? Assuming your web pages contain valuable information that the visitors like, the footer is the last thing that the visitor sees after going through any page’s content. It is also the last opportunity for you to make the visitor take some action that would benefit you and your business.
It’s not just about what your website footer looks like. It’s also about what it contains and how it can help your website with, SEO and social media engagement with your audience. This article lists the various elements you should consider for inclusion in your website’s footer.
Website Footer Element 1: Site Map
Among the most important elements that you should include in your footer are links to the most important pages in your website. If your website relies on form based navigation, links in the footer could become the primary navigational links for search engines.
Ideally text links, these should, as far as possible contain the keywords most relevant to the linked pages as the linking text. Websites often include links to the most important product/service pages here. Many websites are now using the footer like a mini sitemap, with links to not just products and services but also to other most important pages in the site. If you do not use the footer like a sitemap then you should at least have a link to the HTML sitemap in the footer.
Website Footer Element 2: Content
An interesting new trend is to include a feed of the latest content on the site within the footer. This could be by way of a blog feed, latest tweets, new articles or any other form of content that has recently been added. There are many advantages to this. By placing it in the footer, the content does not dilute the focus of the page and keeps the visitor engaged in the primary content till he/she reaches the footer. Another advantage is that this feed would add fresh content to the page, keeping it constantly changing and alive with new content added frequently. This can only help your SEO because search engines like fresh content on pages in a site.
Website Footer Element 3: Social Media Buttons
The world is becoming increasingly social and websites – business and personal – have to respond to this trend. If you have social media profiles, include links to your social pages in the footer. If you were unable to find a place for social sharing buttons, the footer is a good place to include them. This would allow visitors to share your content on their social pages should they wish to do so. By extension, the footer can help you increase the engagement with your visitors through you and their social media profiles. And with search engines giving more importance to social signals with every change to their algorithms, this will also help your website’s SEO.
Website Footer Element 4: Call to action
Once visitors go through a page’s content, they are often at the end of the page, where the footer is. If a website misses the opportunity to guide the visitor at this stage, they may just end up losing the visitor. Whether you need sign-ups, transactions, or inquiries, the footer is a final chance for you to make visitors do what you would want from them. Place your call to action buttons and/or inquiry form prominently in the footer to maximize conversions from the pages in your site.
Website Footer Element 5: Credibility
Often, when a visitor is at the end of a page, he/she may be unsure of what they want to do next. Having your social buttons and call to action in the footer is good, but the footer is also a good place to build confidence and to reassure the visitor. BBB Accreditation, Safety Certification, membership to industry bodies, accolades, awards and recognition go a long way in building your website’s credibility. Including these in the footer may contribute towards converting the borderline visitors to your website.
Website Footer Element 6: Contact Information
Yet another important element that also goes a long way in building credibility is contact information. Having contact information in the footer by way of an address and/or phone/fax number establishes that there is a real business behind the website. The reassurance of being able to talk to a human being in case of problems is more reassuring for visitors that you would normally expect.
Website Footer Element 7: Legal Information
Of course, the legal information should not be ignored and should also be a part of a good footer. Privacy policy, disclaimer, legal declaration, copyright information are all important elements of this section of the footer.
Value of Professional Web Design
As you can see there is more to a website’s footer than just legal information. The same applies to almost all elements of your website. For a website to be truly successful, just aesthetics are not enough. A scientific and professional approach to building your website may cost a little more, but the chances of getting a website that engages with your audience and delivers results far outweigh the possible additional cost. Flying Cow Design has a track record of over 20 years of professional web design. What differentiates us from most web design companies is that our focus is not only on web design, but on building a strong online presence for our clients. Understanding the changing search engine guidelines and being proficient in SEO has helped us build a strong web presence for many of our clients through a combination of our web design and internet marketing services. To see how we can help you build a strong web presence, write to us today!
CEO, Flying Cow Design
Attended University of Auckland
Lives in San Francisco Bay Area
