Back to blog

How to Create the Perfect Website Footer?

---

An average website has thousands of visitors each day. However, sometimes when users come to a website, they are unable to find what they are looking for. It’s common for users to scroll down to the bottom of the page, not find the information they’re looking for, and leave. A good website ensures that users find exactly what they need. However, sometimes even the best websites miss out on providing the information users are searching for.

This is where website footers come in. Website Footers are extremely important. In this blog, we will discuss what they are, why you need them, what you can add in them, and how you can create the perfect website footer.

So the first question is, what are website footers? Quite simply, a website footer is the end of a website page that acts like a final safety net. It saves hundreds of users from clicking away from your website. Website footers contain links to various other important pages of your websites and serve as a secondary navigation tab. Appy Pie’s website footer is shown below. It should give you an idea of what a website footer looks like.

Why You Need Website Footers

From a design perspective, everything must have a homogenous ending. Website footers help provide a nice pleasant ending to your webpage. They form a part of standard website design. They ensure that the end of your webpage is not sudden or abrupt.

Website footers are always separated from the rest of your website with a significant border. Other than providing an ending to your webpage, website footers also provide other things. As explained above, it also acts as a safety net to ensure users stay on your website longer.

According to research, website footers are highly visible and nearly 75% of visitors scroll down to the bottom of the page. Website footers can significantly help reduce the bounce rate of your webpage.

What Can Be Added to a Website Footer

There are a lot of things that can be added to website footers. Here is a list of the various things that can go in website footers, in no particular order.

Copyright

A copyright disclaimer is the simplest website footer. If you don’t want an extensive website footer, just including a single line of your copyright is easy. Copyright footers should be a fundamental part of your website footer since they provide protection against plagiarism.

Sitemap

Sitemaps are not something most users click on but they can aid your ranking. The footers are the best place to include the sitemap for your website.

Contact Information

Including a link to your contact page, or simply posting your support email/phone number is good. It is standard for website designers to include contact info both at the top and bottom of the webpage.

Addresses/Maps

For businesses with physical offices/shops it is crucial to provide the address and directions of a nearby outlet to their users. It’s not crucial but it provides a bit of authenticity to your brand website.

Navigation links

It is mentioned above that footers can act as additional navigation tabs. Providing links to various important pages of your website can be a good way to ensure people find what they are looking for. All the various types of navigation links that can be included have been discussed under the Footer creation process.

Social Icons

Links to your social media pages can be provided with the help of social media logos. For example, when a user clicks on a Facebook logo in the footer, they must get redirected to your facebook page. The footer is the best place to add social media links to attract visitors. Nearly 72% of websites include social media in their footers.

Special Logins

Let me explain. Some of your users might not be customers or clients. If your website also provides platforms for users, resellers or employees they need to have a login section. This can be shown in the website footer. People who need to login will know where to find it. Putting this login option in the footer helps keep your website design and interface clean.

Press Link

Every business writes press releases. However, less than 1% of your visitors are journalists. That is exactly why press should be kept in the footer as a single link. No need to waste precious space on the main website.

Awards and Certifications

While this can be included in the normal webpage, it is better to include your accolades and accomplishments in the footer. It feels humble to the viewer visiting your website and acts as trust building apparatus.

Call-to-Action

Including a call to action in your website footers is one last way of attracting users to your products. A button to Sign Up, a Donation button for a cause, etc. There are many call to action buttons that can be included in your footer.

Privacy Policy

You can’t include your entire privacy policy in the footer. However, including a link to your privacy policy is important. Including the privacy policy is standardized across all websites.

Terms of Use

Last but not least, just like privacy policy, including the terms of use is crucial. Terms of Use can be included in the footer itself and are especially crucial for highly regulated businesses and industries.

How to Create the Perfect Website Footer for Your Brand

Now that we’ve discussed the need to have website footers and what comes in them, we move to the creation process. Since website footers usually have a consistent design, the creation process includes the various links you will place in your website footer. Here is a step by step breakdown to create the perfect website footer.

Step 1: Keep the Design CleanM

A website footer is all about clean designs and minimalism. Don’t clutter your footer. Your footer will contain a lot of information. Hence keeping it clean helps your prospect of users using the information in your footer. Organized links and simple colors will help you maintain the design aspect. Your footers size depends on the number of pages on your website.

Step 2: Include Contact Information

Try to include at least something related to your contact information in the footer area. It can be either your contact number or support email. In addition to that, include your Contact page as one of the clickable links.

Step 3: Add Other Navigation Links

Apart from the contact information, your website footer will include a lot of navigation links. Here is a list of pages whose links can be added to your website footers:

• Landing pages of products
• Popular Pages
• Resource Pages(Blogs, Webinars, etc.)
• Important information like Pricing plans, subscriptions
• Company information(Address, Contact info, About Us)
• FAQs and Help Center

Step 4: Organize Objects Clearly

Organization is what makes a footer great. If you look at Appy Pie’s footer, it has been laid out in a clean organized manner. Using menus is a great way to organize your footers

All products should come under a Product Section. Blogs, webinars, help center, and podcasts should come under the Resources section and so on and so forth.

Step 5: Maintain Contrast and Readability

Since footers are colored differently to the rest of the website, make sure that you choose a contrasting color and balance the text accordingly.

Step 6: No Link Underlines

Links are usually underlined. However, when creating a footer, consciously remove underlines from the text to maintain the readability of your text.

Step 7: Add a CTA

Including CTAs for signup, and donations are a must. They act as a secondary safety net to retain users. You can track these CTAs for further analytics.

Step 8: Maintain Hierarchy

Hierarchy is crucial for a footer. There is a set standard of how your footer’s hierarchy should be. Here’s a list from the top to bottom.

• Testimonials
• Accolades
• Navigation Links & CTA
• Social Media and Company Information
• Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

Conclusion

That’s how you create a perfect footer. It takes a little time and the first footer you create for your website won’t be perfect. You can edit your footer further and tweak it until you get the perfect one.

Before you go, let me tell you about a way you can have a preset footer template that you can just link things on. There is a way to create website footers without much effort. That is through Appy Pie’s Website Builder. It is a completely no-code website creation software. You can add navigation links and objects to your footer by simply clicking. Check it out!

Citations:

OrbitMedia
DesignShack