Scroll all the way down on nearly any website, and you’ll land at the website footer. Filled with links, contact information, brand information, and more, this small piece of real estate on your site can have a big impact on helping your customers get to the information they need. Here’s what you need to know about your website footer, along with some of our favorite footer examples to get you started as you design a website.
A website footer is a content section found at the bottom of a web page that contains important information about the site. Typically, a website footer will include the site’s logo, a copyright notice, a sitemap or links to important pages, social media icons, and a link to policies, such as a privacy policy and terms of service, that affect all website visitors. This content may shift depending on the main purpose of your website as well as the industry you’re in. While it may not be the most prominent area of your website, its design is still important because of how the footer boosts website visibility.
Everything you put out there as part of your brand — even something as small as a website footer — is part of your brand identity, which is the visual expression of your brand mission and values. This is an opportune place to use your brand’s logo, colors, fonts, and even clever copy to hammer home what your brand stands for, all while delivering important information.
And just like the rest of your website, good design helps make the right impression and gently influences your visitors to take certain actions. Two of those design principles are user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design, which are often referred to collectively as UX/UI design. UX design ensures that your footer’s content is intuitive and easy to follow, while UI design prioritizes the graphical layout of this content. When done right, UX/UI design helps “nudge” your audience to visit pages you want them to see while delivering the information they need up front.
As a major news site, Chron has a straightforward yet effective footer. Three columns titled “About,” “Contact,” and “Services” give the visitor a clear idea of what information is available. Visually, the footer fits the site’s overarching color scheme, offers an easy way to return to the top of the page, and includes social media buttons.
Whether you enjoy movies, games, or TV shows, Fandom has a footer that helps you find information about its most popular properties. It also includes a community portal and multiple ways for visitors to engage. Aesthetically pleasing to the eye, Fandom’s footer matches the website extremely well, contributing to the brand identity and the website’s cohesive look.
Digital insights platform Heap uses its footer to deliver lots of relevant information that’s easy for the visitor to find, from the types of products they offer to in-depth information about the company and how to connect. Since this is a digital insights platform, it’s excellent that the footer has a built-in call to action to have visitors request a demo of the product they’re providing. This can result in new business leads.
All the news that’s fit to print can’t quite fit in one single section of a website, but the New York Times’ footer comes close. The veteran newspaper uses its footer to link to each major section of its publication, so visitors can quickly get to the sports, fashion, real estate, or international news they want to read. An additional column lists the important points that don’t necessarily fall into these categories, such as its Wirecutter product review publication. The footer also makes space for its more “fun” sections and easily guides readers to subscription options to access more content.
The world’s largest online retailer certainly has a lot to offer, and that means millions of site visitors at any given moment, each of whom may be looking for something different. To make it easier to help these visitors find what they need, Amazon includes a sizable directory in its footer that includes company information, financial information, and of course, customer service quick links.
A 2024 Forbes article reports around 57% of users spend most of their time viewing content found on the upper half of a page. That doesn’t mean your footer should be an afterthought: A fair number of visitors will scroll to the end of the page. Here are five reasons why your website’s footer plays a significant role in your site design.
As the literal end to each web page, your footer can be the last chance you have to get visitors to take action. Whether that’s to sign up for a newsletter, download additional materials, or contact you directly with any questions or comments, your footer can provide visitors with a final call to action that will prompt them to respond to or engage with your site.
If your visitors are regularly reaching the end of the page, it may be because they’re looking for more information. While your header will serve as the main digital signpost to the most important sections of your site, your footer can also serve a similar purpose by giving the viewer access to a structured list of pages and other navigational options.
A footer can help highlight significant achievements and accomplishments, such as badges representing awards won or industry associations you’ve joined. This demonstrates to visitors that your company is deserving of a growing list of feats. Not only does this let you tout your exceptional work, but it also makes your site look more authoritative in your visitors’ eyes. It shows that you know what you’re doing and are a good source of the kind of information your visitors need.
Did you know that you may be required to protect your visitors’ data and privacy when they visit your website? Items like a privacy policy details to your visitors which information you collect from them, even anonymously, when they visit your website. Some industries may even require or have best practice guidelines to include specific policies, such as special disclaimers, accessibility information, or other unique documentation. Placing these links in your footer gives them a dedicated home that’s easy to find without giving these policies real estate in more prominent areas of your website.
Making your site easier for search engines to read is incredibly important. While there are seemingly endless factors that influence how your website performs online, your footer can potentially boost your website’s position. It can help web crawlers better understand how your site was designed. Including navigational links in your footer can help visitors in a big way as well, making it easy for folks to find what they need and therefore keep them on your site.
Your website’s footer may not be the first thing your visitors see, but it’s still an important section for customers, search engines, brand identity, and of course, the website itself. By providing your visitors with another way to engage with the content on your site, you make it a much more inviting and usable place. Thanks to the Namecheap Site Maker, our drag-and-drop tools make it easy to create a footer that inspires people to sign up for email alerts, call a sales rep, or visit your website’s blog. Best of all, you don’t need design cred to build your own website — our tools make it simple and seamless for anyone to build a great website from top to bottom.
To design a website footer effectively, make sure you prioritize a user-friendly design. Group links into categories and make important information easy to find. You can also apply your brand’s logo and color palette to ensure that it complements the rest of your website design.
A website footer should include the following:
To edit a website footer in WordPress, go to Site Editor > Appearance > Editor. Once you’re in editing mode, click on the footer area to revise the text, add links, and make other edits as needed.
You can make your website footer more engaging by applying a colorful and well-organized design. Ensure the links and text are easy to navigate, and add a strong call to action to make the footer more enticing for visitors.
Website footers are important because they can include a call to action for visitors and help with search engine optimization (SEO). In addition, footers make it easier to navigate websites and provide an opportunity to include important details like contact information, awards, achievements, and privacy policy details.
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