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A website’s footer is the section at the very bottom of a webpage that includes essential information for users. Footers typically stay consistent throughout the entirety of a website, providing a stable place to land at the end of a scroll. Think of them like the Best Supporting Actor to your site: You may not notice them as the star but you can’t operate without them. They include almost anything users might be looking for, such as contact information and links to important pages.
You might not think people scroll all the way to the bottom of a page to engage with the footer, but studies show otherwise, with Chartbeat and Nielsen Norman Group revealing that users who scroll down a page spend more time at the bottom of a page than the top.
So, it’s clear that footers are hardly footnotes, but how can you make the most of yours? Here’s what you need to know.
1. Footers point to important details
Website navigation bars and menus might be the starting point for a user, but footers are where users can reliably know they’ll find whatever they’re looking for. Not all footers are the same, but there’s a standard set of details to expect down there, such as:
Contact information
Customer chat
Links to About, FAQ, and Help pages
Social profile links
It’s also typical to find details on cookie policies, client logos, testimonials, and newsletter sign ups or similar calls to action. You can—and should—customize your footer to your users.
For example, even though social icons are a common part of footers, don’t include yours if you have yet to build up your presence on a platform. Eager to draw your user to a specific case study or portfolio? Link that in the footer.
2. Footers are engagement-oriented
Footers often include direct contact information for users to get in touch for whatever they need. They also include information clients or customers might be looking for, like:
If you’re hoping to get in touch with a business or person from a website, chances are a way to get in touch will be linked in the footer. You can include a direct email, phone number, or address if you have one. An address can help with local search engine optimization, too.
3. Footers expand your brand off the site
Your footer design can help reinforce key brand elements like logos, brand colors, and messaging. The consistency is also helpful in that users will know what to expect when they scroll down there. But footers are also a way to expand on your brand by including:
Social logos and links out to those profiles
A newsletter sign-up field
Links to media coverage or awards you’ve won
Client logos
Client or customer testimonials
Search engines also crawl what’s in a footer, providing ripe opportunities for search results visibility. Including details like clear links mapping your site pages and other internal links help optimize your site for SEO.
4. Footers contain legal information
Footers, especially for larger businesses, often include terms of service, privacy policies, copyright information, and disclaimers, which protect the site owner in multiple ways. This kind of legal information provides not just a sense of trust and transparency but a view into the brand’s practices and policies.
These pieces of content can legitimize your site and clarify what users can expect around data protection, compliance, and what permissions users have based on copyright law. Squarespace has sample messages and guidance for how best to include policies on your site and in your footer.
5. Not all footers are the same
Most footers stay consistent across an entire website, primarily for ease. But there are situations when you might want to customize them. Different pages on your site likely serve different purposes, and altering the footer to a specific page’s audience can help guide a varied visitor set to the right place. For example, you might want a different footer for your membership website than for the public parts of your website.
This also holds true when it comes to personalizing landing pages for different users, down to where they’re coming to your website from. These customizations can prove to be worthwhile marketing tools.
For example, you might send someone from a social media post to a landing page for a limited-time holiday shop. The footer on this page might direct visitors to a holiday-specific shipping page or FAQs, instead of your usual footer links.