One important component of a website that doesn’t get a lot of attention is the website footer. Web visitors don’t usually take notice of the footer website unless they absolutely need to. On the other hand, some companies that pay for the creation of the website don’t even think about adding a website footer.
It’s so easy to just focus on the copies and images when it comes to the website. More often, people concentrate on getting the design right. While the copies, images, and design are the first things that people actually take notice of on a website, the footer shouldn’t be neglected.
The footer is important in terms of user experience and engagement. What are footer website examples?
You would be surprised to know that you could put as many as two dozen things on the website footer.
Here are some of the things you can put in the footer:
Contents
1. Copyright
This is very important as this will serve as your protection against plagiarism. Everything you put on the website, from the content to the graphics and images, has been copyrighted the moment the website is in development.
When you put the copyright notice, it means that nobody can use your content without your permission.
Actually, the copyright notice is no longer necessary. However, people are just used to seeing this on the website. Since you actually have a footer for such a thing, you might as well include it.
2. Sitemap
This is the part where information about the page is laid out. You want to put information about videos and other files and how they are linked together.
While users or web visitors may not care about this part so much, Google actually does. Your sitemap will inform Google about the important files and pages on your website. By doing so, you will be easily discoverable by Google.
You know that Google is an important association if you want to rank high in the searches.
3. Privacy Policy
If there’s one thing we learned from the controversy affecting Facebook, it’s about data harvesting. People don’t usually read the Privacy Policy, but they really should.
This is the page that explains to visitors what information the website collects from them. For the company, tracking some public visitors’ information is necessary for analytics and algorithms. But it is also its responsibility to make sure that people are informed about what is being collected from them.
4. Terms of Use
This is some sort of protection against legal liability. It’s like a disclaimer of sorts. The content of the Terms of Use is usually about the visitors agreeing to certain terms while they are visiting the website.
5. Contact Us
This is definitely an important part of the website footer. You want the visitor to be able to reach you, no matter the reason.
If a visitor wishes to contact you because of a negative experience on the website or because of the brand, then don’t worry about it. Take it as a positive. At least, use that negative comment as a way to make things more positive on the website and for the brand as a whole.
That’s another good thing about this part of the footer. It’s not necessarily just about the website, it’s about the company as a whole.
This is also what we meant by website user engagement. The footer provides a way for people to continuously engage with the brand even if they are no longer on the site.
Now, there is usually contact information on the top page of the website. Don’t worry about the redundancy. The goal of the footer is for visitors to get what they want at the bottom of the page so that they don’t have to scroll up and look for it anymore.
At this part, it is also important that you put a contact form rather than an email link. A contact form is a direct form of communication, which makes it more convenient for the visitor.
It is also quite easy for analytics to track. There are also other important reasons why you should use the forms. For example, most contact forms provide auto-response emails that would be a great call to action. They also submit to the database, which is more efficient than emails.
Also, if you provide email links, they could easily be redirected to the spam folder. Email links are easy to spam magnets.
6. Contact information
The contact us apart is a form, which means the contact information is a different section of the footer. This is where you will put the company phone number and fax number—if you still use the latter that is. You should also include company email and all the other essential contact details.
7. Corporate address and map
A footer is also a branding tool. Putting your address on the website makes it easier for people to know where you are located instead of having to type in the Google maps. You can also provide a map, which makes it even better for the users.
In other words, spoon-feed people the information you think they need.
8. Navigation
If visitors are browsing your web page, chances are they might miss what they were actually looking for. So, they get to the end of the page without seeing what they were on the site for. That’s why the navigation section is quite important. This is a way to help people look for what they need from the site.
Don’t make this a copy of your main search section at the top of the page. Make this into something different but still very useful.
9. Social media icons
These are great ways to continuously connect with people. This also means that when you have a website, you should also have social media. You don’t have to join all social media platforms, but you should have the basics: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Some companies have also included TikTok.
Close to three-fourths of the top 50 marketing sites in the world include social media icons in the footer.
These are just the top nine important footer sections. There are at least 20 more that could be included in this list. The important factors to consider when creating things for the footer are user experience and engagement.
Bad footer website examples
Not all website footers are created equal. There are some bad ones, too. So, what makes a bad footer website?
Putting unnecessary links will surely provide some clutter on your footer. There are necessary things that need to be included in the footer, so make sure that you sift out the unnecessary ones.
This also includes links. Don’t put unnecessary links on the footer.
Also, don’t have preconceived notions of the footer and definitely don’t make it an afterthought. Having preconceived notions means that you stick to what you think the footer will look like. Don’t be afraid to use up the space at the bottom. It’s not like there are limitations to it.
Also, plan your footer properly. It is important and should not be something you just add at the last minute.