Put Your Best Footer Forward
Remember way back when Web sites were only text and links? Then content categories and navigation sidebars became major Web site elements. Now, footers are becoming an essential strategy for branding to audiences, guiding users and stimulating search engines.
A footer is an area at the bottom of a Web page that usually repeats the primary navigation and contains anything considered “the fine print,” such as copyright information and a privacy policy. With the rising popularity of standards based design, they also have become the home for xhtml and css compliance badges. Additionally, footers have become a common place for positioning logos and links to industry affiliations and member accrediting associations (see the footer below we designed for SONOartcollection.com).
A nicely designed footer with proper content can improve the whole experience of using a Web site. But because of its lowly orientation on the page, footers are often a faint afterthought in Web design, or overlooked entirely. Many footers are content barren and don’t get a whole lot of design love either. However, if used effectively, footers can complete an otherwise thoughtful design, reinforce brand awareness, help guide users to the next step, and stimulate search engine optimization.
Unify a Design
It’s amazing how much the footer can tie the whole design together and it’s easy to see here (check out our footer below). It’s almost like you start a look in the header and carry it down the page to pull the reader down the page. Continuing right through to the footer gives a sense of closure to the design and fulfills the promise you made in the header.
For example, the design of our Web site is intended to look like Softwyre letterhead. The “promise” of letterhead is established in the header with the paper texture, the logo and phone number arranged at the top like you see on most letterhead (we thought the home page coffee stain was a nice touch, too). It is carried through to the footer with the solid red bar that matches the logo and contains the Newswyre logo, contact information and links to our locations in other cities.
For many Web sites the footer helps unify the overall design. Even if the footer to be is another source of navigation, why not give it similar attention as the header navigation?
Reinforce Brand Awareness
If you’re looking for a way to leave your customers with a lasting impression of your company’s brand promise, use the footer as a subtle touchpoint to include your tagline, a call to action in your brand’s voice, or just an open invitation to reach out and contact you.
We have done this on our e-newsletter footer, and it serves two purposes: 1) invites user feedback and content suggestions that we are genuinely interested in, and 2) helps present Softwyre as a friendly, human-oriented technology company. Here’s the text:
“We get some of our best ideas from our customers. Have an article idea for The Wyre? Curious about something in Web and software development? Please, tell us about it. We welcome your ideas, comments and suggestions for our e-newsletter. E-mail us your thoughts today.”
Guide Users to the Next Step
The best footers not only look great, but guide a user to the next step. “Less is more” generally works the best in this case. A footer shouldn’t be your primary means of guiding a user to the next step – it should be a supplement for users who have scrolled all the way down without taking an action.
If someone reads an article on your site, wouldn’t it be good to call their attention to other areas of the site they can visit? If someone gets to the bottom of an article and at that moment is thinking they might want to do business with your company, you want them to see the link to your “Services” page or your “Contact” page right then. It’s quite possible that moment will be gone by the time they scroll back to the top.
Stimulate Search Engine Optimization
The footer on most Web sites usually contains a copyright statement and links to a privacy policy. Adding a one-sentence, one-line company description to your footer is an easy way to develop an SEO strategy that is simple and doesn’t take much time. Here is the footer on our Web site an example to clarify, followed by some key points the new footer accomplishes:
Old footer: © 2007 Softwyre, Inc.
Newer SEO Friendly Footer: © Copyright 2008 Softwyre, Inc. – A Web Design, Software Development & Online Marketing company in Little Rock, Memphis & Seattle
Softwyre provides Web design, software development, SEO (search engine optimization), email marketing and social marketing services to our clients. Because that is a long list of services, we prioritized and chose the services we wanted to fit on one line.
Our footer ensures that every page on softwyre.com contains the keyword phrases of ‘web design, software development, and online marketing.’ This helps the search engines realize that our Web site is related to those keywords because they appear on every page. This strategy also helps search engines know what services we provide as well as doing the same for our human Web site visitors.
Softwyre.com also contains ‘Little Rock, Memphis and Seattle’ in the footer. Softwyre has branches in Memphis and Seattle with its headquarters in Little Rock. Having these terms in the footer lets search engines and human visitors know the geographic areas in which our company provides Web services.
As you can see, Web site footers are far more important than their lowly name implies. Footers play an integral role in building design cohesiveness, reinforcing brand, boosting search engine performance, and converting casual visitors into customers. How will you make the most of your footer?
Kick-Start Your Web Site ROI With A Footer Makeover from Softwyre
Softwyre creates content-rich footers that contribute to an appealing design, overall branding and search engine optimization. Give us a call at 501.734.0017 to revamp your Web site footer or redesign your entire Web site.
