Footer

Almost every website has a footer, which is located at the very bottom of it and usually contains links to subpages such as imprint or privacy policy. The footer is a core element of modern websites and can be found in almost all designs.

The footer is old, but has stood the test of time

For a long time now, most websites have been using a so-called footer to link important subpages and thus make them visible at all times. This is done by usually displaying it on every subpage. Thus, it allows users to quickly jump to relevant pages. In today’s designs and templates, it is mostly used to link the legally required URLs such as imprint, terms and conditions and privacy policy unobtrusively.

The footer of a website offers many possibilities to enrich the pages with links. Especially for search engine optimization, internal links play a major role. You can not only influence the relevance of the pages, but also control the crawler of Google a little. But not only for SEO, but also for a better user experience, a well thought-out and tidy footer is essential. After all, it is usually the last point of contact of a page with the user and decides whether the visitor stays on the page or clicks back to Google.

Tips & tricks for a good footer design

As a counterpart to the header, the footer can again include all important links from the navigation to relieve the user of scrolling up. A good tip is to place links to subpages that you want to push on your domain. For example, the popular articles found in many footers are usually not the most popular at all. Instead, these are probably articles that the domain owner wants to make more relevant with additional internal links.

It is rather unusual to write additional texts in the footer, because only a few users scroll down that far and the content is therefore very rarely read. The situation is different here for images (e.g. certificates), which fit perfectly into the footer. This is because interested users permanently see the proof of quality there. The small images do not necessarily have to be linked. In most cases, the address is also placed in the footer, along with the email address and telephone number, to make it as easy as possible for users to contact the company.

In addition to images and links to important subpages, the footer should also contain links to general topics. Users are now used to finding information about shipping costs, delivery time and references in the footer. There is important information there that a visitor might need at any time. Therefore, you should not hide them somewhere behind the navigation.

Too many URLs are harmful

Links in the footer are very useful and increase both the user experience and the SEO performance of a page. However, you should not be overly motivated to put all links in the footer. Because a footer with links can be very helpful, but also just as harmful. Too many links can also worsen the SEO performance and especially disturb the link juice.

Finally, SEOs try to link relevant pages more frequently with the help of the footer. However, if there are too many links in the footer, this effect fizzles out. The user experience also suffers. You do not direct the user to the appropriate page. Instead, the user is overwhelmed and in the worst case leaves the page.

It is therefore important to find a healthy balance in order to exploit the full potential of a good footer. At the bottom is the end of the page, but there is still a good opportunity to steer users and Googlebot in a desired direction.