What to Put in a Website Footer
Most people who reach the bottom of a page are looking for something specific, mostly how to contact you. What belongs in a website footer and in which order, the two mistakes which I found on my own and what to leave out.
Mike Lopez
Designs and builds websites and B2B software
On this page
I think what you put in a website footer should answer the visitor who has reached the bottom of the page and still has a question, which is mostly how to contact you, where to find something the menu did not show, and whether the business is real and looks after their details. So a good footer carries your contact details and the main action of the site, a short repeat of the menu, the legal links such as the privacy notice, social links which open the right profiles, and a copyright line with the current year. On this website the footer is the same short list, and two of those items were wrong for weeks before I noticed them, which is why I check a footer as carefully as a hero now.
This post goes through who reads a footer, what belongs in it, the mistakes which I found on my own and what I would leave out.
Who reads the footer
Nielsen Norman Group’s guide to footer design patterns describes three kinds of visitor who reach the bottom of a page. Some have not found what they need higher up and use the footer as a last resort, some liked what they read and want a second chance to act, and some scroll down on purpose because they expect certain things to be there, contact details and customer support above all. That last group is the one which I design for first, because they arrive with a clear question and they leave quickly when the answer is missing.
It’s really the one part of the page which people use as a reference, so the footer should look the same on every page.
What to put in a website footer
1. Your contact details and the main action
The footer is mostly the place where people look for a phone number, an email address or an office address, so I put them first, written out in full and linked. A phone number works best as a tel: link, which MDN’s reference for the anchor element says a phone will dial straight away, and an email address works as a mailto: link which opens a new message. Beside them sits the one action which the site exists for, such as booking a visit or requesting a quote, as a real button. On this website the footer opens with a short heading, Let’s collaborate, and a large button which shows my email address and opens the contact form, so a visitor who has read to the end has the next step in front of them. If people mostly reach you by chat, the button can open that instead, which my post on adding a WhatsApp button for your website goes into.
2. A short repeat of the menu
A visitor at the bottom of a long page should be able to move on without scrolling back up, so I repeat the main menu in the footer. NN/g calls this doormat navigation, and its guide suggests a fuller sitemap in the footer only on smaller sites, roughly 25 pages or fewer. My own footer lists About, Projects, Capabilities, the Journal and Contact, which are the same destinations as the header, and every one of them uses the same name in both places, since a page which is called one thing at the top and another thing at the bottom looks like two different pages.
3. The privacy notice and the other legal pages
People look for the privacy notice, the terms and the cookie settings in the footer because almost every website puts them there. The UK regulator’s guidance on the right to be informed says privacy information can sit on your website, as long as people are made aware of it and have an easy way to reach it, and a link at the bottom of every page is the simplest way to do that. On this website the forms collected names and email addresses with no notice anywhere until September, when I wrote a privacy notice and added a Privacy notice link after the copyright line in the footer, plus a short notice under each form. My post on a website privacy notice in the Philippines covers what the notice itself should say.
4. Social links which open the right profiles
Social links are worth having when the profiles are active, and the thing which I check is where each one goes. The coded part of this website, which renders the blog and the service pages, had its own fallback social links, and until the middle of September two of them pointed at Behance and Dribbble usernames which did not exist while the LinkedIn link used the wrong address. The designed pages had the right links, which meant the mistake only showed on the blog and the service pages, where I check far less often. I would click each icon yourself once a quarter, logged out, and remove any profile which you no longer post on.
5. A copyright line with the current year
In the United States a copyright notice is optional for work published since 1 March 1989, as the Copyright Office’s Circular 3 explains, but a notice still has value, because it stops someone who copies your work from claiming they did not know it was protected. A notice is the © symbol, the year and the owner’s name. Visitors also read the year as a sign of whether the site is looked after, and on this website the year comes from the server, which means the line updates itself every January.
6. Small details which build trust
Beyond those five, I add only what answers a question which your visitors really ask, such as opening hours for a clinic, a licence number for a regulated business or the address of each location. My footer also shows the local time in Manila, because many of the people who contact me work in other time zones.
| Item | The question it answers | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Contact details and main action | How do I reach you? | The phone and email are links, and the button works on a phone |
| Repeat of the menu | Where do I go next? | The same names as the header, and no broken pages |
| Privacy notice and legal pages | What happens to my details? | The link is on every page, including the blog and landing pages |
| Social links | Are you active and real? | Each one opens the right, current profile |
| Copyright line | Is this site looked after? | The year updates itself and the owner’s name is correct |
Two footers which drifted apart
Many WordPress websites end up with more than one footer, one in the theme, one in a page builder template and sometimes a third on landing pages, and each copy is changed separately. This website had two, one for the designed pages and one for the blog, and they had already drifted once, which is how the wrong social links survived. Since then I change both together and check a page of each kind afterwards. I would ask whoever builds your site how many footers it has before you ask for an edit.
What to leave out
I would leave out anything which nobody looks for at the bottom, such as a second newsletter box, a long paragraph about the company, a tag cloud, or a block of keywords and city names written for search engines. Every extra link also makes the useful ones harder to find, and footer links are often too small to tap, so WCAG 2.2’s target size minimum of 24 by 24 CSS pixels, or enough space around a smaller link, is a good measure for each one. A shorter footer with clear spacing mostly does more than a full one, in the same way that fewer button styles work better, which my post on website button hierarchy explains.
The quickest check which you can do today is to open your website in a private window on your phone, scroll to the bottom of three different kinds of page and tap every link in the footer. You can see this website’s footer at the bottom of any page, including my About page.
Frequently asked questions
What should I put in a website footer?
Your contact details and main action, a short repeat of the menu, the privacy notice and other legal pages, social links which work, and a copyright line with the current year. Add opening hours, licence numbers or location addresses only when your visitors look for them.
Does a website footer need a copyright notice?
In the United States a notice is optional for work published since March 1989, but it still helps against someone who copies your work and claims they did not know it was protected.
Should the privacy policy link go in the footer?
Yes, I think the footer is the best place for it, because people expect it there and the link appears on every page. Add a short notice beside each form as well.
How many links should a website footer have?
As few as answer your visitors’ real questions. A small site can repeat its whole menu, while a larger site should keep to its main sections and the legal links.
