A footer is located at the bottommost part of your website. Typically, it contains links to other parts of your domain. It can also display copyright information to protect your intellectual property.
Because of its location, some assume that what you put in your footers won’t be read by site visitors. They couldn’t be more wrong.
Footers boost user experience. They provide your readers with shortcuts to get to more content and get the information they want. On your end, it continues engagement, which gives you more time to market to them directly.
Here are the elements that you should have in your website footer to maximize it:
1. Call to Action
The website footer design makes it the perfect location to encourage visitors to take the desired action. After reading through your content, you can compel them to sign up for your newsletter or download a free material with a call to action (CTA).
A CTA gives readers an idea of what to do with the information they collected on your page. For instance, if you’re selling products for hair growth, you can encourage your site visitors to try out a sample in exchange for their email address. You can even sweeten the deal with a discount once they purchase the full-sized item.
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Some tips on how to write a compelling CTA:
- Use Strong Words – Verbs are the perfect starting point of your CTA. Words like “buy,” “shop,” “download,” and “subscribe” are excellent tools to achieve your desired output from site visitors.
You can also take advantage of terms that elicit emotion or enthusiasm, such as “dream vacation” or “save 50 percent.”
- Give Them a Reason – There are times, though, when you have to use logic. During these scenarios, you should provide potential buyers with the benefits that your product can give them.
- Evoke a Sense of Urgency – Putting a deadline on your offer can hasten the process and push site visitors to grab the opportunity while it’s still there. You can say, “first 50 customers get a freebie at checkout.”
2. Social Media Accounts
Your footer is also an excellent place to display links to your brand’s official social media profiles. Putting this information in a strategic area of your page makes it convenient for your customers to follow you on these platforms.
The process of subscribing to your social media channels can be likened to signing up for your newsletter as they can get first-hand updates on your merchandise and promos. Moreover, you can start conversations with your current customers while reaching potential buyers at the same time.
3. Sitemap
A sitemap is a navigational feature that contains all pages in your domain. It’s typically in an XML format that search engine spiders use as a reference when crawling through your website.
While human visitors typically don’t have any use for this page, a few people may actually want to learn more about the structure of your site.
4. Latest or Most-Read Posts
If you’re a blogger, you can place the latest or most-read posts in your footer to give readers a chance to discover other articles that you wrote.
For brands that sell products and services, you can promote related merchandise that you think customers may be interested in.
5. Legal Stuff
Most websites also display legal details, such as copyright information, privacy policy, and terms of use. Copyright protects your intellectual property from plagiarism while the disclaimers inform users of the data that’s collected, its storage process, and how it might be used.
6. Contact Details
Make the process of contacting you more convenient and accessible for your readers by providing contact information at the bottom of each page. Don’t make them go back and click on the “Contact” or “About Us” page for them to place an order or schedule an appointment with you.
By putting your address and phone number at the footer of your web pages, you increase the likelihood that customers will contact you for more information on what you have to offer.
Conclusion
The website footer is probably one of the most neglected parts of a website. However, it’s a prime spot that you can maximize to boost engagement as well as the conversion rate for your website.
Add a call to action for every page to let your readers know what you want them to do with the information that you provided. You should also link to your social media accounts for site visitors to follow you on those channels and get first-hand updates on your products and services.
Other things that you can include in your footer are the sitemap, latest or most-read posts, copyright information, privacy policy, terms of use, and contact details.
