A website footer is a small part of your overall layout, found at the bottom of your most crucial website pages, however, setting it up correctly can be crucial for an e-commerce business, as many users use the section to navigate towards pages that might interest them.
All of us have examples in mind of what we would consider websites with ugly design layouts. Reasons are numerous, whether it’s unclear navigation, difficulties finding the right information, or even contact details to get in touch with that business.
We will take a look at best practices to implement for a website footer, namely, the most important sections that you must have on display.
Policy pages
Nowadays, operating a business website provides additional hurdles in terms of documentation as laws mandate every website being compliant with privacy and commercial regulations.
This is why such documents as a Privacy Policy, Refund Policy, and Terms of Use among others have to be composed in a compliant way and of course, be easily reached by users.
Adding these links to your website footer makes sure your website does not violate its legal requirements and satisfies the expectations of those who use your website since most customers will expect these pages at the bottom of your website.
Branding elements
Some business researchers suggest that your footer section can also be a great way to further enhance your brand identity, by placing a logo, your official motto or any other element which may let your users identify your business more easily.
Since many users use the footer for navigation, it’s likely that they would notice a catchy slogan, a quote or something else that you might present there.
Links to social media
Social media retains its power in the world of business as being an ideal tool for promoting your business and engaging with your existing user base as well. Whether it’s an Instagram, Facebook or Twitter page, these social links are the best way to reach people instantaneously.
Placing them in your footer again ensures the maximum in terms of visibility, and follows a logical pattern in terms of layout.
We strongly recommend opening social media links in a new window to avoid visitors leaving your website.
Contact information
Emails, phone numbers, and perhaps even survey forms can also be placed neatly in your footer section. This is another practice that has pretty much become standard for digital businesses, simply because users expect this when they arrive on your landing page.
Of course, the exact details will depend on the type of business that you are running, but rarely will you see e-commerce websites turn away from the typical email, phone, and contact form pattern.
Contact information in the footer increases the website’s authority for search engine bots. Encoding contact information with microformats, also known as metadata, ensures even more weight and provides rich search results in Google. (http://microformats.org)
Email and newsletter form
While it may seem a bit old-fashioned for some, many digital businesses still use emails as a way to stay relevant in the mind of the consumer, and inform them of the latest discounts and other related news.
People who are genuinely interested in what you’re doing will willingly subscribe to your newsletter and leaving a subscription link in your footer would be just the right thing. After all, if a person managed to read until the very bottom, chances are that they are really interested.
All in all
It’s fair to say that such a small section of your website can play a really impactful role since users have learned to use this section for navigation, engaging with your business and so on.
So, be sure to set it up properly, to not miss any opportunities for promoting your business.
