Footer Design: 8 Great Tips
As web designers and developers, it is important to create websites that are beautifully crafted from top to bottom. Your header, content, and footer designs need to be beautiful and function well at the same time. We are trained to design for impact above the fold. This is the content that is visible before we have to scroll down. The header and top portions of our site seem to get the most attention, but the truth is, a good footer will help just as much. While you can get creative, the usability of the footer can really help visitors find their way around your site. You can also use it to promote your most interesting or popular content. Footer design is just as important as the rest of the site, and now you’ll find out why.
Footer Sitemaps
Sometimes even the best of us get lost when looking around an unfamiliar site, especially one with an unusual or inventive design. A sitemap placed in the footer is a great way to hold on to visitors who are finishing the content on one of your pages. They will be debating on hitting the x button or going to a different site. Offering all of your content in a concise, organized manner is a great example of footer design. You’ll recapture their interest and keep them on your site. Different visitors will be attracted to different content offerings. However, a sitemap in your footer will appeal to as many of them as possible. You will be able to promote your best content to a wide audience and may increase your website’s pageviews. This is important because the more people that look at more than just one page, the better.
Footer sitemaps can also create an opportunity to make unorthodox or whimsical design choices elsewhere on your website. If the footer contains a detailed, pragmatic structure showing all of your content, you’ll be free to make the rest of your site highly creative. You’ll know that your site’s organization is already crystal clear at the bottom of each page. This frees up a lot of creativity and allows you to be yourself in the content portion of your site.
