The footer is the most under-used section of many websites.
You might be surprised at how often people make it all the way down to your footer. Those that do are most likely to follow you, read some more posts, or opt-in to your newsletter. Only people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say make it that far!
I know that if I’m looking for a newsletter opt-in or social media links, the first thing I do is jump down to the footer. It’s so much easier than searching around the header or sidebar for those tiny buttons! But I’m often disappointed and end up scrolling back to the top to look around.
Is your blog’s footer working for you? If not, let’s find out how we can put it to work!
5 Things To Consider Including In Your Footer
Your footer has the potential to be a conversion machine.
What’s your blog’s goal?
- Increase social media followers?
- Get readers to opt-in?
- Lead them to another blog post?
- Buy your products or services?
Depending on your goals, you should consider including at least a couple of the following items in your footer.
Social Media Links
Make it easy for an excited reader to follow you. Include either social media icons, links with the platform name spelled out, or a widget giving a preview of whichever platform(s) you’d like to highlight most.
There have been many times when I’ve finished reading a post and scrolled down to the footer, hoping to follow the blogger on Twitter or Pinterest, only to find nothing but the blog theme. Usually, I scroll back up to do a little more looking around, but not always!
Opt-In
An opt-in to your newsletter or free email course is a great footer option. If someone makes it to the end of a blog post the odds are that they enjoyed what they read. Giving them an opportunity to get more material from you, right then, is a win for both of you!
Popular Posts
If you’re looking for people to continue reading once they finish up with a post, your footer can be a great place to include links to your most popular posts.
I know I’m more likely to continue reading someone’s blog if a clear direction is right there in front of me.
Popular Pages
Do you want people to check out ways they can work with you, learn more about you, or contact you? Links to pages are a great way to direct readers to where you’d like them to go.
I want people to get to know me as a person, rather than just a website without a face, so I include a large section for my About page. On the other hand, I want people to check out more blog posts, learn how they can work with me, and easily shoot me an email, so I also include Blog, Work With Me, and Email links.
Search Bar
A search bar is a great way for readers to find specific content or topics. It’s also not something you usually want sitting right at the top of your site. Your footer is a great place to add this and probably the first place many readers will look.
Footer Awesomeness
So now that you know how you can put your footer to work, let’s take a look at some amazing examples.
Kory Woodard
First up is Kory of korywoodard.com. Kory helps passionate women with branding and design, allowing them to follow their dreams. And may I add, she has an amazingly inspirational newsletter that you definitely want to check out.
Kory’s footer does some great work for her. It encourages readers to check her out on Instagram and Pinterest, as well as joining that incredible newsletter I just mentioned.
Latrisha Jacobs
You can find Latrisha at latrisha.co where she’s all about helping female entrepreneurs and their services stand out online. She offers amazing advice on how to get higher conversions without having to be salesy or unauthentic.
Latrisha’s footer is amazing. Not only can you find all of her social media platforms, but she highlights her Instagram profile, which fits in perfectly with the feel of her blog. She also links to her most recent post and makes sure that everyone knows that she’s there to help boost sales with her “No More No’s Guide” opt-in.
Marianne Manthey
Next we have Marianne of designyourownblog.com. Marianne teaches female solopreneurs to build their own beautiful blogs with tutorials and posts on everything from writing posts to doing design.
Marianne puts her footer to use in encouraging readers to opt-in for her free library of resources, follow her on social media, and become an affiliate for her book, “Blog Beautiful: 50 Tips + Fixes to Make Your Blog Glow”.
Anjelica Dezel
And last, but certainly not least, we have Angelica of anjelicadezel.com. Anjelica is passionate about crafting brands and websites that attract the ideal clients of female entrepreneurs.
Anjelica’s footer includes her mission, to give her readers a better idea of who she is and what she does. She also has easily accessible social media links, popular pages, and an easy-to-find search function!
