Introduction 

Website footers are often overlooked, yet they play a crucial role in navigation, user experience, and conversions. While users spend most of their time above the fold, footers serve as a final touchpoint, providing essential links, legal information, and CTAs. A well-designed footer improves accessibility, engagement, and trust, ensuring visitors stay connected with your brand.

That’s because users prioritize search, global navigation, and high-priority content. Consequently, footers appearing at the bottom of web pages receive little UX time and resource budget. It seems that the information shown at the beginning sections of a webpage gets attention. 

Did you know that 80% of the user's average viewing time was spent above the fold? Modern web designers now create web pages with responsive designs and a minimalistic look.

Designing the best footers will protect your website traffic and provide a credible roadmap for the rest of your website, helping your conversion rates. This fact applies to both desktop and mobile experiences. 

In this article, we will learn about footers, the importance of good footer design, and what to look for in one. We will also discuss some common mistakes that need attention when designing an appropriate footer for your website.

Before proceeding with a beautiful footer design, we should first define a website footer.

What is a website footer?

Simply put, a footer is the very bottom section of your website. It can take many forms depending on your content and the industry you work in. Some of you have scrolled down to quickly look at a business address, contact, or terms of service. This almost subconscious behavior strengthens the need for footers. 

However, some designers commonly neglect it, making it a huge mistake for businesses. Let’s look at some of the main reasons why footers matter for your business. 

Why website footer design matters

A footer not only lets your website traffic know that they have reached the end of your page, but it also enhances the overall user experience if certain elements are present in the design. 

We will discuss three key factors that highlight why a website should have a good footer design.

1. Providing a clear navigation path

When designing a website, it is important to make it easy for visitors to navigate its contents. One way to improve effortless navigation is to use footers. Footers act as a roadmap, letting visitors know what is on your website without scrolling to the top menu again. 

Apple’s footer design is a great example of a great navigation path. It uses the principle of alignment design to showcase all the boring information at the end, improving the overall UI/UX of its website.

In the world of B2B SaaS, each element of your website plays a critical role in telling your brand’s story. A well-designed footer serves as a final touchpoint for visitors, summarizing important content, providing links, and showing additional resources. With buyers on B2B websites, awkward navigation, and outdated layouts can lead to questions about professionalism. 

2. Accessibility of important documentation

The footer is an excellent place for links and important documents like legal disclaimers, privacy statements, and copyrights. This fact is especially important for websites since the introduction of the Personal Protection of Information (POPI) Act. This act is mandatory for all sales proprietors, private companies, and closed corporations, regardless of size. 

Amazon’s footer design is comprehensive yet structured with dense information. Despite being text-heavy, it features every important document without affecting user experience. 

The easier it is for your visitors to find appropriate information, the more likely they are to complete forms and sign up for newsletters. It is specifically important for SaaS B2B businesses, which rely on user information for their operations. 

3. Another opportunity for action

Footers provide users with a final chance to take the desired action on your website. Whether it is requesting a quote or viewing the latest company products, footers ensure that visitors take action on your website. Strong call to Action (CTAs) in the footers make this possible. 

Footers ensure that customers take the actions businesses demand, and CTAs play a fundamental role in this. The more often your visitors encounter a CTA, the sooner they act. 

Did you know that making your CTAs content-specific and ditching generic buttons like “Learn More” boosts your conversion rates?

Beetle Beetle provides one-stop solutions for all your website designs and revamps your current website to make it attractive and one that you can be proud of. 

Next, we will take a look at some of the primary elements of a good website footer design.

Primary elements of a website footer

Your website footer is more important than you think. Although it may not be the first thing your visitors see, it is a critical part of your website. It can lead your visitors to navigate away after reading one full page or continue exploring your website. 

Therefore, putting time and effort into your footer is vital for creating a website with lower bounce rates. A lower bounce rate also increases your SEO performance, improving your website's overall rankings and visibility. 

We will discuss three key elements that you need in your website footer for the best possible results.

1. Lead Magnet or Freebies

First, it is important to include something that provides value to your visitors for free. It can be a PDF download or anything else that teaches them about your business niche. A lead magnet does the same thing; however, it requires your visitors to enter their credentials, such as name and email address, before downloading. 

Including such elements at the end of your website, especially in the footer, allows your customers to contact you. We recommend including such lead magnets at the upper part of your footer to ensure visibility. 

2. Social media Icons

If your website visitors cannot connect with you on social media channels, you may be missing out on further opportunities to connect. Social media marketing is now a critical component of SaaS industries, and 80% of B2B businesses generate leads through social media channels. 

If your website does not include social media channel links, your visitors are unlikely to connect with you again. So, give them every possible opportunity to connect with your business. 

3. Copyright and Website Legal Policies

Finally, it is important to include your website’s legal policies and copyright information to ensure easy accessibility. It will also help you avoid legal trouble and ensure that visitors know everything about your website in terms of privacy.

Although designing a website footer may seem like an easy task, some website designers make common mistakes that can hamper your website's conversion rates. 

Let’s take a look at some of these mistakes in detail. 

What mistakes should you avoid for a footer?

1. Neglecting key information

A frequent footer design mistake is the lack of significant information, making it an afterthought rather than an integral part of a website. 

Why is it a mistake

A footer that lacks information is like leaving a treasure chest unopened. You can create a stunning website with all the bells and whistles; however, a poor footer may lead to missed interactions with your customers. 

How to avoid it

Ensure your footer has all the necessary information, like contact details, terms of services, and privacy policies. It is the last opportunity for you to guide your visitors therefore it needs your attention.

2. Data Overloading

Data overloading is not only a problem for headers; footers on your website also fall victim to it. Stuffing your footer with numerous links and texts is an overwhelming experience for your customers that you may not want. 

Why is it a mistake

A cluttered footer design is often confusing for your customers. They might find it difficult to gather information in that chaos, which, more importantly, leads to a negative user experience. 

How to avoid it

Keep it simple to avoid confusion. Group related links under clear headings to improve user navigation and enable them to gather necessary information from your website.  

Such mistakes require your attention to maintain your website conversion rates. 

3. Lack of CTA

Footers are the last point of engagement for your users. Ignoring CTA buttons is a missed opportunity to turn your web traffic into customers. 

Why is it a mistake

As web users become impatient, many of them tend to look at your website footers for valuable information. The absence of CTAs will, therefore, more likely lead visitors out of your website without taking desirable actions. 

How to avoid it

The addition of an actionable CTA button at the footer can significantly increase your conversion rates. Moreover, making it stand out from the rest of your website can enhance overall user engagement for long-term success. 

4. Ignoring Mobile Optimizations

In recent years, the majority of web traffic has come from mobile devices. Designing a mobile-optimized footer can increase bounce rates, drastically affecting business performance.

Why is it a mistake

Lack of footer optimization for smartphones reduces UX and affects conversion rates for a website.

How to avoid it

Maintaining a concise arrangement of CTAs and forms in the footers improves mobile responsiveness of a footer. 

5. Broken or outdated links

Outdated links carry information that may not be relevant to the website’s current offerings, which leads to confusion among web traffic from taking actionable decisions. 

Why is it a mistake

Broken or outdated links negatively affect your SEO rankings, and a website may look neglected. 

How to avoid it

Regular audits of links in your footer are the best way to identify broken or outdated links on your website.

To that end, it is time to understand some factors to consider when creating a modern footer for your dream website.

Implementation of a modern footer for your website

A modern footer design must have a clutter-free structure showing all the necessary information summarized in a concise section. 

The following features are important to keep in mind when implementing a modern footer in this competitive digital landscape. 

1. Prioritizing your links

It is one of the essential factors in improving overall website performance. Website designers have a fundamental role in understanding your specific user needs and business goals to create something meaningful for your website visitors. 

2. Creating mobile-friendly footers

A mobile-first design is now a critical factor for website footers. On desktops, users have 3 to 4 columns to view web pages, while smartphones have one. Did you know that mobile traffic accounts for approximately half of the web traffic worldwide as of 2024? 

With a mobile-friendly footer, your mobile conversion rates can significantly improve. Your website is like the digital persona of a sales executive. Website revamping is nowadays a common thing among B2B SaaS small business owners to take advantage of this changing digital landscape. 

A stunning footer design is, therefore, key to increasing your website's conversion rates.

Final words from Beetle Beetle

A website footer is the final point of contact with your web visitors. It has a fundamental role in your website’s navigation, accessibility, and conversion rates. Businesses incorporating compelling CTA buttons with clear navigation paths and legal information improve user engagement. Moreover, avoiding common mistakes like lack of CTAs, outdated links, data overloading, and mobile unresponsiveness can improve your footer’s performance. 

In today’s evolving digital world, a responsive footer can enhance your overall SEO performance and conversion rates. With best practices in mind, like link prioritizations and mobile friendliness, improve the overall aesthetics of a footer for modern businesses, 

We at Beetle Beetle offer a one-stop solution for all your website needs. Our team of expert consultants will create compelling designs for your website footers, which may be what you have been looking for a long time. So, give us a chance to take your business to new heights you never thought of. 

Want to increase your business conversion rates with illustrative footers? Click here to work with Beetle Beetle for an actionable plan.