As an experienced webmaster, I know that most website owners overlook their footer design. But this small section can have a big impact on your brand, traffic, and conversions.
In this comprehensive 2000 word guide, we‘ll dive deep on optimizing your WordPress footer.
I‘ll showcase 13 stellar real-world examples from leading websites. You‘ll also get proven insider tips to help create the perfect footer for your needs.
Let‘s get started!
Contents
First, let‘s discuss why you should care about your footer in the first place.
The footer appears at the bottom of every page on your site. It commonly contains things like:
- Contact details
- Site navigation
- Legal pages
- Subscription forms
- Social media icons
When designed effectively, your footer becomes a powerful tool to:
-
Strengthen branding – Use your logo, colors, and messaging to reinforce your visual identity.
-
Boost engagement – Guide visitors to your most important pages and resources.
-
Increase conversions – Add calls-to-action to drive leads and sales.
-
Improve SEO – Internal links can help search engine crawlability.
Visitors who scroll down to your footer tend to be highly engaged. Their attention means you can directly influence their experience and encourage specific actions.
In fact, research shows including teasers and calls-to-action in your footer can increase conversions:
-
One study found adding a second call-to-action in the footer boosted conversions by 7%. [Source: MarketingSherpa]
-
Software company Pipedrive saw a 21% increase in trial sign-ups when testing a sticky footer with a CTA. [Source: PostFunnel]
-
Email marketing platform GetResponse gained 8,500 more newsletter subscribers per month—a 17% lift—by redesigning their footer with an inline form. [Source: HubSpot]
It‘s clear that optimizing your footer improves conversions and business results. Now let‘s look at examples of effective footer design.
Here are 13 excellent footer examples from leading companies, top bloggers, and successful publishers:
1. BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed is one of the most recognizable media brands online, covering entertainment, tech, shopping, and more. Their footer focuses heavily on reinforcing their brand identity:
The large logo and copyright date help cement BuzzFeed‘s iconic visual style. This gets ingrained in visitors‘ minds as they browse the site.
Strong branding in your own footer design can help boost retention and recognition. Don‘t be afraid to prominently showcase your company name, logo, tagline, and other elements.
2. Backlinko
Backlinko, run by SEO expert Brian Dean, provides actionable tips to improve website traffic. Their content helps businesses rank higher in Google.
Backlinko‘s footer promotes their most popular offerings to extend value:
The uncluttered links to SEO tools, training, and resources help visitors go deeper into the Backlinko ecosystem.
Optimizing your footer content for your target audience is an excellent way to boost engagement. Make it easy for visitors to access specialized resources tailored to their needs.
3. FreshBooks
FreshBooks offers small business accounting and invoicing software used by over 30 million people worldwide. Their footer covers key business services:
One section contains navigation links to important product features, resources, and support articles. This helps customers learn the software.
Another section has legal pages like terms of service, privacy policy, and accessibility. These build credibility and compliance.
Including thorough site navigation and legal pages lends credibility and covers what website visitors commonly look for. Make it easy for your customers to find what they need.
4. Shopify
As an ecommerce platform for over 1.1 million online stores, Shopify wants to help entrepreneurs succeed. Their footer highlights popular seller resources:
It contains useful links related to starting a business, selling on social media, shipping strategies, and growing sales. These resonate directly with Shopify‘s merchant audience.
Make sure your own footer navigation targets your core visitors. Guiding them to relevant resources tailored to their role or industry helps drive engagement.
5. Neil Patel
Neil Patel is one of the most influential bloggers and marketers in the world. His website adopts a minimalist footer design:
It simply displays his logo, popular site links, and social media profiles. The uncluttered look reinforces Neil‘s personal brand.
For blogs and sites focused on an individual, a clean and simple footer can work very well. It keeps attention on your main content versus company details.
6. conversions.im
The conversions.im blog provides tips for greatly improving website conversion rates through research and testing.
Their footer highlights popular posts and guides to help readers immediately improve their sites. An email newsletter CTA and social links are also prominently displayed.
This clean, conversion-focused design ensures visitors can easily access the blog‘s most useful resources as they leave the page.
7. Oberlo
Oberlo enables easy dropshipping for Shopify stores. Their footer targets merchant needs:
It links to their blog, ebooks, case studies, knowledge base, and support center. These assets provide value to ecommerce businesses using Oberlo‘s platform.
Making it easy for customers to access support, training, and community resources is fantastic for retention and satisfaction. Don‘t forget about vital customer service links.
8. OptinMonster
OptinMonster helps sites convert visitors into subscribers with popups, forms, and lead flows. Their footer drives sales:
Links to platform features, support docs, and use cases help visitors learn more. The prominent CTA button links to OptinMonster‘s pricing page to drive conversions.
When you have a solid free trial or lead magnet, your footer can focus solely on pushing visitors to convert rather than general navigation links.
9. HubSpot
As an inbound marketing and sales platform, HubSpot wants customers to easily access key resources. Their footer provides helpful navigation:
It links to popular HubSpot products, blog categories, free tools, and more. This supplementary navigation helps visitors discover relevant content.
Having a secondary site navigation menu in your footer improves user experience. It enables smooth discovery of important pages as visitors exit your website.
10. Leadpages
Leadpages offers landing page and funnel building software for marketers. Their footer highlights conversions:
It features a quote from a satisfied customer plus trust signals like security badges and 5-star ratings. This builds credibility to drive leads. Underneath is an email opt-in form.
Leverage social proof and urgently promote opt-ins in your own footer. Engaged visitors who have scrolled down the page are prime candidates for conversion.
11. Dropbox
Dropbox is a popular cloud storage platform. For business accounts, their footer links to helpful resources:
It contains robust navigation for finding files, troubleshooting issues, learning admin features, contacting support, and more.
For SaaS companies, ensure your footer covers the full customer journey. Make vital support, training, and community links easily accessible. This increases retention.
12. WordPress
The official WordPress footer keeps things clean:
It simply displays high-level navigation and social media follow buttons. This minimalism keeps maximum focus on WordPress‘s news and updates.
For content-heavy sites like blogs, a simplified footer design tends to work very well. It enables quick top-level navigation without overwhelming visitors.
13. Unbounce
Unbounce is a popular landing page builder for marketers. Their footer highlights company values:
It contains prominent links that express Unbounce‘s culture like diversity, inclusion, CSR, sustainability, and remote work.
Don‘t be afraid to go beyond barebones navigation to express your brand values and personality. This helps attract customers who align with your mission.
Now that we‘ve covered stellar examples, let‘s dig into proven insider tips and strategies to optimize your own footer:
Prominently Display Contact Information
Having your business address, phone, email, and other contact details handy builds trust and credibility.
This is hugely helpful for local businesses. In fact, 60% of smartphone users contact a store from a location-based search. [Source: Thinknear]
Repeatedly showcasing your physical location and contact info across your website—including the footer—makes you more discoverable and accessible.
Add Social Media Follow Buttons
Enabling visitors to easily stay connected on social media strengthens your relationship over time.
Simply displaying social media icons linked to your profiles takes seconds to set up. But this simple addition encourages visitors to subscribe, like, and follow your brand.
HubSpot saw a 200% increase in Facebook followers by adding social media links to their footer and other site areas. [Source: HubSpot]
Highlight Legal Pages
Every website needs certain legal pages like Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and Disclaimers.
These vital pages protect your business. But more importantly, prominently linking to them builds credibility and trust.
Visitors want to know you take compliance, security, and transparency seriously. Making legal pages accessible from the footer reassures users.
Quality website navigation is crucial for helping visitors easily discover your most important pages.
That‘s why it‘s common for websites to duplicate their main navigation menu in the footer. This provides a secondary navigation for enhanced discovery.
Sections for Products, Services, Company, Support, Resources, and Blog work very well. Organize footer links in order of visitor priority.
Promote Email Subscription
Adding opt-in forms or teasers for your newsletter, educational emails, or other list within your footer can significantly lift conversions.
Website visitors who reach the bottom of the page tend to be highly engaged. Capturing their email is wise.
In one test, moving email signups from the sidebar to the footer boosted signups by over 400%. Footer placement worked better for the study. [Source: MarketingExperiments]
Display Trust Badges and Certifications
Adding trust signals like security seals, BBB ratings, certifications (PCI compliance, SSL, etc), and other badges builds immediate credibility.
This social proof assures visitors your business is safe, legitimate, and meets industry standards.
Trust badges help put hesitant visitors at ease. Use them liberally in your header, footer, and other key areas.
Feature Customer Testimonials
Happy customer quotes establish expertise and authority with new visitors.
Hearing positive experiences from current users provides powerful social proof. This increases conversions and sales.
Try adding a one-sentence testimonial from a satisfied customer or client somewhere within your footer. rotations work well to showcase a variety of perspectives.
Create Urgency With Limited-Time Offers
Website footers are prime real estate for special promotions, flash sales, contests, or limited-time offers designed to create urgency.
Visitors are already engaged if they‘ve reached your footer. Strike while the iron‘s hot with an exclusive footer offer.
Urgency and scarcity can incentivize visitors who are on the fence. They‘ll be more likely to convert before leaving your site.
Keep It Scannable
Avoid dense blocks of text in your footer design. Use short paragraphs, bullet lists, and ample white space to improve readability.
Follow the rule of "one idea per line" and beware walls of text.
This enhances scannability for visitors who want to quickly extract information and move on.
Optimize for Mobile
With 60% of website traffic now coming from mobile, an optimized responsive footer is essential. [Source: StatCounter]
Test your footer on both mobile and desktop to catch any issues. Avoid overlapping elements and tiny tap targets.
Mobile visitors need your footer navigation, contact info, and calls-to-action to be easily accessible on smaller screens. Don‘t make them pinch and zoom to navigate your site!
To quickly recap, here are the key elements for creating a high-converting website footer:
- Prominently display your logo, tagline, and contact information
- Add social media follow buttons for your brand‘s profiles
- Link to all vital legal pages like Terms, Privacy Policy, etc.
- Include robust site navigation for improved discoverability
- Use opt-in forms and CTAs to capture more email subscribers
- Show trust badges, certifications, and customer testimonials
- Create urgency with limited-time promotions or flash sales
- Keep footer content scannable with short paragraphs and lists
- Ensure your footer looks great responsively on mobile
Following these insider tips will help you design an effective footer that converts visitors into leads and sales.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, your website‘s footer is an often-underutilized area with massive potential.
A well-designed footer strengthens branding, boosts usability, increases conversions, and enhances SEO.
Invest time into crafting a user-friendly footer that helps—not hinders—the visitor experience. Test different CTAs, offers, and resources to see what works best.
Let me know if you have any other questions on creating the perfect footer for your WordPress site! I‘m happy to help fellow webmasters and small business owners thrive online.
