What Are Footer Links? Why They Matter + Tips

Footer links are the links located successful the conception of contented that appears astatine the bottommost of astir pages connected your website. This conception is known arsenic the footer.

They look for illustration this:

Footer links play an important domiciled successful the personification acquisition because they supply visitors pinch a elemental measurement to navigate to immoderate of your astir important pages. 

Making it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for successful this measurement whitethorn promote them to enactment connected your tract for longer.

Using links successful your footer won’t drastically effect your search motor optimization (SEO) efforts. But it tin play a mini domiciled successful helping you look precocious successful hunt results.

Why?

Because footer links are typically internal links (links that spell to different pages connected your website). And soul links tin thief hunt engines for illustration Google find your important pages and understand really your tract is structured. 

Carefully implementing footer links tin besides support a bully personification acquisition (UX). And bully UX tin indirectly thief your SEO.

The champion practices outlined beneath tin thief you supply a amended user experience and moreover boost your visibility successful hunt engines. 

1. Include Links to High-Priority Pages

Your footer should only see links to your astir important pages to guarantee they’re genuinely providing value.

What makes a page important? 

It varies from institution to company, but it’s a bully thought to see links to contented that users mightiness want to reference astatine immoderate constituent successful their buyer’s journey. Like pages that supply much accusation aliases discourse astir your business.

Your footer is besides a bully spot to see links to pages that are important but that mightiness not fresh logically wrong your main navigation. Like your newsroom conception aliases accusation for investors. 

Here are immoderate communal places brands nexus to successful their footers:

• About page: The page that summarizes your company, leadership, and unsocial worth proposition (UVP)
• Category pages: Pages that connection an overview of your superior products aliases services
• Legal information: Legal archiving connected disclaimers, position of service, and privateness policies
• Contact us: Contact accusation and options to scope retired by phone, email, etc.
• Testimonials: A page pinch stories from past customers who’ve purchased your products aliases services
• Customer support: A cardinal customer support page aliases much circumstantial ones for illustration resources, glossaries, tutorial pages, etc.

If you person a larger website, you’ll people person much links successful your footer. But the personification should beryllium capable to spot the entirety of your footer without it taking up their full surface (at slightest connected desktop).

Like this:

And location isn’t an nonstop number of links you should include. But make judge you don’t see excessively galore links. 

Excessive links (in your footer aliases anyplace else) tin confuse Google astir your website’s structure. 

Google’s John Mueller stated that excessively galore soul links tin do much harm than good. Because excessive links make it harder for hunt engines to understand the discourse of individual pages. 

So, the champion measurement to show Google which pages are important is by utilizing your XML sitemap—a record that tells Google which URLs connected your tract to scale (store successful its database).

First, usage Site Audit to guarantee your sitemap doesn’t incorporate errors. 

You tin spot these by going to the “Issues” tab and entering “sitemap” successful the hunt bar.

Then, submit your sitemap to Google via Google Search Console.

Your footer links should beryllium organized visually by main taxable to make it easier for users to find what they’re looking for. 

Vertical columns will make your footer links quicker to scan. 

And if you person galore links successful your footer, you should usage headings to shape them. 

We shape our footer links successful this way:

You should besides deliberation astir the bid of your footer links. 

Users publication from the near to correct successful astir languages. So, put the astir important links connected the near broadside of your footer. 

For example, we see “Contact us” arsenic the first link. Which gives it much ocular prominence that whitethorn entice users to click.

Strategically arranging your links for illustration this whitethorn moreover thief you thrust conversions.

3. Use Descriptive Anchor Text

Anchor text is the clickable matter that makes up a hyperlink, and it helps some users and hunt engines understand what the linked-to contented is about. 

When choosing anchor matter for your footer links, travel Google’s guidelines for each anchor text:

• Be descriptive
• Keep it short
• Confirm the anchor matter represents the contented of the linked-to page

The anchor matter you usage successful your footer will enactment accordant wherever your footer appears. But pinch different soul links connected your site, effort to alteration your anchor text. 

You don’t want to ever nexus to the aforesaid pages the aforesaid ways. Because that whitethorn look for illustration you’re trying to power rankings. 

4. Make Sure Your Website Is Mobile-Friendly

Having a mobile-friendly website is amended for rankings wide and ensures your webpage elements (like the footer) are easy to navigate connected mobile devices.

With responsive web design, your website will automatically set your contented to fresh the user’s device. 

For example, here’s a responsive website’s footer connected a desktop device:

And here’s the aforesaid footer connected mobile:

As you tin see, the number of columns successful the footer is reduced connected mobile. And that makes it easier to navigate.

It besides adjusted the size and spacing of the hyperlinks. Allowing users to easy click connected the footer links utilizing their fingers. 

Although your mobile footer whitethorn beryllium longer and require much scrolling, it’s much important that links are really scannable and clickable to make for a amended personification acquisition overall. 

5. Use Mostly Internal Links

The immense mostly of your footer links should beryllium to different pages connected your tract to promote visitors to prosecute pinch your contented and perchance convert.

External links (links that constituent to different websites) nonstop users elsewhere. And those users whitethorn not return. 

That said, location are a fewer types of outer links that you mightiness want to include: links to your societal media floor plan pages and to your location(s) successful Google Maps. 

The correct broadside of the footer is simply a bully spot for these outer links. Like this:

This statement makes it apt that users will spot your soul links first. 

But if they want to sojourn your societal profiles aliases spot wherever you’re located comparative to them, they tin easy do truthful by clicking connected the footer links. 

6. Add a Call to Action

A call to action (CTA) is an invitation for users to return a circumstantial action (submitting a form, subscribing to a newsletter, etc.), and including 1 successful your footer encourages users to complete your desired conversion action. 

For example, this website includes a “Subscribe to our newsletter” CTA successful the footer and provides a section for the personification to do so. 

You tin besides usage CTA buttons that nonstop to conversion-oriented pages erstwhile appropriate. 

For example, this nonprofit website uses “Contact Us,” “Volunteer” and “Join Our List” arsenic CTAs. And they each nexus to a applicable page.

Keep successful mind that the footer whitethorn beryllium your past chance to seizure a click aliases conversion from your tract visitors. So, effort to make your CTAs arsenic compelling arsenic possible. 

Incorporate Links Effectively

In SEO, footer links should beryllium a portion of your wide linking strategy. And it’s important to optimize soul links everyplace connected your site. 

If you want to cheque that your website is pursuing linking champion practices, usage Site Audit. 

After you tally an audit, find the “Internal Linking,” conception of your study and click “View details” wrong that section.

If location are immoderate issues pinch your links, they’ll beryllium listed successful the “Internal Link Issues” table.

Resolve those issues connected your website to amended your linking floor plan and your wide SEO health.