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The End…Footer Design

· napwarden

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Take a look at your footer- that space at the bottom of your blog. Are you using it for more than a copyright statement?

Your footer is not just a place to dump sitemeter and analytics code. Actually, it is the second biggest design element in your site. It is literally the period at the end of your sentence. Think about it, you got the reader all the way down to the bottom of your site. Do a little victory dance!

Now that you’re done with that…think…Where do you want to send them next?

What do you want them to do now?

If you haven’t planned that out…you’ve kind of missed an opportunity.

The footer of your blog is an important space. Don't neglect it. Here are some design ideas to make your blog footer work for you.

How to make the most of your blog’s footer

Connecting

Visitors want to click around when they landed on your site, but now that they’re at the bottom, and have fallen in love with you…now they want to check out some of your other categories. Maybe they didn’t want to subscribe to your site at the top now that you’ve hooked them. Your footer is the perfect space to give them another opportunity to subscribe, follow or like you,  friend you… any way to give readers another chance to connect. For an excellent example, let’s check out Spearmint Baby. The secondary footer navigation is spot on and gives you access to more of the great material you just read.

Features in the Footer Space

While this navigation is easy to look at and easy to navigate, what if you just don’t have all that stuff to highlight? I understand sometimes folks feel like they are in link overload. Grab 3 or 4 of your most popular posts (this can be done in both Blogger, and WordPress) and put them with an image and excerpt in your footer. It’s clean, it’s easy, and it will get folks interacting with your site. Check out Design Sponge’s footer, I’m totally in love with it! (Since I’m a blog designer, it’s totally OK for me to be in love with a footer…right?)

Your footer is a great place to market your site’s strengths, and highlight your other endeavors.

Please don’t throw it away. Think about what else you want to say…and rock that footer!

How do you use your blog’s footer?

About napwarden

Cynthia started her one stop shop for everything from blog design to custom illustration and logo creation 3 years ago. Over 100 blog designs later, and many late night dates with her Macbook Pro, NW Designs has become her full time job. You can find her at NW Designs or NapWarden

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Anne Galivan says

    I use NRelate. It is a plug-in that suggests other posts the reader might like and you can set it up to include a thumbnail image so it looks incredibly professional. And one of the best things about it is that it is uber-easy to install. I am not a techie AT ALL and I installed it ALL BY MYSELF (I was pretty proud of myself, can you tell?)

    Anyway, I love it. Along with that I’m using “AddThis” so people can share posts with their network, though I find I actually get most of my traffic via search engines (which surprises me but I’ll take it).

  5. Kate W says

    No doubt, these are great ideas. But I have no design talent. I’ve been blogging for five-plus years, and while I think my blog is a worthy destination, I am one of those people who actually makes things worse when I try to make them more visually interesting.

    But for the visually talented, this is a winning concept.

    Fortunately, my blog is about writing and fairy tales. Classic fairy tale illustration is so pretty, it definitely helps my site!

  10. Susan in the Boonies says

    It had never occurred to me that making it to the bottom of the home page is a reason to celebrate and do a happy dance, but I do believe you’re right!

    My husband and I are in the beginning stages of talking about a new design for me, and you have DEFINITELY given me food for thought! Thanks, Cynthia!

  11. Cindi @ Moomettes Magnificents says

    Actually I’m pretty pleased with my footer – already taking advantage of it by having a search function there, along with a a few links to my favorite blog directories, friends and awards. It’s good to use valuable real estate!

  12. Behind the Lashes says

    I just recently gave mine a facelift by having the pages, calendar, and instagram pics in it. I’ve been meaning to make the pages part more custom looking and I think you just gave me the motivation. Thank you!

  15. Kassi @ Truly Lovely says

    With my recent move to WP, I was so excited to be able to include fun widgets in my footer! I have three currently. A recent tweets, a like us on Facebook and a top commentators widget!

  17. Young Yoga Masters says

    I’m going to add a sign up box to my footer now that you mention it. It is a good point that if they are actually reading to the bottom, it is time for a victory dance. Good post! Thanks.

  18. Amber says

    I really love when wp themes have super cute footers with widget areas because that makes it so much easier to put things in the footer 🙂

  20. Michaela says

    I’m in the middle of a design overhaul on the blog and was looking at adding something into my footer to make it more useful and to keep the sidebar less cluttered. Thanks for the inspiration!

  21. Ronni says

    I have facebook plugin, recent comments, categories, archives, and my meta info in the footer. Plus copy right information and theme info. 🙂

  22. thedoseofreality says

    So, I totally need to figure out to do something, anything with my footer. Because, I would love to. The favorite post idea is GENIUS. I am definitely going to explore my WP and see what I can whip up! 😉 Thank you!

  24. Jenn @ Coolest Family on the Block says

    I have a search box, categories, archives, email subscription, and all of my follow buttons in my footer (although I do need to update them to add Pinterest, etc.). I always wanted to make sure if someone made it to the bottom of my blog they wouldn’t have to scroll back up to follow me or find more to read. Because we’re all that lazy 🙂 Maybe it’s too much, but I’m happy with it.

  26. Wendy carter says

    Love spring fling so far! I’ve have changed something daily since it started and am looking forward to what you have in store the rest of the week. I will definitely be changing up my footer slightly… I don’t think it’s too bad but can definitely use a better period at the end of the sentence!

  27. Debra says

    Interesting…..I definitely need to figure out how to customize my footer – might even have to change my template layout to do it. So far I’ve put a few things “down there” to see how it does!

  28. Jenny says

    I have nothing in my footer right now, but I would love to have something there! I’m on Blogger and I have no idea how to do this. Any help or links you could direct me to would be great! Thanks!

  29. Amy says

    This is so timely! I was literally just thinking about my blog footer yesterday and was going around to blogs I like for some new ideas.

  30. Kate says

    I will say that for that for the past 5 years I have ignored my footer.

    hmm.

    now i am thinking about it.

    thank you!

  32. Mommy Boots says

    I have something about copyright and zombies. Time to utilize that space better, I guess. Except for the part about zombies. That stays.

  33. Janmary, N Ireland says

    Having hear Nap Warden speak at BBC Atlanta I asked her to help with the redesign of my blog – including the footer – so I now use the space for popular posts, my Facebook page etc.

    • barb says

      I feel the shame too 🙁 I’m definitely working on mine today too.

      Great post, as always!!! 🙂

  38. Kablooey says

    Thanks for the advice, Cynthia. I’m doing better with my footer since I treated myself to a redesign, but now I have really big feet. My fault; I asked for a lot down there. I may have veered off into clown shoe territory. And I know I messed up a link down there and have just been ignoring it, like a bad manicure. Now I’m motivated to fix things up.

  39. Jen says

    I don’t use my footer…. I know, you just fell our of your chair.

    I would like to use it. Putting things down there, do you have to be a blog designer to do so or is there a widget or something that can be added to a WP blog to make that space usable?

  40. Carla Kennedy says

    I never thought of how important a footer can be. My theme has 4 footer widget areas and I am using them with a bio, recent comments and 2 other things. I know one is a tag cloud just holding space.
    I am not quite sure if my footer is effective, but I am using it.

  41. Another Jennifer says

    I have my Twitter and FB feeds in my footer, along with a tag cloud and my most popular posts. Seems to work well.

  45. Jenny says

    I keep meaning to put a footer thinger on my design but I have like NO idea what to put in it that would look good nor do I have a “footer” worthy design atm… But I’ll eventually figure it out 😛

  46. Kristi says

    At this point, my footer is non-existent on one blog that I run because we are still in the development phase. As far as my second blog, it’s optimized and using the valuable space wisely!

  48. Kia says

    I just made my footer my popular posts…really not happy with it though…I have a lot to work on.

  50. Simply Brittany says

    Right now, my footer is a “dumping ground.” However, I’m transferring my blog over to WP as we spe… er, type and I’m so excited to make use of my footer. This is a great post, thanks for the info!!