Footers usually repeat the primary navigation and contain anything that is considered "the fine print," such as copyright information and a privacy policy. With the rising popularity of standards based design, they also have become the home for xhtml and css compliance badges. While doing a redesign for a new client of mine whose website lacked a footer entirely, it occurred to me how footers had become a faint afterthought when I put together a design. My footers are typically content barren and don't get a whole lot of design love. The most content-rich footer I ever created was probably for Avatar Financial, which contained a miniature site map and a bit of contact information. This made me curious - what are other designers doing with their footers?
Below is a list of 19 sites I gathered from around the web who have footers that caught my eye. Some are aesthetically pleasing, some offer atypical forms of navigation and functionality, and some just plain work well. I linked directly to as many of the footers as I could, but some of them didn't have ID attributes so you'll have to scroll down. Finding these was actually quite a bit more difficult than I thought it would be, so if anyone knows of any other sites with killer footers please share them in the comments below.
Didn't know you had a footer fetish, Matt.
That deserved a thumbs up!
That's what Jeff and I told him he should title the post when he was pooting it together yesterday.
That has to be the easiest way to pull in a huge unrelated audience; simply by implying the article has anything to do with sex.
Too bad we couldn't compare the traffic against the two titles. :(
I think that the post would get dugg a lot quicker with that title.
Absolutely deserving of a thumbs up.
What did the webpage say to the footer? 'You complete me.'
Sorry - I was inpired by the footer fetish comment.
These are quite beautiful and give me a lot of ideas. It's great when you can squeeze in more useful content that perhaps doesn't fit well in the body of a page, and present it in a way that adds to the user's good experience of the page.
Thanks Matt... it means a lot to Jose and me :')
I'm going to buck the trend a little here...
Firstly, as far as I'm concerned, footers should neither be seen, nor heard. The best footers are those where you don't ever even notice that they're there, because they are exactly what needs to be there, in terms of design, and nothing more. But nothing less either. They just provide the necessary information, and show you what you want.
What would I include? Links to links, t&c, privacy policy, any disclaimers etc... Also a button to go to the next post/page, and the last post/page.
However, I like my designs clean and minimal, so that may just be me...
Pete I like simple designs too. And while I'm impressed with most of the designs Matt linked to they aren't the kind of designs I would produce. I also think outside of a few industries simple is just going to work better.
I think I've also used footers the way you describe. For me they've usually been a repeat of the main navigation so people who scroll down don't have to scroll back up to navigate and I've also included things like a privacy policy or sitemap that I may not use in the main nav at the top of the page.
But this post is making me see that the footer can be incorporated more into the overall design. Instead of just being a series of links why not make them something a little bit more?
I probably won't be doing some of the things in the sites on the list here, because like you that's not my style of design, but I do think I'll create a little more interest in the footer.
For many of the designs here the footer does help unify the overall design. For me even if all I want the footer to be is another source of navigation why not give it similar attention as I would to the navigation in the header.
If someone reads an article on my site wouldn't it be good to call their attention to other areas of the site they can visit. If someone gets to the bottom of an article and at that moment is thinking that I might be someone they would hire I want them to see the link to my services page or my contact page at that exact moment. It's quite possible that moment will be gone by the time they scroll back to the top.
Sure the nav is there in the footer, but why not call attention to it for those who find themselves at the bottom of the page?
I had a lot of similar backlash from the digg crowd. My stance is this: this entry was not intended to promote that footers should be the focal point of any design. Having a gorgeous, complex footer works for some designs and doesn't work for others. I was merely curious what other designers were doing with them and wanted to share some of the creativity I found. I'm a big fan of design roundups, so I wanted to do one that focused on a design element that is usually overlooked.
I'm a little surprised since I thought this would be a post that would have gone over well on Digg. Then again seeing the name of the site it's on might have been enough to explain the backlash. I'll have to get over there and read the comments.
Matt I'm with you in liking these kind of posts. I'd previously seen some of these sites before, but it wasn't until seeing all of them together that the footers stood out for me.
I didn't take it from this post that you were saying to only use the complex footers. I still don't expect to do things like I see here since it's not my design style, but I will be paying more attention to footers than I have been in future designs, and I'll draw some inspiration from these.
I assume that was the main point of the post.
I stuck an costumed acrobat in the footer of this website - https://www.poetproductions.com - The goal was to spice it up a bit but your examples are really cool.
I like that, Dave - it brings some life to the footer. Well done.
Excellent and eye catching advice. :)
Yes I think a well designed footer can be a great last chance way to get a potential visitor to click through into other areas of your website. Your footer hopefully isn't designed better than the rest of your pages, but if done right can help improve conversion and click through
Thanks for compiling the designs, it has given me some ideas.
Devin
https://www.learn2promote.com
I just threw a new footer down too.
Dude, that's killer!
Thanks, Oatmeal! I thought it was amazing until i saw the featured footers above....
I agree that footers should be made more pretty than just an after thought from a tired coder/ designer BUT I dont agree that footers should be made too pretty and eye-catchy...
They should complete and finish the style, design and website but in such a matter that you do not notice it too much as you dont want viewers to take their attention off the actual page and look at the footer.
thanks for the great list of nice footers... :) I think it's nice to see some design thoughts going into the end of a page - just rounds it off and enhances the overall feel.
One of my favourites is the footer on stuffandnonsense.co.uk - just completes the design :)
I tried to achieve this rounded off look on mine with my last re-design: graphiceyedea.info
What do you guys think about forced static footer / headers?
What I mean is using CSS to make a footer or header that has a few necessary functions (like Search, Home, etc.) but does not disappear from the screen. It appears to be part of the window.
I have tried it and it was really interesting because it increased functionality and reduced time wastage. On the other hand I can see how some people might like to get rid of it, in which case I guess you could add an "X" to allow people to kill it.
Thoughts?
If it's done well, I'm all for it. A good example of using a static position is jonathan snook's blog
Sa---weet link oatmeal! i bookmarked that little baby.
I've moved into big footers for all my blogs. My view is that only the persistent searchers ever get there, so give them lots of possible ways of getting elsewhere on the website. For single screen web pages, I would adopt a very different approach and some of these shown here are really fine examples of what should be done. Congratulations.
I prefer always text links and a minimum number of footer links.
I hate footer and I prefer putting some of its link in a side bar division or in an SEO-friendly menu bar.
but we dont know if SE thinks classically about this
Great collection and some really thoughtful, creative work. Just goes to show that when it comes down the footer you really can think outside the box.
Just an FYI, all of the images on this post don't work anymore. The cloudfront account that they are coming from is inaccessable. Please update it, thanks ;)
Thanks for letting us know! We're looking to see what we can do about it. For now, here's a copy on archive.org that lets you look at the images.
https://web.archive.org/web/20100301115251/https://www.seomoz.org/blog/put-your-best-foot-forward
I love the footer they have over at deviantart.com - but for SEO purpose it's not the best approach iirc. It's been discussed on seomoz before (don't have the thread at hand though)
Really great and atractive collection...Thank you soo much!
I love that you posted about footers! They are so overlooked (at least where I work) and it's nice to see some good examples.
Everyone seems to be talking about design but what about seo and internal linking structure? Page Rank spill or manipulation? Look at https://www.insiderpages.com/ I want to make it strategic not just nice looking. Also what about a blurb with keyphrases above any links?
Any thoughts of using the footer as a clean and easy place to include Geo-targeting information. Here is an example which isn't the most stylistic but you get the idea https://www.cornerstoneflooring.com/ or something like this (site was cut up recently due to a merger) https://www.qtecad.com/
good footer inspiration design and models, thanks
Here is another good footer from Germany.
Here is one from our WoW guild site :).
https://www.sustainablelegion.com/
www.MadWhips.com has a superb footer that's so appropriate for the site. I like how the guy has his elbow on the sill, haha!
Just 1Thing.. I havent read all comments i i am going to, but i have been looking at Mattbrett.com's site for more then a year i think almost 2 years and i love to see him in this list he really deserve this, he is one of the brilliant minds who make people like me trying harder and more!!
I Just hope as a friend he will keep he's style and personality in he's new work "Not beeing he's own boss"All best Alex3mm.lv!! stay fresh, above!
Good stuff.
I am proud of the footer we did for www.BearMountain.ca. It stays attached to the bottom of the browser so it it isn't lost on long pages. I'm interested in suggestions to make it better.
Great collection, and of course many of the designs themselves beyond the footer were stellar.
Some of the new design layouts and blogs have probably helped to drive attention to the footer as more than just an after thought, but even on those sites, I disagree with dropping all of the navigation to the bottom, which also seems to usually be on "5-minute srcoll" sites.
But as a way to provide additional site-wide content or mini-sitemaps, I think it is pretty smart.
The footer on your client's site (ajmoss) isn't displaying properly for me. I'm seeing it half way up the page as opposed to at the bottom. I'm on IE 6.
Thanks crash, I'll let him know.
I think SEOmoz's footer should be on this list as well.
On a scale of 1-10 my design skills come in at a -1000....
I'm so jealous of those developers who can envision something and then make it reality on the web...
i liked this idea for a combination of the header and footer. it looks good, works well, and it's all about "kiss" (keep it simple stupid).
p.s. no, i didn't design it, and no i'm not LDS. :)
It's nice, but I would be concern about the header/footer permanently taking up valuable screen real estate. Unless there is a good reason to keep in front of a user constantly, it could be not a wise choice.
Having said that, I'm still thinking about how can I use it in my next project... :)
thank for the idex. nice . ill bookmark it.
best regards Imker
Thanks for this post Matt. I'm as guilty as anyone of seeing footers as an afterthought. I've made them more than just a repeat list of the main navigation, but sadly not all that much more. I'm going to need to rethink that.
It's amazing how much the footer can tie the whole design together and it's easy to see in the examples here.
It's almost like you start a look in the header and carry it down the page to pull the reader down the page with you and continuing right through to the footer gives a sense of closure to the design and fullfills the promise you made in the header.
These look really nice!
I've found that the best footers provide the answer to "what now?"
While it's busy, I love this one - It's rich in content and provides nice "eye candy".
- Scott Fish
Absolutely! The best footers not only look great, but guide a user to the next step. I think "less is more" works the best in this case, like on this site from Matt's list.
I'm not sure if I'd want to rely on the footer to guide users to the "next step", but your footer should definately add consistency to your site, including some level of branding, general nav, and other call-outs. Phone numbers are usually a requisite. I like some of these examples but obviously they are highly stylized -- and depending on the audience, more is less.
Yes, of course, a footer shouldn't be your primary means of guiding a user to the next step - it should be a supplemental one for those who scrolled all the way down without taking an action.
The footer with the "Questions? Email us" and "Attend a live..." elements did it for me, what a brilliant way of making use of an otherwise barren space.
I too just wanted to give a thank you for the addition of my footer. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this on my stats this morning... before my blog decided to stop working. Doh!
Anyway, thanks again. There's some fine feet I'm keeping company with.
Same as Brett Says: it's cool to see that my site is in that list of other really amazing designs.
Cheershttps://blog.artueel.be
Holy referrals Batman!
Thanks for including my site in your list. I've been dying to redesign for months, but I keep finding myself on "best of" lists such as this, so maybe I should just leave it a while longer until everyone else is tired of it like me. ;)
Another very creative footer: https://www.slayer.net
The one I like the best is the SparkLight one. In addition, I really liked the Guilago one from a visual standpoint of the logo in the footer, and also The Regulars for also accomplishing what is necessary for a footer in a more simplistic form than the SparkLight one.
Some of the others I felt were trying to be a second header and not a footer.
see https://doted.info/
It's true, the footer is generally an afterthough in the design process. That being said, a good footer is a real eye catcher.
Sometimes the simple approach works:
Amateur Gourmet
Python
uh, neither one of those pages has a footer?
ARGH! 2 thumbs down for a joke!
Tough crowd... :(
Sorry, sarcasm doesn't always come across on the internet. Next time try a smiley face :]
Umm yeah, no footer there? is that the simple approach in the "he's a very very sweet but simple (As in the shortbus) person"?