Website footer revivals

From the dredges of the leftover, afterthought of website design, we are at last experiencing a trend of footer revival. The real estate of the last legs of a web page is now being utilized as more than just credits and disclaimers.

As all good web designers know, every pixel of a web page is valuable space and contrary to the classic principles of design, designers are now looking at ways to incorporate more content into footers as part of the design experience of the complete site.

Be it a simple contact, copyright information or utilising the area for web forms or displaying Flickr images, the end of a web page layout is no longer unfinished business.

A “faux” footer if used effectively creates more internal traffic. They can connect people to useful resources, link visitors to customer service and extended information about a websites business. In short, they keep visitors on the website. Faux footers are now more easily used in blogs with WordPress sidebar widgets integrating easily into a blog footer.

Footers can also be a way to integrate some of the navigation and other necessary but distracting design away from the content in order to streamline a page. This can be a powerful strategy for optimizing the readability of a site. Just be aware of usability factors and repetative content in the footer area!

Instead of thinking of the website footer as the untimely ending of a beautiful web design, make it the continuation of rich real estate to be explored to keep your visitor browsing your website.