Footers are possibly the least sexy part of a blog.
They’re way down there at the bottom and barely get any attention from bloggers. We’re usually focused on what is “above the fold” instead of way down there in the nether regions at the very bottom of a blog.
But I think this is a mistake! While not everyone looks the footer of a blog, people still definitely see it.
Over the weekend I redid the footer area here on Blogging Bookshelf (scroll down to the bottom of the page to check it out!) and it took me a little while to figure out what I wanted to put there. I looked at the footers of a bunch of different blogs and made notes of what I saw there.
In this post you’ll see what I found out, and I’ll also share a list of 26 things you can put in your blog’s footer. Fun!
But first…
What is a footer?
A couple people reading this might be a bit fuzzy on what exactly a footer is. In short, it’s the full-width area on a blog below the sidebar(s) and content area.
Clear? Excellent. So the next question is… What can you put in your footer? Well… Here’s a handy-dandy list for you.
26 Things to Put in Your Blog’s Footer
1. Copyright information
This is where you say
Copyright © 2010 BloggingBookshelf.com. All rights reserved.
Or something like
This work by Tristan Higbee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
2. Boring page links
To clarify here, “boring” is describing the pages, not the links. This includes the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy pages. I don’t really know much about these and have never included these on my blogs, but most major blog has them. I’ll do some research and write a post about these 2 pages soon. It will probably be a very boring yet quite informative post.
3. Standard page links
This includes links to the About, Contact, and Advertise pages.
4. Home page link
Link to the home page of your blog.
5. RSS feed link
Link to the RSS feed of your blog. Add both RSS subscription and email subscription options.
6. Newsletter subscription form
Though I don’t know how effective this would be, it couldn’t hurt to have an newsletter/list signup form down there.
7. Social media icons/links
This is probably one of the more commonly seen element in blog footers. This includes Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and any other ones you’re a part of.
8. Popular posts
I use the Ranged Popular Posts widget in my sidebar, but it would work just fine in a footer!
9. Favorite posts
List your own favorite or under-appreciated posts.
10. Recent posts
Use the Killer Recent Entries widget that comes with WordPress.
11. Recent comments
Use the Recent Comments widget that comes with WordPress.
12. Top commenters
I use the Top Commentators Widget plugin.
13. Archives link
Link to your site’s archives.
14. Site map
This would link to your blog’s sitemap. I don’t have one of these yet (I need to), but I’ve heard only good things about the Google XML Sitemaps plugin.
15. Link to the top of the page
I’ve got one of these in my footer. This is the html for the link: <a href = #> text </a>
16. Advertisements
I’ve also got these in my footer. They’re ads for products I use and love.
17. Links to your other blogs
If you’ve got more then one blog, or if you’re part of a blog network, you can link to those blogs.
18. Links to other blogs
Of course, you could do the blogroll thing and link to other blogs you’re not affiliated with.
20. “Site by…” link
If the blog was created/designed by someone else, this is often in the footer.
21. Theme link
We’ve all seen these, “Powered by WHATEVER-THEME” links in blog footers.
22. WordPress link
“Proudly powered by WordPress” is another footer element you see a lot of.
23. Most retweeted
Is there a plugin for this? Because I think this would be really cool!
24. Contact form
You could have a really small contact form in the footer so it would be easier for people to get in touch with you.
25. “Write for Us” link
If you allow guest posting on your blog, adding a “Write for Us” or “Guest Post” link in the footer might draw more people in.
26. Another navigation menu
I’m talking here about 2 things: either an actual second navigation bar that’s more or less a copy of the one at the top of a blog, or your blog’s main pages listed in a widget.
——————————————-
So the next question is…
What should YOU put in YOUR footer?
Well, first let’s check out some other big blogs and see what they’ve got down there.
Top 10 small business blogs & the contents of their footers
I checked out Technorati’s top 10 small business blogs and looked at their footers. Here are the results:
- TopRank Online Marketing Blog – hosting sponsor link, copyright, link to top
- Search Engine Journal – contact us link, advertise link, regular menu, link to top, “Site designed by” link, copyright
- Small Business Trends – social media links, “resources” (internal) links, awards, RSS feed from a partner blog, copyright, privacy policy link, home link, advertise link, link to a plugin, about, archives, FAQ, contact, “Site created by” link
- Social Media Examiner – copyright, Twitter button, subscription buttons, blog name
- College Pro Blog – social media, copyright, “Theme by” link, WordPress link
- Duct Tape Marketing – products, “consulting programs,” “speaking/workshops,” resources/tools, “site by,” WordPress link
- ProBlogger – categories, about, resources (affiliate stuff; 2 columns)
- Social Media Explorer – copyright, theme and design info, CC statement
- Tehranpi – (What a horrible blog!!) – copyright, topics covered, WordPress link, links to partner sites
- Inside AdWords – copyright, privacy policy link, terms of service link
So based off of that information, the most popular elements to have in your blog’s footer are…
- copyright information
- privacy policy
- links to the Home, About, and Contact pages
- Social media/networking information
Ok, that’s a solid enough little list… So let’s move on to what’s in MY footer and why.
Why I put in my footer what I put in my footer
Wow, that’s a very inelegant heading…
For your viewing pleasure (and so you don’t have to scroll down), here’s what the footer here looks like:
First off, I was debating between 3 and 4 columns and chose 4 simply because I wanted to put more stuff down there.
The copyright information is below everything else in the footer.
I put the “Stuff I Recommend” affiliate links in the footer because I want to see if they get any clicks down there. If you remember my lessons on blog advertising post, I mention that there was I think only one of the world’s top 20 blogs had ads in the footer. But I wanted to try it out because I don’t particularly like having the ads anywhere else.
I put the categories down there because I didn’t like them in the sidebar.
I added the “About Me” bit because I’ve seen this on blogs before (ProBlogger comes to mind) and I like it. And I didn’t want to put a picture of myself or bio in the valuable sidebar space.
The “Connect With Me” section is there simply because I’ve seen it on other blogs and it seems like a good thing to have in there. It’ll be interesting to see if anyone ever clicks on those. I’ll be replacing the text links with social media icons at some point in the future when I have more time.
The “Return to Top” link is there because it seemed like a good idea! My posts are long, so it saves people from having to scroll all the way to the top.
The footer, like everything else on the blog here, is a work in progress. I’ll add and take away stuff as I do more testing and find out what works best.
As I stated above, I didn’t put privacy policy or terms of service links because I don’t have those pages on my blog yet.
I don’t have the Home, About, or Contact page links because I ran out of space!
AARGHH! HELP! How do I put stuff in my blog’s footer?
“Great, I want to put all sorts of crap in my footer now, but HOW DO I DO IT?”
If there’s enough interest in an answer to that question, leave a comment and I’ll address this in a future post. Or if just one or two people are interested I can email you more info. Or you can just Google it :)
The easiest way to add a footer is to get a WordPress theme that comes with widgets built in to the footer (I’ve used several of the Woo Themes that have this). Or do I what I did and use Thesis and customize it a bit.
EDIT: If you DO use Thesis, I’ve copied the custom_functions.php and custom.css code that I use. You can find it here (php file) and here (css file). Both of these are .txt files.
EDIT #2: If you want to quickly check out the footer on any blog you’re at just hit Ctrl + End (or Cmd + End on a Mac?) and you’ll immediately be taken to the bottom of the page. Use Ctrl + Home to get back to the top.
Over to you!
So I’ve got some questions…
- What’s in your blog’s footer?
- What would you like to add to your blog’s footer?
- What would you like to see in Blogging Bookshelf’s footer?
- What do you like to see in footers?
- Do you ever even look at blog/website footers??
I’m looking forward to these answers!
{ 109 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Tristan,
Timely post as developing my footer is on my December goals list and the month is rapidly ending!
One thing that I have seen on a website footer that worked well was the site’s subscription statistics ie how many RSS subscribers, email subscriber, monthly visits etc which I guess is great for social proof. If you’ve got the numbers, flaunt it! Probably not a great idea though it you’re just starting.
I notice that you have your ‘about me’ box in the footer. I know that space is precious up the top but I have mine first up on the right hand side so new visitors instantly see my personal touch. What are your thoughts about this?
Good call on the subscription stats, Brenton. That’s a great idea! And then put those subscription/social media links right next the them and bam, you’re good to go.
While I try to be personal on my blog, I feel like it’s not essential in my niche for everyone to know about me as soon as they show up to my site. That’s why it’s not at the top of the sidebar. When people come here I want them to 1) leave a comment, and 2) subscribe to my newsletter. That’s why I have those two things displayed so prominently in the sidebar. They’ll get to know me through my posts and about page.
As for you and your blog, I think that it’s a great thing to have at the top of the sidebar in the lifestyle design/personal development niche. It’s something that I see more in that niche than in others, so people almost expect to see it there.
So to sum up… I think it depends on 1) what you want first-time visitors to experience when they come to your blog, and 2) what your niche is.
Thanks for such a great comment!
Hi Tristan,
I don’t really require a footer now, that’s why my footer is rather boring. Your question is worth pondering. I don’t think there will be a perfect footer for everyone. It’s up to individual blogger’s requirement to put whatever stuff they think it is useful to them. It should be able to generate attention and clicks at a minimum. I don’t know how effective to put ads in footer, probably you can let us know about it when you have the results.
FYI, you message on the header is more attractive for me to click inside and learn what tools and plugins you are using. Thanks for sharing and have a great day.
Lye, I also don’t think there’s a perfect footer for everyone. The idea behind this post was mainly just to put all the information out there so that people can pick and choose what they want to have in their footer.
Yeah, I’m interested in seeing how effective the ads in the footer are. I AM tracking clicks, and each one of the ads has gotten about half a dozen clicks since last night. So that’s definitely not bad!
Thanks for the feedback on the message in the header!
And thanks as always for the comment, Lye!
I have no footer! Or if we call a small wide block a footer, it has just copyright info in it. I believe that footer is not very important.
Or maybe I did not put footer when I was custom coding for my blog’s theme, footer was the last thing and I was too tired after that much customization that I let it be just a single bar! :)
I know what you mean, Ishan! The footer was pretty much the last thing on my list, too. Up until the weekend, my footer was just a small wide block too! But now that I’ve jazzed it up a bit, I actually really like it there and wish I had done it sooner. I think it just “completes” the page. Having a blog with no footer is like having a blog post with no conclusion; sure, the main idea gets across, but there’s just a more effective way of doing it.
Thanks for the great comment!
Tristan,
I like how you went about deciding what you want in your footer. The footer makes your blog complete.
I checked out the sites you looked at and found that I liked how clean the footers were. They were very attractive.
I thought I had added keywords to my footer….where they went I don’t know. Oh my, that is a task I better figure out today.
Sheila, have you found that adding your keywords down there helps with SEO? I mean, I guess it couldn’t hurt.
I agree. The footer just completes the blog. I never really realized that until I added mine down there.
Thanks as always for the comment!
Love how you styled your footer – right now, I have testimonials plus my affiliate link for the designer. Given that I’m adding new material to the site for 2011, will carve a niche out for that….
Thanks, Barbara! There’s more stuff I’d like to add to mine, too, but I first want to see how how many clicks the current stuff down there is getting.
I just checked out your footer and I really like the look of it. Your designer did a great job on your blog.
Thanks for commenting!
Let’s see how those Affiliate links will go down there :)
I like your widgetized footer by the way!
Tristan, I’m surprised you can talk Russian Ukrainian and English, I can speak Korean Spanish and English Hahaha
Nice to see you around man :)
I doubt the affiliate links down there will do much good, but I just wanted to try it. Each one has actually gotten about 6 clicks since last night. That’s better than I thought it would be!
Between the two of us, we could visit a pretty big chunk of the world and talk to people! I also speak some Chinese (I lived in Beijing for three years), but it’s not as good as it should be and so I didn’t mention it!
Thanks for commenting, Fernando!
Great work Tristan. The footer looks ;) !
I like the banner ads in footer. You really did great work man!
Thansk for shraing!
Thanks, Devesh! I had to custom make each one of those banners in the footer because I didn’t like any of the standard sizes down there… Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
Hi Tristan
I have heard different opinions on what to put in the footer and whether one is necessary. I like how you went through why you have chosen what you have to put in your own footer on this blog. Thanks for giving us examples of other blogs to check out with footers.
At the moment it is not on my “to do” list. Maybe later on when I have mastered a few more things. The other option of course will be to get a techie to do it. I have Headway theme so maybe will ask my blogging buddies who have the same theme, about it.
Thanks for continuing to write such informative and helpful posts for us Tristan. You sure are moving along with this blog.
Patricia Perth Australia
I actually have a copy of Headway, too. It’s a great theme. I just Googled “widgetized footer headway” and several great resources came up.
I think you’re doing the right thing as far as not worrying about your footer goes. A good footer really isn’t an essential part of a blog, though I do think it’s an undervalued and underutilized one. But I only just fixed my footer this weekend after having this blog for a month. There are definitely things higher up on the priority list!
Thanks for the kind words and the comment, Patricia! I really appreciate all of the commenting and sharing you do!
Hi, thanks for the tips! I dont currently have a blog footer on my site but I will surely read into on how to get one.
Thanks again
Awesome, I’m glad the post was helpful, Edwin! Thanks for commenting!
I’d like to put as little as possible in my footer. I think a footer is just for copyrights, links to privacy policy etc. Social media links should be placed after the post, so when a reader is done reading he/she will receive the ability to share it immediately ;)
Thanks for the interesting comment, Frans. I agree that social media links should be put after a post, and I do that on this blog. But why NOT have those other things in the footer? How does having those other things detract from a blog in any way?
what uuuup Tristian,
Another informative and timely post, well played sir.
A post on how to do this, mayb a video post??? would be awesome. I guess thats why people read blogs – because they cant be arsed researching stuff themselves on google!!!
bLAZE yOUR tRAIL
Thanks, Ryan! A video post, eh? Cool, I’ll see what I can do!
Glad you liked the post, and thanks for the comment!
My footer has been on my list of things to spruce up for a long time.
I think I’m going to put more art and some cool stuff to “reward” people who make it all the way down there. I definitely want to change it from what it is now, it could actually be useful, I think.
Right now is the time to get it looking good, because many blogs I read ignore it (kind of like me) and it could be a good way to stand out!
I’m looking forward to what you “reward” your readers with, John!
And I agree that having a footer could be a great way to stand out. And I mean, it’s not like it could hurt anything, right?
Thanks as always for the great comment, John!
Hey Tristan,
I’m gonna start by answering your last question first … no, I never look at a blog’s footer. This is probably because I’m used to the fact that the latest posts are updated at the top of the blog, and if the blog is one that I check regularly, I don’t really need to scroll down to see what I’ve already seen.
For this particular reason, I would probably have to say that I personally wouldn’t add anything to my footer, but that’s just me! One thing I noticed on yours (not sure if this happens on others as well) is that the footer is nicely visible here in the comments page. That definitely grabs my attention so … great job!
What I would be concerned about is having the “contact me” form at the bottom … if many people (like me) don’t look at footers, wouldn’t it make it hard for them to find the form? I always thought that “contact me” should be at the very top, but again, that’s just me.
One thing I really like in your footer is the Categories. This is one list I wouldn’t have on my sidebar either. It cleans up nicely in the footer.
Thanks for sharing!
Carolina, I don’t think you’re alone in not looking at footers! I know there are people out there who don’t, but I know there are also people out there that do. And since having the footer there doesn’t bother people who don’t see it and could positively affect those that DO see it, I didn’t think there was any reason not to have my footer be a bit more robust.
Regarding the contact form… I wouldn’t have it ONLY in the footer. There would be a main Contact page with the full-size form (with a link at the top of every page), too.
I think one of the reasons I like the ads in the footer is that, like you said, people can see them when they leave a comment. And since I focus on getting a lot of comments on my blog, I figured it’s worth a try!
Thanks so much for commenting, as always!
I almost always see the footer b/c I ctrl+end to the bottom of the page, but I always immediately scroll up afterward. If nothing else, the footer makes the site look more complete and professional. Nice job.
I also often use Ctrl + end. Good point! I should have mentioned that in the post!
And I agree that footers do just make a blog look more complete and professional. Thanks for commenting, Trevor!
Hey Tristan, I tried to get through all of the comments before leaving mine but I had to stop here and say – yes please add this to the post somewhere because I had completely forgotten about using CRTL + End and I can’t be the only one. I guess I used it in Excel all the time but never really thought about using it when I’m browsing. But now that you have me looking at everyone’s footer, this is real handy.
Ok, back to reading the rest of the comments!
Hahaha, thanks, Ileane! I just added the Ctrl + End thing to the post :)
Hi Tristan,
I think footer is important. Although it is down there if your readers come to the homepage most of the blogs are not that long to scroll so it is not that hard get to the footer as well.
I agree that 4 columns is better because you can put more staff there, I have 4 columns on my blog as well.
I am really interesting to see whether there will be any clicks on your aff banners, looking forward to your report on this:)
Thanks, Adam! I definitely will report on the number of clicks I get in my footer :) I appreciate the comment!
I have been thinking of doing something with my footer ever since I saw your new footer. So this post was perfect for me. Although I am still not sure what to do. I have found a few Wordpress plugins that’ll help me do the job (and I’m using Thesis, so I’ll probably find a tutorial that can help me as well).
The reason I haven’t done anything with my footer is that I have been thinking that nobody ever looks at the footer (because it’s all the way at the bottom). But, I think you’re right and it’s important to have a good looking footer with important stuff. Because the important stuff on your blog should be found not just one place, but many places (like the subscribe to your newsletter form).
I have been considering adding my navigation menu at the bottom and my newsletter subscription form. But I’ll probably just end up copying what you’ve done :)
What plugin did you find to help with the footer, Jens?
And feel free to copy what I’ve done in my footer, but I can’t promise that it’s the most effective way to do it! In a week or so I’ll report back on whether the stuff in the footer is getting clicked on at all.
Thanks for the comment!
Just copied your footer :)
The plugin I found is Thesis Footer Tool, here’s the link (I haven’t installed it):
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/thesis-footer-tool/
Hahaha. Sweet!! Let me know if you need any help changing the colors, fonts, formatting, or anything like that.
That plugin looks good, except that it looks like it’s only for changing the stuff that’s already down there, not for making it widgetized at all.
Hi Tristan:
You have selected almost a new topic, that is awesome, everyone will like to read about it and most will agree wit it too.
My perception in this matter goes with Caroline. I believe, most of the blog readers at least 60% will not look at the footer. But you have an awesome list of things that we can do with the footer and that is amazing use of things that have less use.
Your attention span is really big, that is why you grasp everything so fast. Thanks for talking about this topic that has not been noticed by everyone previously.
Enjoy the Holiday Season
fran A
Fran, I agree that most bloggers won’t look at the footer. But if, as you say, 60% don’t, that means that 40% do, and that’s almost half of the readers! It doesn’t hurt the people who don’t look down there, but it could benefit those who do look down there. There’s really no downside!
I’m glad you liked the topic :D I try to just write about whatever I’m working on or having trouble with at any given moment, and it seems to be working out just fine!
Thanks for commenting!
Hey Tristan,
Great article. I’ve been thinking of adding to my footer for a while and have been looking at what others have done. I think you’ve got a nice mix of things in your footer. I’m wary of having too much down there and I don’t mind having a longer sidebar as most of my pages are long anyway.
Thankfully I’m using Headway on my blog and it’s simple to add a new sidebar and flip it so it becomes a footer.
Allan
I agree that having too much down in the footer would just be an annoying cluster. For some reason, I really don’t like having a lot of stuff in my sidebars, though I can’t quite put my finger on why…
I recently bought a copy of Headway to try out and I’m really impressed with it. It’s a great theme. I’ve seen one or two tutorials on how to add a footer in Headway; I’ll have to go back and check them out.
Thanks for commenting, Allan!
Wow! Really informative…. I would love to try this one and see what it can do to my blogs….
Its nice to know that there are people who post things like this… This are information that could really help small business people that are just starting to manage a business…
Thanks, Treb! And thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment (though this looks like a spam comment).
You’ve been a busy fellow; I’m seeing quite a few new names popping up in here. Good job!
As for the footer; I’ll admit that I’ve never considered it as being good for much more than the copyright, contact, a link to the developer(usually my webdev site) and an link back up top. This what I put in the footers of my hand build web sites. I haven’t played around with those in my blogs at all. But now you’ve got me motivated to go try some new stuff to dress them up and make them more useful. And just when I could ALMOST see the end of my To Do list. Rats! :-)
Thanks for all the useful suggestions, Tristan. And I like the Google XML Sitemap plug-in and recommend it highly; it automates the whole thing, just set it up and let it go. One less thing to have to do everytime you post.
Allan, you’re using the Twenty-Ten theme on Simple Life Prattle now, right? I don’t know if you’ve already looked at it much, but that theme has built in footer widgets, making it super easy to add stuff down there.
I’m glad I’m not the only one with a never-ending to-do list. Wuahaha.
Yeah… I really need to install that sitemap plugin. Maybe tomorrow…
Thanks for commenting, Allan!
Yes, I went back to the Twenty Ten theme for ‘The Prattle’ and installed my own image as header, and I checked right after reading your post and discovered footer-widgies. I popped a few in just to test it out. That needs lots of tweaking, but it’s a start.
Yes, Tristan, if I want to insure that I never get to the end of my To Do list I’ll just keep coming in here – you always have great suggestions on how to make things better!
Thanks!
I love Twenty-Ten. It’s super functional, simple, and clean. So much better than the older theme that came with WordPress.
I just checked out your footer on The Prattle. Nicely done!
Your footers great because it actually contains things that are relevant. I gave adding a footer a while back, but it’s completely useless if you don’t have the right things too add. Recent posts, recent comments just expand the size of the page, and i’m not sure if bloggers would even use them?
Yeah Peter, I’m not sure how effective having a recent comments or recent posts widget in the footer is….
I’m glad you like my footer, though :)
Thanks for commenting!
Hi Tristan,
The footer of a blog is important. I personally like to have a link for contact, so if anyone wants to contact me, can contact me that way as well. I also like to add a brief description for what my site is about and of course the copy right info. Thanks for sharing
Those are all great things to have in the footer, Dia. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment!
Hi Tristan,
Another excellent and well thought out post. I’m sure you are going to see me go and redefine my footer some time soon.
I think putting the ads in the footer is a great idea, let your readers interact with your content first before you give them reasons to go away.
About the boring links, if you are capturing any information (email address), Google would like to see a privacy policy on your website or they may penalise you. If you have any affiliate link on your website, the FTC requires you disclose about it in an affiliate disclaimer. Even though I’m not in USA, I’ve complied to their rules. Those 2 things are really important.
BTW, I would like to read your opinions about affiliate disclaimers.
I believe all websites need to have an xml sitemap and use it in conjunction with the search engines’ Webmaster tools, but you don’t need a link to it in the footer because they are not readable by human, just point to your xml sitemap in your robots.txt file.
Ben Wan
Glad you liked the post and found it useful, Ben!
That’s good info to know about the privacy policy. I’ll have to add one soon! I do have a short affiliate links disclaimer at the bottom of my About page. I’m not sure what exactly you’d like to see from me regarding affiliate disclaimers. I honestly don’t know much about them. I’d like to do a post pretty soon about the “boring” pages that I don’t know very much about, so I’ll write about them then.
Thanks for the great comment, Ben!
Most of the time I see copyright information and the name of the theme in the footer, but it’s a really interesting idea to put some of the opt in forms in that area or a small contact us form. I’m going to play around with the footer area and see what to do to spice it up.
Great, I’m glad the post got you thinking, Richard :) Thank for stopping by, and good luck with your footer!
You have done some excellent research on blog’s footer and you have placed a good footer. My blog footer consist of categories, popular posts and related tags with an about me widget, but I am not sure how many of my readers really care about them. I am going to change it a soon with a complete revamp of my blog design. Anyway, thanks for sharing an useful article.
P.S.: If you have included 11 small business blogs from Technorati, my blog would have featured here. Just missed it by six points :(
I’m glad you liked the article, Sathish. Whoah, I just looked at your footer. It’s huge! Looks like there’s some good stuff there, though :)
And I’m sorry I didn’t quite get to #11 on Technorati! Next time…
Thanks for commenting!
Yep, I look at footers, often just to find out who designed the site and what theme they used, etc…I think yours is being well used and is a great place to advertise
either your own products or one’s you recommend.
I noticed a footer plug-in being used the other day to advertise the authors recently launched book. I think it works well for him as he doesn’t have to talk about it all the time, yet we are reminded of it each time we read.
Good post again Tristan – thanks.
I agree, Mon, the footer would be a great place to advertise your own products, including a book.
And I’m glad I’m not the only one here who looks at footers :)
Thanks so much for commenting!
Hi my friend !
After this article , i’ve compare my footer blog and your footer blog and i recognized my footer blog was really boring and i can put more advertisement there or introduce myself in footer. Anyway, thanks you again about good tips.
No problem, Ryan! I’m glad you liked the post and found it helpful. Thanks for stopping by to read, and thanks for leaving a comment!
Hey Tristan, I’m back again. Oh boy, I had to take a good look at my footer, check out some of my friends footers (Hesham, DiTesco, JohnPaul, Lisa Irby, Ana Hoffman, Kristie Hines…), share this post on Amplify and read through more of the comments! Whew!! You put me to work but honestly this is one of those golden moments in blogging that I cherish and enjoy to the utmost.
Thanks Tristan you made my day! So here’s what I have in my current blog footer:
Disclosure
Sitemap
Top Posts (according to Wordpress.com stats plugin)
Badges from my blogging communities
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That’s not half bad, but what you have done with your footer is very inspirational! Can you create one for me? Please email me and let me know what your rate would be. Seriously dude, you rock!!
Wow, I’m glad you liked the post so much, Ileane!! This is one of those subjects that isn’t terribly exciting (like making money online or getting 1000 new subscribers), but I do think it’s important.
I’m thrilled that you like the footer enough that you’d like to hire me, Ileane, but I’m not confident enough in my coding abilities to try it out on your blog! I just tried it out on one of my other blogs and botched it royally :) If you had Thesis I’d do it because I could just copy and paste my code and tweak it to match your design.
Let me point you in the direction of Jason from 67dollars.com. I’ve asked Jason some php and CSS questions and he was really helpful. He’s a great blogger and great web designer. Maybe he can help?
Sorry I can’t help you out more, though! Thanks so much for taking the time to comment!
Tristan, is Jason on Twitter? I’ll check out 67dollars.com too. Thanks.
Yup. http://twitter.com/jasonmanheim
Seriously, Tristan? This is just a stinking great post. Full of info, research, idea. Kudos for the work you put into it.
Thanks, Alison! I’m glad you liked the post :D Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to leave a comment.
I agree the footer is not sexy, and I don’t see many blogs putting ads there . For readers to make it all the way down to the footer, I guess the blog design must be attractive and content captivating enough.
You have no problem with that, Tristan, your content is fantastic.
Thanks for the kind words, Paul. I really appreciate it! And thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment. Cheers!
All in all, we can safely agree the footer zone is most of the times the most forgotten of the whole bunch. Shame ’cause sometimes you see some great idea down there, where you would least expect it.
I agree, Gabriele. The footer is definitely an overlooked part of the vast majority of blogs out there. Thanks for the comment!
This is very interesting. Well, in some of my blogs in my footer I always put sites that I recommend and some related articles to my posts. I think it would be a help somehow.
I’m glad you liked the post, Lee! Linking to other sites you recommend isn’t a bad idea. That’s a great resource for your blog’s readers. Thanks for the comment!
Interesting. I have to admit, as someone who reads blogs rather than writes them, I don’t really pay much attention to the footers but its good to know that bloggers put so much into making them look nice!
Thanks for a few from the other side of the coin, Harriet :) I know that not everyone looks at footers, but for those that do, I figured it’d be nice to have something down there for them to look at! Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Great article and fairly timely. I have no real footer on what is really my temporary et up while I am working on getting a professional page, but I am certainly looking to get a professional footer when I finally get my “permanent” web design.
Glad you found it useful, Steve. I know you use Thesis, as do I, and if you’re interested, I posted the footer code for the custom_functions.php and custom.css files. They’re in this post right above the “Over to you” section. You’d just need to copy and paste.
Thanks as always for stopping by and leaving a comment.
“Why I put in my footer what I put in my footer” <– I definitely had to re-read that heading like 5 times before understanding it. :)
I really like the look of your footer. When I saw the ads, I remembered your other article about the top 10 (or was it 20?) blogs and the thing about having ads in the footer is probably a bad idea. My ThemeWars ad in the footer doesn't get much action as compared to the ads in my sidebar or in the posts themselves.
I think this post (and your footer) has definitely inspired me to change some things around on my boring footer sometime over the holidays. Thanks Tristan!
Thanks for taking the time to read that headline 5 times until it made sense :)
Yeah, I know that the footer isn’t the best place for ads from a making money standpoint… But they’re great from a I-don’t-care-about-making-money-yet-and-I-don’t-want-to-inconvenience-my-readers standpoint!
Thanks for the the comment, Elise!
Tristan,
Amazing post about footers man. I used to have big footer for my blog but after I updated my theme, the footer just disappeared. I haven’t had time to mess around with it again; but after seeing your footer I put fixing footer to my to do list…(O:
Your footer looks great man. I really like the way you put ads down there. That is real neat.
Thanks for the share Tristan.
Happy holidays!
Thanks! I’m glad you liked the post, Adam. A footer was at the bottom of my to-do list for a while, but I finally got around to it and thoroughly enjoyed doing it.
Happy holidays to you, too, Adam. Thanks for the great comment!
This is why I love your blog Tristan– I’ve never even thought about my blog’s footer before. I know, ridiculous, right??
You’ve given me a lot to think about here though, and once again, you’re forcing me to make changes…Dang you TRISTAN!! ;-)
Appreciate your hard work and dedication. May your 4 hour nights of sleep pay off brother.
Yessss! I’m happy to hear this, Marcus!
Of course, the real reason I write posts like this is to make other people suffer like I suffer from blog tweaking ADD.
Thanks for the kind words and, as always, for the comment.
Hahaha, I see you are using the comment bubble :)
Nice to see other bloggers are using it :)
Yeah!! Thanks, man. But might I suggest adding just a normal .png or .jpg version of the bubble to your post? Maybe I just missed it somewhere, but I couldn’t download and save the bubble image. So I ended up doing a print screen of your page, pasting it into Photoshop, cropping the bubble, and Photoshopping the white number out! :D
Will do!
Down to every little detail as always :)
I love to see a great footer and the way you did it is one of my favorite ways. I often scroll down to look at the footer and I am sure there are more of those like me, so I know that the info down there is not lost.
I still don’t have the courage to start messing with it, but I do plan to make a different footer after I get comfortable with messing the code :)
That’s interesting that you scroll down to look at the footer, Brankica! I mean, I look at the footers when I’m down there, but I don’t think I ever go down specifically to look at the footer.
If you don’t want to mess with the code, there is always the option to get a theme that comes with widgets in the footer. Of course, then you’d have to redesign your blog… again!
Hi Tristan – not a lot .. but now you’ve provided me with all this information, when I settle down to sorting the blog out .. I’ll take these thoughts into account ..
Cheers Hilary
Glad I could give you more to stuff that you need to think about, Hilary :)
Thanks for the comment!
I like the way you have customized your footer I never tried to customize it and only used teh theme (preloaded) side bar in footer.
I’ve customized my footers before, but never as much as this one. Thanks for the kind words and comment, George!
Good post Tristan
You would be surprised if I told ya that my AdSense footer ad block has been the one with the most clicks for the past 2 months! Although I was very pessimistic when I first inserted it, but it turned out to be my best money maker till now!
Wow, that IS surprising, Amr! I currently don’t have ads anywhere else on my blog except in the footer, so I don’t have any other data to compare the clicks to.
Thanks for your input, your kind words, and your comment!
Hello Tristan. You have a great sense of humor, still chuckling over “inelegant heading.” Lots of useful tips about what to put in a footer.
Let’s see now … My footer has 3 columns. I use the first column for Site Info which includes contact, privacy, TOS, Sitemap, etc. For now, the 2nd column just offers a download of my free ebook, and the 3rd column encourages people to get Firefox or Chrome. BUT …
I have more columns that are not immediately noticeable! My theme actually has a sliding footer, that lets me have up to 4 footer areas — and each “footer area” can have up to 4 columns. So, I might get crazy! I’m using one of the sliding footer areas with widgets to show Related Posts and my Article Series. Another one holds my WP Login and meta stuff.
Next time you’re at the site, just click those big LEFT-RIGHT arrows to see what I mean.
I think your footer looks great. Before I came across this post, I’d already seen your footer and thought “what a neat idea to put ads down here!” (I’m one of those people who scroll to the bottom of the page, probably because I would hate to miss any gems hiding down there!) Your BIG return to the top is a thoughtful touch. :)
Regarding Sitemaps, in order to get one for navigation purposes, you can either use the archiving functions built into WordPress (sometimes your theme will allow you to just create a blank Archives Page and it does the magic) or try one of the dedicated SiteMap plugins in the repository. I use Dagon Design’s. (You’ll still want to install Google Sitemap as mentioned by Ben Wan above.)
Vernessa, your theme IS pretty cool with the sliding footer! Do you think a lot of people click on those arrows?
I’m glad you like the BIG return to the top thing in my footer :) At first I had it just as normal-size hyperlinked text. But I figured that just wasn’t quite obvious enough! And I had that little bit of extra space, so why not?
I just added an archives page after reading your comment. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do, but never did for some reason! My theme (Thesis) does indeed have the built-in blank archives page, making it super easy.
Thanks for the great comment, Vernessa!
Probably not a lot of people will even notice. Hey, but now that you’ve brought the foot to the head, so to speak, more people than ever cared about footers will be scrolling to the bottom of every blog just to see what’s down there! LOL
I figured I’d just hide my meta stuff down in mine, but now, I’ll shake it up a bit just in case somebody’s watching. :) Keep up the good work, Tristan ’cause I’ll be watching for your next gem.
I’m the same way; I know that a lot of people won’t look at my footer, but for those that DO… I want it to be a good experience for them :)
Thanks for the kind words, Vernessa. I have some good posts coming up tomorrow (Monday) and Wednesday, but Friday’s post is going to be epic!
Thanks for stopping by and leaving such great comments!
Hey Tristan,
I like how your footer looks like :) Not too cluttered and useful info for everyone. I’ve come across some blogs that actually have footer that covers an entire screen which I think is really not necessary. Nice to see that we are both using pretty much the same tools on stuff that you recommend column :D
Yeah, they’re all great tools :)
Thanks for the kind words about my footer! I’ve also seen those footers that cover half the screen and I really don’t like them. It definitely is possible to have too much stuff in there!
Thanks, Bryan!
Sitemap, Anti-Spam Policy, Terms of Use and Privacy Policy are staples that shouldn’t been missing in the footer of most websites. It makes them all look professional. An affiliate link to your web host strategically placed in the footer could help you up your earnings ;-)
Hi Tristan, I’ve just updated my footer too. I realised it was space which wasn’t being used so, I’ve pretty much updated it with the suggestions you’ve added here. I’ve had a big increase in page views of “old stuff” as a result.
Hi Tristan! I’ve been here before, your site is awesome. About footers? Frankly I love footers know why? When I am reading some posts I just read the title the middle part and the footer, I think it’s just really my thing. When I saw something interesting in the footer area, I am really fond of it. In my other blogs, I put the sites I like as my footer. I love to stare at them though.
Hey Tristan,
Great tips! I’ve been primarily using my blog footer for displaying the copyright information – though that definitely might change after reading this. I’m going to bookmark this post and come to it later.
Loads of useful info!
Christina
@tristan before reading this post I was just checking your blog footer & I was really impressed because you give all relavant links about blog & you. Use of images is also a new technique & can I use this in my blogspot blog. I have blogspot blog kindly share some tools and widgets that I can beautiful footer for that because ending is really far good than the starting then it creates the impression. Thanks for the another useful post
I do not use any of the themes you mentioned but do know how I could tweak my free theme footer…maybe with a plugin or editing of my theme to tweak it to my satisfaction?
Awesome ideas you shared here with us; you might like to consider a future post: Top XX Blog Footers on the Internet or something related. What do you say? :)
hi, i’ve a question here. How i divide the footer into few columns like yours in blogspot? Mine template only got 1 column and i want to add background image like this: http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i137/agnes1409/Blog-Dream%20Land/Bottom.jpg. Now i stuck with how to create 3 column like the picture i show you. Thanks!
Agnes, the image you linked to didn’t work. But it’s pretty easy to create the columns in a Blogger blog. In your blog’s dashboard/control panel, click on the Design tab. Then click “Template Designer.” Then click “Layout” (on the left side), and then select the footer layout you want.
Hope that helped!
Hi Tristan – I’ve been struggling to see where I update my footer in WP. I’m just using the basic twenty ten theme and it seems the only place to fiddle with the footer is in theme-editor.php – but I find it hard to believe that this is the case given the rest of it is so easy – and this is such a long file, I wouldn’t know where to begin. Any tips? Thanks Fiona
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