Website pages · 12 Nov 2026 · 6 min read
Website footer: what to include and how long it should be
A footer is the strip at the bottom of every page, and it is where people look when the main content has not answered their question. This guide lists what to put there and how to keep it short.
The short answer
A website footer should hold the details a visitor looks for when they reach the bottom of a page: contact information, links to the main sections, links to your policy pages, the business name and a copyright line. Add social links, a newsletter sign-up or a booking link only if you use them. Keep it short enough to scan.
What a website footer is for
A website footer is the block at the bottom of every page, repeated across the site. Visitors treat it as a safety net. When they reach the end of a page without finding what they wanted, they look down for contact details, a policy, or a link to a section they could not spot in the menu.
That makes the footer a reference area rather than a place to sell. It carries facts that must be easy to find and rarely change. Anything meant to persuade belongs higher up the page, where people are still reading.
What to put in a website footer
Include what a visitor may need at the bottom of a page, and remove any row that does not apply to your business.
| Item | Include it when | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Business name and copyright line | Always | Use the name that matches your logo and invoices. Let the year update itself so the line never looks abandoned |
| Contact details | Always | At least an email address or a link to the contact page. Add a phone number or postal address if customers use them, written the same way on every page |
| Main section links | Always | The top-level sections from the menu, not every page |
| Policy links | The site collects data, takes payments or sells online | Privacy policy and terms, plus shipping and returns for a shop |
| Opening hours | Customers visit or call | Name the time zone if customers are in other regions |
| Social profile links | You post on those profiles regularly | Link only to profiles that are kept up to date |
| Newsletter sign-up | You send a newsletter | One field and a line saying what subscribers receive |
| Booking or enquiry link | You take appointments or quotes | A plain text link such as ‘Book a visit’ |
| Accessibility statement | You publish one | Keep it current or remove it |
| Language or region selector | The site serves more than one country | Keep it in the same place on every page |
| Registration or tax details | Your country or profession requires them | Check with an accountant or the official source |
| Delivery and payment reminders | You run an online shop | Countries you ship to, and whether prices include sales tax or VAT, where local rules ask for it |
Do I need links to policies in the footer?
Most sites put them there, and visitors expect to look at the bottom of the page for them, so the footer is the usual home. Whether a particular policy is legally required, and where it must be visible, depends on the country, the type of business and what the site does with personal data. Rules differ by country and change, so ask a lawyer or read the official source for your region instead of copying another site's wording.
In practice, name each link plainly: ‘Privacy policy’, ‘Terms of use’, ‘Shipping and returns’. Keep the links on every page and make each one open a real page. A cookie or consent notice is a separate matter with its own rules, which also vary by region.
How long should a footer be?
As long as the site needs and no longer. Ask of each item whether a visitor has ever needed it at the bottom of a page. If you cannot answer yes, remove it. Typical footers look like this:
- A small service business: name, contact details, a few section links, policy links and a copyright line.
- An online shop: the same, plus delivery, returns, help and payment information, and perhaps a newsletter form.
- A business that takes bookings: a visible booking link and the cancellation rules, which also help someone who arrived from a search result.
- A large or multi-region organisation: grouped columns, a region selector and details of the legal entity.
On phones the columns stack, so a footer with many links becomes a long scroll. Group the links under short headings, or collapse the groups, and leave enough space around each link to tap it without hitting its neighbour. Collapsing is fine as long as the links are still ordinary links in the page. Google's link guidance says its crawlers can generally follow links only when they are anchor elements with an href, so a footer built from scripted buttons may be invisible to them.
Keep footer links consistent and easy to use
Build the footer once, in a shared template, so it is identical everywhere. The W3C's accessibility guidelines (WCAG 2.2) say that where help options such as contact details are repeated across a set of pages, they should appear in the same position relative to the other content on each page. A shared footer meets that without extra work.
Write link text that makes sense alone: ‘Delivery information’, not ‘Click here’. Google's guidance asks for descriptive anchor text, and screen reader users often move from link to link without reading the surrounding text. Check colour contrast too, because footers often use small grey type on a dark band that is hard to read.
Do not add links to the footer in order to influence search engines. Add them because a visitor might need them. The pages people need most should also be reachable from the main menu and from the text of related pages.
What to leave out of a footer
- Long lists of keyword links to near-identical pages. They help nobody and read as stuffing.
- Security badges, memberships or accreditations you do not hold or cannot explain. The padlock in a browser comes from HTTPS, and the guide to HTTPS and SSL certificates explains what it does and does not prove.
- A copyright year that has not changed since the site launched, or a ‘site by’ credit that is more prominent than your contact details.
- Visitor counters, auto-playing media and widgets that slow every page.
- A full map embed. A text address with a link to a map is lighter and easier to read.
- Copies of customer quotes. One page of them works better; the guide to website testimonials covers where they belong.
Planning the footer when the site is built
The footer looks like a small job, but it depends on content that is often missing at launch: final policy text, a decided contact route and the exact legal name. Ask for those early. The guide to how long a website takes to build shows the stages where waiting for content tends to stall a launch.
Check that any email address in the footer uses your own domain. If you later move the domain, the steps to transfer a domain name show what changes, and the footer is one of the places to update. A booking link needs a working system behind it, so read how to choose an online booking system before adding the link.
If a new template is part of the plan, Liftup Technologies offers website development, including footers that are easy for staff to edit.
A quick footer review
- Open three different pages and confirm the footer is identical on each.
- Click every link and confirm none leads to an error page.
- Read the footer on a phone and check that each link can be tapped without hitting another.
- Check the contact details against the contact page, word for word.
- Confirm the copyright line and policy links are current.
Related guides
- Website development
- How long does it take to build a website
- How to transfer a domain name step by step
- Https and ssl certificates explained
- Website testimonials how to use them
- Online booking system for a website how to choose
Questions and answers
What should a website footer include?
Include the business name and copyright line, contact details, links to the main sections and links to your policy pages. Add opening hours, social links, a newsletter form or a booking link only if they apply. Keep each item to something a visitor might truly need at the bottom of a page.
Do I need links to policies in the footer?
The footer is where visitors expect policy links, so it is the usual place for them. Whether a policy is legally required depends on your country and what your site does with data. Rules differ and change, so ask a lawyer or check the official source for your region.
How long should a footer be?
Long enough to cover what visitors look for and no longer. A small service site may need only a row or two. A shop or a large organisation may need grouped columns. If no visitor has ever needed an item at the bottom of a page, remove it.
Should the footer repeat the whole menu?
No. Link to the main sections and to the items people look for at the bottom, such as contact, help and policies. Repeating every page makes the footer long and hard to scan, especially on a phone.
Should I put my address in the footer?
If customers visit you, or the business must show a registered address, yes. Write it as text and make it match the contact page exactly. If you work remotely or prefer not to publish an address, give an email address or a link to the contact page instead. Legal duties to show an address vary by country.
Does the footer need to be the same on every page?
Mostly. A consistent footer lets visitors find contact and policy links in the same place, and WCAG 2.2 asks for repeated help options to keep the same relative order. Small exceptions, such as a reduced footer on a checkout page to cut distractions, are common.
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