Short answer: A website footer is the area at the bottom of every page where visitors look for contact details, legal pages and links they missed. Put your contact information, privacy policy and terms there, plus your main sections if your pages are long, and keep it on every page.
What a footer is for
Nielsen Norman Group calls the footer the place people go when they’re lost. They scroll down when they don’t find what they want or need more information, and the footer gives them a second chance to be convinced.
In HTML, the footer element usually holds information about the author, copyright data or links to related documents. When it sits directly in the body, it applies to the whole page.
What can go in a footer
| Part | What goes in it | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Utility links | Contact details, customer service, privacy policy and terms | On every site |
| Doormat navigation | Your main sections again | When pages are long |
| Site map | Main sections plus a few subpages | On sites of about 25 pages or fewer |
| Secondary tasks | Jobs, press, partners or documentation | When several audiences use the site |
| Engagement | Social media links and a newsletter signup | Links on any site; a feed only if you post often |
From Nielsen Norman Group’s footer design patterns, read November 3, 2026.
Seven steps to a footer people use
- Put your contact details in the footer, even if they also appear at the top of the page.
- Link your privacy policy and terms of use.
- Repeat your main sections if your pages are long, so visitors can move on from the bottom.
- List subpages too only if your site has about 25 pages or fewer; otherwise link to a site map page.
- Link your social media accounts, and embed a feed only from accounts you post on often.
- Use the footer element, a legible font size and enough contrast, and never collapse it.
- Keep it on every page, and never buy or trade links in other sites’ footers for rankings.
Our privacy policy guide covers the page your footer should link to, and our hamburger menu guide covers the navigation at the top. Our website header guide covers the rest of the top of the page.
What our own footer holds
We read our footer on November 3, 2026, as a visitor, on our English and Spanish home pages and on one guide. Each page has a single footer element with 43 links: 39 to our own pages and 4 to our Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and X accounts.
It shows our office hours, links to the privacy policy and terms, a Book a call link and our email. In the raw page that comes from our server, the email reads info [at] feedback-studios.com, with no mailto link. After the page’s scripts run, it becomes a mailto link.
The footer is the same on the home page and on the guide, and it closes with the line © 2026 Feedback Studios, Miami, FL.
Before you call your footer done
- Contact details are in the footer on every page.
- The privacy policy and terms are linked.
- Long pages repeat the main sections at the bottom.
- The text is legible and the footer is never collapsed.
- Any embedded social feed comes from an account you post on often.
- No footer link was bought or traded for rankings.
RememberContact details, legal pages and your main sections belong in the footer, the same on every page.
If you want a footer that answers your visitors’ last questions, our web design service can build it with you.
Quick answers about website footers
What should be in a website footer?
At minimum, your contact information, customer service details, a privacy policy and terms of use. NN/g says to put these in the footer even if they also sit at the top, because people go straight to the footer to find them.
Do footer links help SEO?
Links in your footer are ordinary links: Google can follow each one written as an a tag that carries an href. Among Google’s examples of link spam are widely distributed links in the footers or templates of various sites.
Should the footer be the same on every page?
Yes, as a rule. NN/g says that for the footer to be helpful it needs to be present on all pages of the site. Sites with several audiences can adapt part of it to the page, which NN/g calls a contextual footer.
How many links should a footer have?
No rule sets a number. NN/g advises a full site map in the footer only for sites with about 25 pages or fewer. Larger sites should show their main sections and link to a separate site map page.
Can I collapse the footer on mobile?
NN/g says not to: don’t hide or collapse the footer, because people expect it to be there. Use a legible font size, enough contrast and no decorative fonts, so the links stay easy to read on a phone.
Sources
Read on November 3, 2026. Nielsen Norman Group: Footers 101: Design Patterns and When to Use Each (February 24, 2019). MDN Web Docs: <footer> HTML footer element. Google Search Central: Spam policies for Google web search and Link best practices for Google. Our own case: our footer on our English and Spanish home pages and one guide, read as a visitor on November 3, 2026.