Nobody designs the footer
The last thing people see on your site is the part you put the least effort into.
Finding delight in the most innocuous, utilitarian part of your website.
Your footer is the most boring part of your website.
A logo, a few skinny columns of links, a copyright line, and maybe a newsletter signup if somebody remembered. It’s the junk drawer of the page, and almost nobody puts real effort into it.
Here’s the thing though: the people who make it all the way down to your footer are the most interested visitors you have. They scrolled past every section, read (or at least skimmed) everything you had to say, and passed your call to action on the way down. The footer is the very last thing they see before they decide what to do next.
That’s your last shot at being interesting.
On the Conversion Factory site, we could have shipped the long list of small columns. It would have been fine. It would have worked. Instead we subverted expectations and really played it up:
We’ve done the same on three other sites, too, and there’s an entire website, footr.design, dedicated to nothing but footers that refuse to be boring. Two other examples from the CF portfolio:
And here’s the best part: because everybody treats the footer as an afterthought, the bar is basically on the floor. Give it 10% more effort than your competition and you look like you care that much more about everything above it, too.
Go scroll to the bottom of your homepage and ask yourself if it sounds like you... or like everybody else.
— Zach
