: How can I make this footer "more corporate"? I created a footer for a dental lab. I was trying to keep it warm and inviting, but now being told it "looks too casual" or "looks too simple".

@Voss6371140

Plainclothes has probably covered all of the important points to a 'successful footer'. These are a few extras.

A footer-sitemap improves not only the bounce rates, but also the visit time and the page-views, all of them quite important.

Something I notice in yours is a clear separation between the site and the footer, 'here ends the page', 'here there be footer'. They seem like completely different entities. There's a trend of making the footers part of the site, it's your choice, and not a rule, of course. Vimeo is a good example of this:



Finally: Interactivity! That footer seems a bit dead, to be honest. Not too tempting to click. Contact info could be much visible, instead of hidden in tiny gray text. Example:



There also bad practices for footers that affect SEO, so just in case you go the other way too much :)

The don'ts:


Duplicated content / boilerplate text - Never use duplicated content, spammers have been using boilerplate footers for a while now, and Google has grown quite cautious about them.
Link-filled footers - Also exploited by spammers, an excessive amount of links is penalized.

Vote Up Vote Down

@Rambettina927

Sounds like what your client really means is "we want something different". Hard to answer that one. I suspect they're thinking of sites that try to salvage bounce rates by putting more enticing clicks at the bottom.

For starters, try just selling those links harder. Make them bigger by 2-4 px. Use a stronger color. Add some icons to differentiate.

Then you could consider anything that might be missing from a corporate perspective. Something like professional certification badges or security certs, if there's any ecomm going on.

What about social steams to show their activity? The most recent Facebook or Twitter post or the beloved "facepile" module that's everywhere now. Just show that they are legitimate and active in the online community.

The last thing I would try is a note about their guarantee of service, statement about number of satisfied customers, or some kind of promotion like gift certificates.

Vote Up Vote Down