A good website footer is a short, tidy block at the bottom of every page. It holds the things people go looking for when they have scrolled all the way down: how to contact you, who you are legally, where to find your policies and a few useful next steps. Keep it simple, put the most important links first, and design it for a phone screen before a desktop one.
Most small business footers fall into one of two camps. Either they are an afterthought with a copyright line and nothing else, or they have become a dumping ground for every link the owner could not fit elsewhere. Neither helps a customer who is trying to find your phone number. This guide covers what to put in, how to arrange it, what UK businesses need to show, and the mistakes we see most often.
TL;DR
- Your footer should answer the questions people ask at the bottom of a page: how do I contact you, who are you, and where are your policies?
- Include contact details, a short set of useful links, legal and company information, and social links. Leave out anything that does not earn its place.
- Order content by importance, group links under clear labels and keep the same footer on every page.
- Design for small screens first and avoid a very long mobile footer.
- Check contrast, keyboard access and link wording so everyone can use it.
Table of Contents
- What a footer is actually for
- What to include in a website footer
- The UK legal details to check
- Layout: hierarchy beats decoration
- Designing the footer for mobile
- Accessibility checks that take minutes
- Footer mistakes we see on small business sites
- Our view: the footer is part of the sales process
- A footer checklist you can use today
- Need a hand with your footer?
- FAQ
- Sources
What a footer is actually for
The footer is not decoration. The British Red Cross design system describes it as a consistent area that helps people find information they could not find elsewhere, complete tasks and follow secondary journeys. That is a useful way to think about yours.
People head for the footer for practical reasons. Nielsen Norman Group notes that users commonly look there for contact and support information, even when those links also appear higher on the page. Figaro Digital makes the same point: visitors tend to scroll down when contact details are not easy to find elsewhere.
So the footer is a safety net. If your header is a bit cluttered, or your page ran on longer than you meant, the footer catches the visitor who is still keen but a little lost. For a small business that visitor could be a customer about to ring you, so it is worth getting right.
It also does a quieter job: it tells people you are a real, reachable business. A footer with an address, a phone number and clear policies feels more trustworthy than one with a lone copyright line, and trust is often what stands between a visit and an enquiry. If you want the bigger picture on what makes a small business site persuade people, our guide on what a good small business website looks like covers the rest of the page.
What to include in a website footer
There is no single correct list, because the right amount depends on how much your site genuinely needs to say. Netcel’s Cheryl Natel, quoted by Figaro Digital, makes this point: the amount of structure should be driven by the information the site has to provide. A five-page site for a plumber needs far less than a large charity.
That said, the same building blocks come up again and again across UK design systems and usability research.
Contact details
If you only get one thing right, make it this. Put your phone number, email address and, if customers visit you, your address in the footer. Nielsen Norman Group says most sites should at minimum include footer navigation for contact information, customer service, privacy policy and terms of use.
Make the phone number a tap-to-call link on mobile and the email a proper mailing link. If you serve a particular area, say so in plain words, for example the towns or counties you cover. It reassures local customers and helps search engines understand where you work.
A handful of useful links
These are the pages people look for when they are ready to take the next step: services, pricing, about us, FAQs, a booking or quote page. Do not copy your entire menu. The Office for National Statistics advises against primary navigation links, excessive links, outdated links, promotional links and duplicates in the footer. Pick the pages that matter most.
Legal and policy links
Privacy policy, cookie information, terms and conditions and an accessibility statement belong here. UK government design systems agree on this. The GOV.UK footer guidance uses the link text Privacy, Accessibility, Cookies and Terms and conditions, and the DWP design system lists Accessibility statement, Cookies and Privacy as standard links. You are not a government department, but plain, familiar wording is a good model.
Social links
Add icons for the channels you actually use and keep up. A link to a Facebook page last updated in 2021 does more harm than good. Two or three active channels beat six dead ones.
Optional extras
Nielsen Norman Group lists other common components: testimonials or awards, organisational brands, newsletter sign-ups and sitemaps. Use these sparingly. A short newsletter box or a trade accreditation logo can earn its space. A wall of badges does not.
The UK legal details to check
This is the part people skip, and it is the part that can bite. If you run a limited company, your website needs to show certain company details. A Pinsent Masons briefing explains that, from 1 January 2007, companies had to show their company registration number, place of registration and registered office address on their websites in legible characters.
The same article summarises the wider UK e-commerce information rules: a business website should give the provider’s name, geographic address and email address, plus register details, a VAT number and clear pricing where relevant. It also says a contact form on its own is not enough to meet the contact requirement. That is a good reason to put a real email address and postal address in your footer rather than only a form.
The footer is the natural home for all of this, because it appears on every page and people expect to find it there. A typical line might read: business name, registered in England and Wales, company number, registered office address, VAT number. Check the exact wording you need with your accountant or solicitor, as rules differ for sole traders, partnerships and companies, and we are not able to give legal advice.
One more point on wording. If you take payments or collect enquiries, make sure your privacy policy and cookie information are easy to reach from the footer on every page, not just the homepage.
Layout: hierarchy beats decoration
The core principle from the research is simple. Cheryl Natel’s advice, published by Figaro Digital in January 2023, is to keep the layout simple and easy to scan, use minimal colour and align the design with the rest of the site’s visual language. Order content by importance, and the footer gains hierarchy without extra clutter.
Group links under clear labels
The ONS design system recommends using columns to group secondary-navigation lists, giving each column a clear label and placing the most important links top left. The British Red Cross likewise recommends grouping related links, such as legal, corporate information and support, rather than presenting an unstructured list.
For a small business, three or four columns is usually plenty:
| Column | What goes in it | Example links |
|---|---|---|
| Contact | Phone, email, address, opening hours | Call us, Email us, Find us |
| Services | Your three to six main offers | Web design, SEO, hosting |
| Company | Trust and background pages | About, Reviews, FAQs |
| Legal | Policies and company details | Privacy, Cookies, Terms, Accessibility |
Keep standard links at the bottom
The DWP guidance says extra links may be needed, but the standard ones should remain at the bottom of a multi-column footer. In practice that means a main block of links on top, then a thin bottom strip with the copyright line, company details and policy links. Visitors learn where to look, because most footers work this way.
Do not turn it into a sitemap
Nielsen Norman Group warns that a complete sitemap is not automatically a good footer. On large sites it recommends prioritising first- and second-level categories and surfacing a lower-level link only when it is important enough. If your site has 12 pages, you might be tempted to link all of them. Resist. Choose the six that help a customer decide.
Be consistent
The British Red Cross says a footer should sit at the bottom of every page, outside the main content area, and stay structurally and substantively consistent across pages. Do not rebuild the footer for each landing page unless there is a real reason. Consistency is also what lets people find things without thinking.
Designing the footer for mobile
Most small business sites get more visits on phones than anything else, so the mobile footer is the main footer. Figaro Digital’s guidance is to design from small screens upwards, optimise for both small and large screens and avoid very long mobile footers.
Here is what that looks like in practice:
- Lead with contact. On a phone, a tap-to-call button and an email link at the top of the footer do more work than any link list.
- Collapse the long lists. If your link groups run to a dozen items, fold secondary groups into expandable sections so the page does not turn into an endless scroll.
- Give links room. Space links so a thumb can hit the right one. Cramped legal links in tiny type are a classic frustration.
- Stack columns in order of importance. When four columns become one, the order you chose on desktop becomes the reading order. Check that contact still comes first.
For more on building layouts that hold up on every screen size, see our piece on responsive web design best practices.
Accessibility checks that take minutes
Footers are often where accessibility slips, because they are built last and tested least. The British Red Cross requires footer implementations to use semantic HTML, expose appropriate landmarks, support logical keyboard navigation and show visible focus indicators. You do not need to be a developer to ask for these things.
A quick set of checks:
- Link wording. Use descriptive text such as Privacy policy, not Click here or a bare Read more.
- Icon-only links. Social icons need an accessible name, so a screen reader announces Facebook rather than an unlabelled link.
- Contrast. Light grey text on a dark background is a common culprit. Our guide to colour contrast for accessibility explains how to check it.
- Keyboard access. Press Tab repeatedly. You should be able to reach every footer link in a sensible order and see where you are.
- Consistent help. Both GOV.UK and the ONS point out that help links should be placed consistently and work the same way on every page to meet WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 3.2.6, Consistent Help. If you put your contact details in the footer, keep them in the same spot throughout the site.
An accessibility statement link is worth having too. It tells people you have thought about them, and it gives anyone who hits a problem somewhere to report it.
Footer mistakes we see on small business sites
We look at a lot of websites, and the same problems turn up repeatedly.
Copyright and nothing else. The footer says the year and the business name. A visitor who wants a phone number has to go hunting.
A contact form as the only contact route. Forms are fine, but as noted above, a form alone is not enough for the UK contact information requirement. Add an email address.
Too many links. Thirty links in three tiny columns look thorough but are impossible to scan. Cut to what a customer would actually look for.
Hidden essentials. The DWP guidance warns that a user may not easily find a Welsh-language link if it is placed only in the footer. The same logic applies to anything vital, such as booking or pricing: put it in the main navigation too, and use the footer as a backup.
Out-of-date details. Old phone numbers, a copyright year from four years ago and links to closed social accounts quietly tell visitors nobody is minding the shop. If your site is on WordPress, use a dynamic year and put footer checks into a regular maintenance routine.
A footer that does not match the site. Bright, busy colours that clash with the rest of the design pull the eye in the wrong direction. Keep it in the same visual family.
Using the footer for hard selling. Footers are for finding things. The ONS lists promotional links among those to avoid. A single clear call to action, such as a quote request, is fine. A row of banners is not. If you want ideas for calls to action that work without shouting, our article on website CTA examples for small businesses has some.
Our view: the footer is part of the sales process
We build a lot of small business websites, and we have a slightly stubborn opinion about footers: they are part of the sales process, not the leftovers.
Think about when someone reaches the bottom of a page. They have read your message, and they are either interested or stuck. If they cannot see how to reach you in about two seconds, we have probably lost an enquiry that was already warm. Every owner we speak to has a story about a customer who said they could not find the phone number, and every one of those stories ends with someone pulling their hair out over a website that looked fine.
That is why we design footers from the phone down. Contact first, a short set of links that match how people really use the site, company details and policies where people expect them. It is not glamorous, but it is the sort of detail that makes a website feel finished and trustworthy.
It is also why we do not treat a website as a one-off project. Phone numbers change, services come and go, and a footer that was right at launch gets stale. Our approach is ongoing optimisation, with unlimited content changes included, so updating a footer is never a job you have to put off or pay extra for. We are a Derbyshire team, so if you would rather talk it through in person, we can.
Chris
A footer checklist you can use today
Open your own site on your phone, scroll to the bottom and tick off the list below.
| Check | Why it matters | Done? |
|---|---|---|
| Phone, email and address are visible | People look here first for contact details | |
| Phone number is tap-to-call on mobile | Saves a step for people ready to ring | |
| Company number, registered office and VAT number shown, if they apply | UK business website information requirements | |
| Privacy, cookies, terms and accessibility links present | Standard footer links on UK public sites | |
| Links grouped under clear labels | Easier to scan | |
| Most important links top left | Where people look first | |
| Same footer on every page | Consistency helps people find things | |
| Footer is short on mobile | Long mobile footers become a scroll trap | |
| Link text is descriptive, icons have names | Screen reader access | |
| Contrast and focus states pass a quick check | Readable and usable by keyboard | |
| Copyright year and social links are current | Signals an active business |
If you tick fewer than eight, the footer is a quick win. Most of these are an hour’s work for someone who knows the site.
Need a hand with your footer?
If your footer needs rebuilding, it is usually best done as part of the wider site, so that the design, navigation and calls to action all pull in the same direction. Our web design plans are Starter at £120 per month, Growth at £170 per month and Smart at £560 per month. If you already have a WordPress site that just needs keeping tidy, our WordPress maintenance is £30 per month per site. And if you want the footer to bring in local customers as well as reassure them, our local SEO services can help your business details show up consistently where people search.
FAQ
What should be in a website footer?
At minimum, include contact details, a few key links and your legal and policy links. Nielsen Norman Group says most sites should offer contact information, customer service, privacy policy and terms of use in the footer. UK limited companies should also show their company number, registered office and, where relevant, VAT number. Social links and a newsletter box are optional extras.
Is a website footer necessary?
In practice, yes. It is the consistent place at the bottom of every page where people look for information they could not find elsewhere, and for contact and policy links. It also carries the company details UK businesses are expected to show. A site without one feels unfinished, and visitors who cannot find your details may simply leave.
How long should a website footer be?
Long enough to hold what a customer needs, and no longer. A small business footer usually works with three or four short link groups plus a bottom strip for company details and policies. On mobile, avoid very long footers, and collapse secondary link lists if they run on.
Should my footer repeat my main navigation?
Not all of it. The ONS advises avoiding primary navigation links and duplicate links in the footer. Choose the pages people look for at the end of a visit, such as contact, services, pricing and FAQs, and leave the rest out.
How do I make my footer accessible?
Use real HTML footer markup, descriptive link text, accessible names on icon-only links, good colour contrast and visible focus indicators, and check you can reach every link using the Tab key. Keep contact or help links in the same place on every page so they meet the WCAG 2.2 Consistent Help criterion.
Sources
- Footer | Design | British Red Cross
- Layout: Footer, Design system, Office for National Statistics
- GOV.UK footer, GOV.UK Design System
- Footers, Guidance, DWP Design System
- Web Page Footers 101: Design Patterns and When to Use Each, Nielsen Norman Group
- Don’t Forget The Footer!, Figaro Digital
- Companies to update websites and email footers before 2007, Pinsent Masons
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