Footer links, known as 'boilerplate links,' are known to be site-wide links. They commonly appear on each of the pages of a website. When discussing the word 'footer,' you insinuate a bottom position. A hyperlink, on the other hand, is a code on a webpage directing users to a different point on the webpage or another page. Footer links are a set of codes situated at the bottom of a webpage that allows communication across the different URLs of a webpage upon a single click.
On a webpage, the navigation bar located atop allows users to traverse a webpage with ease. While the navigation bar sits on top, the footer link plays an important part in very lengthy web pages. When a user scrolls down a long page, rather than scrolling back to the top of the page and accessing the menu bar or the navigation bar, the footer link provides him with the option of easy and fast access to different and several web pages from the link at the bottom.
In other words, footer links play the same role as the header bar to make page navigation easy for user access. Still, footer links do not just offer fast and easy access for page navigation. It can impact on SEO as well. And this is what this article is all about. It discusses the best practices to optimize footer links for SEO in 2023. But first, what makes footer links important?
Importance of Footer links
One might think that there's absolutely no reason to put enough effort into creating footer links because there is little or no attention to the content at the bottom of a webpage. In contrast, a recent study shows the development of larger screen sizes is increasing the adoption of a minimalist approach from web developers. In turn, leading to modifications in scrolling practices, making them less tasking than ever before. Hence, it is only wise to optimize this avenue as footers serve directional purposes in a webpage despite being below the web content of a page. When users know the footer holds such important information, they can check it especially when they specifically seek a piece of particular information.
Best Design practices for Footer links
After highlighting the importance of footer links, some contents must feature in this section to note. Keeping in mind that the user's interest is the only requirement for the footer link, whatever is kept in this section depends on what the web designer or developer decides. Still, some standard content is involved. These includes:
Copyright: The copyright notice is the most relevant content of a footer section. It is a written notice that protects your work against plagiarism. It emphatically states that the work belongs to you. The copyright symbol is what is required to show that your page is secured. This symbol can show once on the homepage and several times on other web pages on that site.
Sitemap: These are hardly visited and clicked upon by web users but they are the most common links found in footers. They assist search engines in content search.
Privacy policy: It is important to create a privacy policy on a website. This page explains what kind of information the website collects, how it stores information and the ways it uses collected information. It should be kept in a place that is easy to access for all to see.
Terms of use: The terms of use explain the terms that the users who visit the page agree to. The footer section effectively maximizes page coverage. It basically means that including the legal text in the footer ensures the display of 'terms of use' on every page.
Contact Information: Website footers always consist of contact information like an email or phone number or a link that opens a contact form. Website footers carry this part to make it easy for potential leads to reach the webmaster or web owners.
How Footer Links affect SEO
A high number of relevant links on your website which may be internal or external will lead to a higher search engine ranking. In other words, a website SEO ranking is decided by every single link on the webpage including the ones in the footer. These links inform search engines of the pages most relevant to a website and allow users to browse through the website easily.
Redirection: This is an avenue to offer more content to users after they have completely read through an article or content on a webpage after generating traffic from high-quality content. Footer links assist in redirecting visitors to other web pages on the website.
Mobile Optimization: Since the use of mobile devices has increased significantly in the last decade, web optimization is necessary for the conversion of leads to a website. Navigating a website through the footer links of a mobile phone is much easier than other devices.
Increase in SEO rank: The links on a website footer are scrutinized for SEO rank as well as the ones on the main web content. Adding too many or too few links on the website footer can affect your SEO rank positively or negatively. One needs to know the number of links that users may follow up on.
Optimizing Footer Links for SEO in 2023
Anchor texts: Search engines utilize the text that external pages use to connect to a website to determine how the website is viewed by other pages. By understanding the kind of anchor texts to utilize for research and thinking of what users look for when seeking out a service or a product, it is possible to focus on the anchor text used internally in the footer.
Keywords: Using the keywords of web content in the footer as a text instead of a link is a good place to show the page's significance to Google. New scripts can check if a user visited from a search engine and the keyword they sought for.
Steps to avoid when Optimizing Footer SEO
Do not include too many keywords in Anchor texts.
Avoid making use of the same keywords used in the main text in the footer section.
To avoid clustering, it is advisable to reduce the number of links connecting each page on the website in this section.
The footer should be warm and user friendly
Links should be organized. Cross-linking is okay and occurs naturally.
Wrapping Up
The web footer contains important information about the website, which is not found anywhere else by users and search engines. They may be clickable tags which may be social media access links, contact details, terms, and conditions, about company policies and links that describe a company and the services it offers. And as such, creating a website footer link for SEO in 2023 must involve careful and detailed planning. Offer content that users need to keep on browsing and checking out the website. Though they are not the first things that users or web designers pay attention to, creating an effective one will prove to be a big source of help to every user who scrolls down to the bottom of the web page.