What belongs in your website footer

The footer is the strip at the bottom of every page, and it is easy to treat as an afterthought: a copyright line, a few social icons and whatever links did not fit in the main menu. Yet the footer gets used in a very particular way. People who scroll all the way down are usually looking for something specific, such as how to contact you, how to cancel, what your refund policy says or where the login link went. When they cannot find it there, they often conclude it does not exist.

For a membership site, a well-organized footer is a quiet trust signal and a safety net. It catches visitors who did not find what they needed in the menu and reassures them that the business behind the site is real, reachable and above board.

Know what people look for at the bottom of the page

Visitors have learned where to look for certain things. The footer is where they expect to find:

• Contact details or a link to a contact page
• Help, support or frequently asked questions
• Policies: privacy, terms, refunds and cookies
• Information about who runs the site
• Login and account links

If these are missing, or buried in a sub-page, you will receive emails asking for them, and some cautious visitors will leave without asking.

The essentials for a membership site

Every membership site footer should include these, clearly labeled:

1. Contact. A link to your contact page or form, and ideally a real email address. Many owners add expected response times here too.
2. Help. A link to your help center or FAQ. A good pre-sale FAQ, as described in writing a membership FAQ that answers buyers' doubts, belongs one click from every page.
3. Policies. Privacy policy, terms of membership, refund or cancellation policy and, if you use one, your cookie policy. Name them plainly.
4. About. A link to the page explaining who runs the membership and why.
5. Member login. Returning members often scroll to the bottom looking for it, especially on phones where the main menu is collapsed.
6. Business details. Your business name and, where appropriate, a location or registered address. Some places require certain details to be shown on business websites, so check with a qualified professional what applies to you.
7. A current copyright line. Set it to update automatically, since an out-of-date one suggests an abandoned site.

Useful extras, in moderation

Once the essentials are in place, a few additions can earn their space:

• A short email sign-up for visitors who are not ready to join
• Links to the one or two social platforms where you are genuinely active
• An accessibility statement, with a way to report problems
• A handful of links to your most important public sections, such as courses, events and pricing
• Support hours, if members may need help at particular times

Social icons should carry text alternatives and ideally a visible label, since small logos alone can be ambiguous; the principles in icons and visual cues that help rather than confuse apply here too.

What to leave out

Footers tend to collect clutter over time. Remove:

• Long lists of keyword links added in the hope of helping search rankings. They look spammy to people and add little for search engines.
• A duplicate of your entire menu. A few key links are helpful; every page on the site is noise.
• Links to platforms you abandoned. An icon leading to an account that has been silent for a long time undermines trust.
• Walls of badges and logos that visitors cannot verify and that push the useful links out of sight.
• Tiny, pale text. Footer text is often styled small and gray. It still needs to be readable.

Public footer and members-area footer

Visitors and members need different things. On public pages, the footer supports people deciding whether to join: about, pricing, FAQ, contact and policies. Inside the members area, it should support people using what they have paid for:

• Help center and how to contact support
• My account, billing and notification settings
• Community guidelines
• Policies
• Log out

If your platform allows a separate footer for logged-in members, use it. Removing the email sign-up and join links inside the members area is a small detail members notice.

A worked example: a running club's footers

Teodor runs an online marathon training club. His public footer is arranged in three columns, each with a short heading:

The club: About the coaches, Training plans, Pricing, Success stories.

Help: Questions before joining, Contact us (we reply within one working day), Member login.

The small print: Privacy policy, Membership terms, Cancellations and refunds, Cookie settings, Accessibility.

Below the columns: a single-line email sign-up for the free weekly training tip, links to the two platforms where he posts, the business name and an automatically updated copyright line.

Inside the members area, the footer changes to Help center, Contact support, My account, Community guidelines, Policies and Log out. On phones, the columns stack neatly, with each heading staying visible so members can scan for the section they need. A contact form that routes questions well, as covered in forms beyond sign-up, makes the “Contact us” link far more useful.

Your footer checklist

1. Scroll to the bottom of your home page and list everything in the footer.
2. Add any missing essentials: contact, help, policies, about, login and business details.
3. Remove keyword link lists, abandoned social icons and badge clutter.
4. Group the rest into two to four labeled columns.
5. Check the text is large and dark enough to read, and that it stacks sensibly on a phone.
6. Create a separate members-area footer, if your platform allows it.
7. Set the copyright line to update automatically.