Increasing Your Website’s ROI through a Footer

ROI (return on investment) is a highly chased goal for most of web projects which have any way to convert their attendance to money. It is pretty simple to understand the main meaning of ROI: each action, development step of investment you make is compared with the funds it brings afterwards. If you invest less then you get in result, than your ROI is positive. Of course, you could not accomplish positive ROI always (unless you live in a perfect world) but the aspiration to the perfection is clear.

One of the most important aspects of ROI is the usage of any tool you have access to. That is why we are talking about footer as one of such aspects, although it is surely not the highest priority tool to consider. The reason is that there were lots of guides about headers, text content, visuals and other parts of any website but footer is usually ignored. We will try to show you the way this part of your WordPress website can also serve for the sake of ROI and overall user experience improvement.

These are 7 essential hints on how to treat your website`s footer to make an additional tool for returning your investments and engaging your audience. The steps are basics but call upon the attention to nuances you can also use in other aspects of your website`s development process.

Focus on the Main Idea

The first step you should take is to define your main idea. There could be tons of variants. For example, you may want to sell goods or services to your potential clients, or you can struggle for creating a strong internet community around some subject or idea, or you wish to present your work experience and skills in the best way possible. Each of these goals implies the one and the most important action from a user: to make a purchase, to register, to see and remember.

This idea can seem oversimplified but the truth is that such a simplification opens your eyes to the main goal and helps to share this vision with your website visitors. In other words, we can run in circles over a product or a service sale but the straighter we offer it, the more chances we have to actually sell it. A user is nearly always in a rush and do not have time for running in circles, so there is no logical reason to not offer him or her such a run.

Use Footer as a Support Unit

By support unit we mean something usually not worth reading or boring. Support units are things which are primarily important for most businesses but mostly ignored by users. The examples of such support units are privacy policies, copyright notices, terms of use and so on. Are they important? Of course, there can be no business without terms and conditions of use, just because it would be illegal. But are they usually read by users? Mostly skipped, let us be true to ourselves.

Do we use footer as a cellar for boring stuff? No, that would be a wrong approach. Although you may post links to terms and conditions, copyright notices, privacy policies and other support units in your website`s footer, you should not leave it only with such a disgrace. Split the boring stuff with interesting links. For example, to your corporate blog, portfolio page, about company information, events and celebrations and so on. Let users choose what the can pick from a footer and do not use it only as a support unit.

Mirror the Primary Features

The most important information, features and call to actions are primarily used in headers, sidebars or inside the web page content. Most website owners forget to mirror these primary features in the footer. One of the biggest mistakes! The footer can be no match to primary website blocks in terms of conversions but it does not mean it is not working as a conversion tool at all. Imagine a curious user who wants to scroll all the way down to footer. Why would not you give him a chance to see the most important information once more?

It is also a very good idea to give a user another chance to contact you. Call to action buttons, phone numbers, feedback forms and other contact opportunities are working very well in the footer too. Such additional hooks will provide your website with higher ROI due to extra engagement of your visitors.

Order and Proper Organization

Your footer needs proper organization as any other element of your WordPress website. Unfortunately, a lot of website owners use their website footers as a link storage and nothing else. In this case you should not expect ROI improvement and higher user engagement. To use your footer properly, you should invest time and effort in organizing not only links but also logical blocks, columns and even layouts. All these opportunities are often included in most of the premium WordPress themes and plugins, so that you do not need special web development skills and knowledge to create and manage footers.

The easiest way to organize your footer information is to make a few columns which sort your stuff. For example, you can use one column to put contact information and other for privacy policy links. There could be more columns and corresponding categories but do not overwhelm your users with information.

Socialize within Footer Area

Your website`s footer is also one of the best places to put your social sharing buttons. It is logical that users may wish to socialize with you only after scrolling all the given information (at least at the main page of your WordPress website). Remember that footer is not the only place to put your social sharing buttons, rather the place to mirror them in the perfect way.

Social aspect of your website can be featured not only with social sharing buttons but also recent posts, comments, social walls and other suitable blocks. There are special plugins to create and manage social walls inside your footer. Some premium WordPress themes also include the corresponding tools for their owners.

Make Footer Useful Again

We are frequently talking about a footer as a mirror of the most important content of your website. But it can also contain some unique pieces of content to attract additional information and engagement hooks for your users. One of the best examples can be taken from our previous paragraph – it is about social walls.

Another examples can include: galleries, testimonials, short portfolio works` previews, most read articles, most popular products or services, delivery tips, frequently asked question (not all but one random quote) and so on. There are no limitations or restrictions – use anything you think would be interesting for your website visitors.

Apply Any Focus You Need

It is common to use “Back to top” button inside a footer. This common idea is not bad as it is – the motivation to start a content review once more holds a user longer and engages him into the content. But there are options which go beyond this feature although they use the same modus operandi.

Why not focus the users’ attention to other website`s block you wish them to read once more? You are free to redirect your user wherever you want. Just do not forget that you are responsible for such a redirection and its consequences. Do not create false promises or expectations.