05: Important things to include in your Squarespace website footer 🦶
-
00:00 The term Squarespace is a trademark of Squarespace, Incorporated. This content is not affiliated with Squarespace, Incorporated.
00:12 Welcome to Think Inside The Square, a podcast full of quick tips and tricks that will help you create a Squarespace website that you're proud of.
00:19 I'm your host, Becca Harpain, creator of Insidethesquare.co, and in this episode I'm sharing my list of four things you should have in the footer of every website and four extras that I think are a really good idea to include.
00:33 For a transcript of this episode, along with the links to any resources mentioned, visit insidethesquare.co/podcast
00:42 Let's dive right into this list four things that I think you should have in the footer of every Squarespace website you create.
00:51 The first is just some basic contact information. Provide some type of contact detail, like an email address, a phone number, and if you have a physical location, definitely put your physical address in the footer of your website.
01:04 Now, if you have multiple locations, you can have an entire footer section that's dedicated to each one of those addresses.
01:10 That way, people who are looking at your website on a mobile device can easily click on the address and copy it into a map app so they can find directions to the physical location.
01:20 But definitely, if you're a virtual company like mine, include an email address in there some way for visitors to easily reach out to you if they have any questions or concerns or want to work with you directly.
01:31 The second thing that I think you should have in the footer of every Squarespace website you create are priority links.
01:38 Consider this like a submenu. Include important navigation links that help users find key pages on your website.
01:45 You can include a link to your home page about page services, a blog, an FAQ, any other relevant sections.
01:53 I have a training course that I teach on Squarespace 7.1 on my website, but my header already has a bunch of links on it to get people to my free resources.
02:02 Sure, I promote the course throughout the rest of my website, but if someone's interested in it, if they've scrolled through all the content, they get there to the bottom.
02:10 They might want to check that out immediately, and it's a great place for me to put that priority link.
02:16 The third thing that I think you should have in the footer of every Squarespace website you create a Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
02:23 Now, to be super duper clear, this is not legal advice.
02:27 I don't offer legal advice on this podcast, but I strongly recommend that everyone have a Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. That came out weird. Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. There we go.
02:39 So having that information on there is really important if you collect any user data or require visitors to agree to certain terms, especially if you have a contact form on your website and you're collecting their email address.
02:51 I think it's a great thing to have on those footer of your website a quick link so they understand exactly what you do with that data once you have it.
02:58 This can help establish trust and transparency and make you seem like a lot more legitimate of a business. So definitely consider putting a privacy policy in terms of service.
03:07 Link in the footer of your Website now, the fourth thing that I think everyone should have in the footer of their Squarespace website is a copyright and any legal information.
03:17 Display the copyright symbol along with the year to indicate that your content is protected. And yes, you can use the copyright symbol even if you have not registered your copyright.
03:29 You can also include a link to a legal information page that can include disclaimers copyright notices, any relevant legal statements.
03:37 Again, this is not legal advice, just strongly recommended.
03:40 So before I jump into the four things that you can include but you don't have to, just four that I totally recommend, let's recap those that I think you definitely should.
03:49 Contact info - quick email address, phone number or a physical address. Priority links like a submenu.
03:56 Important links that might not fit in your main navigation but you want to make sure people are aware of them.
04:01 Privacy Policy and Terms of Service And last but not least, throw in a copyright down there and any legal information that you want to provide links to.
04:09 All right, so four things that you can include in your footer, but you don't have to. Social media icons or links.
04:16 If your business has a presence on social media platforms, include the corresponding icons or links in the footer.
04:22 This lets visitors connect with you on social and stay up to date with your latest updates.
04:27 Now, if you listen to my last episode, I do not recommend having those links in the header of your website.
04:33 The truth is, social media links will take people to a platform that is designed to distract them, and I don't think that's the best idea. However, at the bottom of your website, after they've scrolled through your content, they learned about what you do, what you offer the world.
04:49 They might want a chance to connect with you socially. So if you do have a strong presence, pop those social media links in the footer of your website.
04:57 I also recommend having a newsletter sign up or subscription option. If you have a newsletter, provide a sign up form in the footer.
05:05 This will encourage visitors to stay connected with your updates, promotions and other important information.
05:10 I send out a weekly newsletter with a brand new Squarespace video tutorial. I have every single Tuesday for the last like over three years at this point.
05:18 And at the bottom of my website, you'll see in the very first footer section, there's an option to sign up for this newsletter. I like to have that on every single page and I think you should too.
05:30 All right, the third thing you can include but you don't have to, awards and certifications.
05:35 If your business has received any noteworthy awards or certifications, display them in the footer to reinforce your expertise and your achievements.
05:43 It's going to give visitors additional confidence in working with you, especially if they're brand new to your business.
05:49 Now, personally, I haven't set that up on my website yet, but I'm considering it. So if you're checking out this episode at Insidethesquare.co/podcast, take a look at the footer and see if I've done it yet.
06:00 I'm definitely considering putting that on my own website, and I think you should consider it too.
06:05 All right, last but not least, the fourth thing you can include but don't have to is a search bar.
06:10 If you have a huge blog, like I do, giving people the opportunity to search for the content they're looking for is a great thing for anyone visiting your website who made it all the way to the bottom of the page and still isn't satisfied with the information they found.
06:25 So a search bar is the fourth thing that I'd recommend you include, but again, you don't have to.
06:30 Before we call this episode a wrap, let's talk really quickly about footer layouts. I'm very passionate about design, so those of you that already know me, I'm sure you saw this coming.
06:40 The footer of your website is on every single page of your site, and in Squarespace 7.1, we can have multiple page sections in the footer.
06:50 When you're in edit mode, hover over the footer and select Edit Footer.
06:54 Because this is on every page, you can do this in edit mode from any page, including blog posts.
06:59 Down there you'll find some predesigned footers in Squarespace, and that's a great start.
07:03 Now, obviously, you'll need to modify these to match your own content, like updating the links and the design. I definitely recommend including a logo there too, where it says Site title in the example.
07:13 You can of course, use text, but if you have an alternate logo, totally throw that down there, secure some brand recognition.
07:20 Personally, I like to have a minimum of two footer sections in every Squarespace website I design.
07:25 The first section is where I include subscriber options for the newsletter. Then I have the second section, and this is where things are more formal.
07:34 This is where I make sure I have the LLC, any copyright terms and condition links, any contact information like mailing addresses.
07:42 Definitely another section there that's a little bit more formal to cover all of my legal bases. Again, this is not legal advice, just how I like to design Squarespace websites.
07:51 That wraps it up for this quick episode of what to include in the Footer of a Squarespace Website.
07:57 Thank you so much for listening this episode of Think Inside the Square. I truly hope you enjoyed it.
08:02 I have a lot more tips and tricks to share with you about making an amazing Squarespace website that is uniquely yours.
08:08 So be sure to subscribe to this brand new podcast wherever you happen to be listening to this episode.
08:13 Thanks again for listening and most importantly, have fun with your Squarespace website. Bye for now, you.
