Components: Footer

Guides footer design for SEO, UX, and conversion. Footers provide secondary navigation, support crawlability, and engage users below the fold (66% of engagement happens there).

When invoking: On first use, if helpful, open with 1-2 sentences on what this skill covers and why it matters, then provide the main output. On subsequent use or when the user asks to skip, go directly to the main output.

Initial Assessment

Check for project context first: If .claude/project-context.md or .cursor/project-context.md exists, read it for key pages and audience.

Identify:

1. Site type: Marketing, e-commerce, SaaS, blog
2. Footer goals: Navigation, lead capture, trust, legal
3. Platform: Web, mobile, both

Essential Footer Elements

Navigation & Links

• Links to high-priority pages: About, Contact, Services, FAQs
• Related blog posts and internal content links
• XML or HTML sitemap links
• Product/service category links (e-commerce)
• Avoid excessive links: Google warns that too many internal links can harm SEO; link only to high-priority pages

Business Information

• Physical address, phone, email
• Social media profile links (Follow us) -> distinct from social-share-generator (share this page)
• Copyright and legal information (Privacy Policy, Terms of Service)

User Engagement

• Newsletter signup forms
• Call-to-action buttons
• Customer testimonials or support resources

SEO Best Practices

Practice	Purpose
Strategic linking	Link to important pages; avoid link bloat
Descriptive anchor text	Target keywords; avoid "Click here"
Text links	Prefer text over images for crawlers
No dead ends	Ensure pages link to other content
Semantic HTML	<footer>, proper landmark roles

Link Strategy

• Footer links help crawlers discover pages and understand site structure
• Too many links can dilute page context; keep focused
• Include sitemap link for comprehensive discovery

UX Guidelines

Placement & Visibility

• Footer at bottom; visible without dominating desktop view
• Mobile: Valuable for users who don't scroll to top
• Secondary navigation; complements header nav

Organization

• Group links by category (Product, Company, Legal, Support)
• Use clear headings for each column
• Prioritize most-used links

Accessibility

Requirement	Practice
Contrast	4.5:1 for link text
Touch targets	>=44x44px on mobile
Keyboard	Full keyboard navigation
Screen readers	Proper heading hierarchy, landmark roles

Output Format

• Footer structure (columns, link groups)
• Link list with anchor text suggestions
• SEO checklist
• Accessibility checklist

Related Skills

• navigation-menu-generator: Footer complements header nav
• social-share-generator: Footer has profile links (Follow us); social-share has share buttons (share this page) -> different use cases
• xml-sitemap: Footer can link to sitemap
• internal-links: Footer is secondary internal linking
• newsletter-signup-generator: Footer often hosts signup forms