Back in the old days, almost every website had a sitemap where they listed out all the pages. The purpose of the sitemap is to help visitors and search engine spiders to find information on the site. Now, a lot of modern websites have dropped the sitemap page, instead they place the sitemap in the footer area. I'm going to review 20 websites (from big corporation to small portfolio sites) who organized their footer cleverly to enhance usability.
Benefits of Placing a Sitemap in the Footer
- Engage user click and visit duration:
As you may know, online readers don't read everything on the page, they scroll and scan. Footer is probably the last place they look at before exiting. Placing a sitemap in the footer may attract readers' attention and increase page clicks and views. - Make sure your visitors are not missing out:
Sometimes your visitors might be too lazy to click on the sitemap link or miss it all together, having a sitemap in the footer can ensure your visitors are aware of every page. - Use your footer to promote links:
You don't really have to use the footer to list out everything, you can use it as an alternative location to promote important pages. - Save readers' time:
Having a sitemap in the footer allows users to quickly jump from page to page. - You save the visitors a click:
By placing the sitemap in the footer rather than a separate page, you save the visitors a click. - Enhance layout design:
Don't know what to put in the footer? Perhaps a sitemap can fill up the page and make your site look bigger.
Digg
Digg keeps their header nice and clean by placing only the content categories. The header is focused on the users while the footer is focused on the company.
Mozilla - Firefox
Thanks to the footer sitemap, with just a glance, I know exactly what pages are available on the Mozilla website.
Apple
What if you have a huge website (in terms of content), putting a full sitemap in the footer may be insane? You can learn from the clever Apple.com, split the sitemap into sections. For example, go to the Mac section, you will only see the Mac sitemap.
GoodBarry
Although GoodBarry doesn't list out every page in the footer, but it does act as a sitemap where they list the pages with the most significant content.
White House
In the recent redesign of the White House website, browsing the site has been made easier by using the dropdown menus and sitemap in the footer.
Miro
Miro separates the sitemap with a text bar "Looking for something?".
Six Apart
You may also use the sitemap to connect to your network sites. Six Apart is a good example. In the footer, under the Six Apart Blog column, there are links to their sister sites: Typepad, Movable, and Vox.
Clearspring
In Clearspring, they split their Services section into two columns: Launchpad and WidgetMedia.
SquareSpace
SquareSpace's sitemap tells you which pages you've visited already. Notice the visited pages have a tiny check mark instead of the regular triangle icon?
SugarSync
SugarSync displays only the main level of the site in the footer, the full sitemap lists all pages.
FreeAgent Central
Again, FreeAgent Central has a simplified sitemap in the footer with a link to the full sitemap.
FiveRuns
FiveRuns creatively organizes their sitemap to put the main focus on their products.
Red Nose Day
I particularly like the "red nose" figures in the footer because they make the sitemap stand out.
Tigers
Having too much empty space in the footer? Fill it with a sitemap. You don't need to have a lot of pages to make a sitemap (Tigers is an example).
Get Satisfaction
Get Satisfaction saves their header space by placing the main navigation (which is also their sitemap) in the footer.
Flashloaded
Flashloaded sells Flash components, thus their footer sitemap only lists out the products.
Jamie Oliver
Jamie Oliver displays a simpified sitemap in the footer and also provides a link to the full sitemap.
Redbrick Health
Nice and clean 5-column sitemap.
FortySeven Media
I've been showing a lot of big corporation sites. What if you have a smaller site? FortySeven Media is a good example of what you do with a portfolio site. They use the footer to display the latest entries of their blog and portfolio work.
Jason Santa Maria
This one is my favorite. Not only does it look elegant, but it also attracts readers' attention by laying out the recent activities of the blog in a beautiful way.
Tips For Designing Footer Sitemap
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Categorize - organize your links in categories.
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Use Headings - use headings or titles for each category.
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Be Consistent - the order of the links should be consistent.
Greay post. Thanks Man!
Great Article and I think it is a good idea for the larger type of site.
But the more I think about it every website could make very good use of this because you do indeed create a better user experience. I might try it on my own site as well with my main sections and my twitter feed.
More great food for thought, cheers!
Super useful article! Thanks
One thing I have noticed is that some websites have huge footers with sitemaps that seem totally unnecessary, because there just isn’t enough content on the website to justify having one. If your website is small enough to be totally accessible from the top links then what is the point in having one?
Nice Pages. Sitemap in the Footer is a good idea and very useful.
I agree with Patrick; There is only need for a sitemap when the site is complicated. A normal portfolio-site should work without it, otherwise the basic structure of your site is messed up.
A regular “work, blog, contact” should do the trick for those. Everybody knows this system, so why fill your page with extra info?
When you’re experimenting with structure,… well, that’s an other cup of tea…
I agree, if the structure of the site is complicated then we do need a sitemap, otherwise for a simple brochure site if we dont have it also, it will work!
A footer sitemap is an excellent idea. Do you think this would be good for SEO too?
Great post. Grazie
Nice Article!!
Good post! I’m happy to read your site!
2 Amelia Vargo: for SEO would be good an XML sitemap ;)
Nice Article, thanks.
Note: I like the skinning job you did for the Thickbox jQuery plugin, may be a good idea for a future tutorial? Cheers
Some great examples here, it’s interesting to see some sites where the “footer” is just as big as the site!
It´s amazing what we can get from this articles… My skills rose up a lot after reading many of these ones…
And this article was well put here, many sites had been negating the footer strength, this is a simple and elegante way to rise show it up.
Greeting, from Brazil ;D
Thanks! I’ve been pushing to update the footer in this manor on a client’s website, and this article gives great examples and support.
Great post! Oh, the poor neglected footer!
Great post, another good example is Waitrose, a supermarket in the UK…
http://www.waitrose.com/
This is a great article. It’s a shame how much both the site map and the footer fall to the wayside on the design of a lot of sites.
Great post, i’ve been thinking a lot recently about footer design for my next project. I will certainly take this into consideration.
Another good example, if a little basic is the Redweb. The site structure is narrative and as you read through the site the footer ticks of the sections as you go.