What to put in your author website’s footer
The footer is an important bit of ‘real estate’ on any author website, but it often gets overlooked. Which is a wasted opportunity, as this is one of the sections of your website that appears on every single page (along with your header or main navigation)!
So it’s an area that can work really hard for your site, if you let it.
Let’s run through some of the things you might want to include in this section, along with some essentials that I think every author website should have down there!
The Essentials
1 Your copyright notice
As with books, you don’t have to assert your copyright to your website in writing to be entitled to it, but it doesn’t hurt to remind visitors that all the content on your website belongs to you.
A simple notice such as the one I have at the bottom of my site will do. So something like this:
© Charlotte Duckworth 2019-2021. All Rights Reserved.
Don’t forget if you run your author career as a limited company to use the name of your company rather than your actual name.
2 Any credits
The footer is also where you should list any credits for artwork or photography featured on your website.
It’s also the place to add a link to the person who designed your website 😉
All the sites I design have ‘Site by Charlotte Duckworth Studio’ in the footer with a link to my site.
This is not only kind to your web designer (who will be very grateful for this small but important piece of marketing!), it also really helps people browsing your site and wanting a similar design to find them.
3 A link to your Privacy Notice
I’ve talked about privacy policies in detail here, but as this is a rather… boring (!) page that not too many people will actually want to visit, you don’t need to link to it in your main navigation.
Instead include a link in your footer, so that it’s still easy for people to find if they want to read it, but doesn’t take up valuable space in your top navigation.
4 Disclosures for affiliate schemes
If your website features affiliate links (for eg to Amazon or Bookshop.org) you must disclose this somewhere on the site.
The footer is a great place to do so. All you need to include is some simple wording such as the following:
Disclosure: I am a member of the bookshop.org / Amazon.co.uk affiliate programme. Affiliate links are links that provide me with a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking. This doesn’t affect your purchase in any way, and i only feature things I truly endorse.
5 Social media links
The footer is the perfect place to include links to all your social media accounts!
It’s also somewhere people will naturally go to look for them, so don’t forget about these small but important buttons.
If your website is built on Squarespace then you can easily include a neat social media links block here.
The Non-Essentials
Here are some things you might want to add to your footer, depending on your website preferences.
1 Links to your main navigation / other pages
If you have a one-page website, or very long pages on your site, it’s helpful to repeat your main navigation in the footer, so that people don’t have to scroll back up to the top to find the links to the other pages of your site.
If you have a Squarespace website, you can do this using the Footer Navigation option, or simple text links in a text block, depending on how you’d like to style it.
2 A newsletter sign up form
This is a brilliant place to include a sign up form to your mailing list, as it means it will appear on every page!
I really recommend you do this. As you probably know, I’m somewhat evangelical about author newsletters…
3 An Instagram feed
A lot of my authors like to have their Instagram feed pull through directly to their website, and again the footer is the natural place to put this, so that your latest Instagram images display on your site.
It looks really cool and means your website is constantly updated alongside your Insta feed. I use it on my own author website.
4 A search bar
If you have a pretty extensive website, with lots of pages and perhaps a blog too, you might want to include a search bar here so that people can easily find the information they’re looking for.
This isn’t something many authors will need, but if you do think your site would benefit from a search bar, the footer is a great place to put this.
5 A call to action button
Want people to buy your latest book? Join your Facebook group? Check out your upcoming event schedule?
I would argue that the most important call to action to have in your footer is to sign up to your newsletter, but if there’s something else you’d like every visitor to your website to do, the footer is a great place to add a big button to encourage them to do so.
