Sitemap in Footer (Superfooter) - A new approach to enhancing your website's performance

27 February 2008 - By Sean Fishlock

A recent website design trend is for sitemaps in footers (sometimes called "superfooter" or "mini-sitemaps"), though despite the new approach, only a small number of websites have taken it up.  I'll explain why this approach offers some usability and search engine advantages and discuss the right time to use them.

Some recent high profile sites to use this technique include Apple.com and Australian sites such as the the ABC.  it has recently also been used by sites like Linkedin and LiveJournal.

Too often sitemaps are hidden as an obscure link on a site, indeed often to be found in the footer of a page.  Often they aren't given much thought, they are simply a massive heirarchical list of links and aren't really all that helpful.

Sitemaps, however can and should be helpful, not just a list of links.  I'll explain how a smaller version, implanted in the footer of your site, can make a world of difference.

These days it is becoming more common for people to look in the footer for common links such as "Careers", "Employment", "Site Credits" and other sundry and miscellanous information which may not belong in a main menu.  Furthermore, recent usability studies show that despite what many people think many users actually like to scroll when using webpages.

Strategic miniature sitemaps, however, provide the opportunity to give users a summary of what is in each of the main sections of the site.

They can provide the opportunity to showcase or highlight key products and services to users.

They can make your company look larger or more impressive than it really is.

Additionally, they reduce the need for sometimes inaccessible and cross-browser problematic drop-down or flyout style menus.

Possibly the biggest advantage of the approach is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).  By making links to all of your pages easier to find, search engines like Google will more readily index your site and rank higher pages which are buried deep in your site. 

The advantage of a content management system (CMS), such as Datalink's Freestyler is that it can not only generate website site maps on a dedicated page but also mini-sitemaps for your footer of your webpages. In addition, such a system should also automatically generate a Google Sitemap, a hidden XML file which lists the pages of your site and makes it easier for Google to index and rank your website's pages.

Below is the footer of the recently redesigned Members Equity website.  It provides a list of key products broken down by by customer type, which are all accessible from each page.  The footer is below, which is laid out in a column format also contains a link to a larger, more comprehensive sitemap and other miscellaneous links such as Privacy policy which aren't found on the mini sitemap.

Summary

Perhaps the biggest consideration as to whether a mini sitemap is appropriate for the footer of your site is the size of your site.  If you have a small business website with a handful of pages - don't bother.  This approach isn't going to do you any justice. 

Also, a sitemap in a footer can increase the clutter of your page.  If you are going for a clean, corporate, unclutted look, then you'll need to consider taking steps to make the sitemap less visually "in your face" and even more subtle.  This may mean using a very light font colour and reducing the size of the text, which can unfortunately in turn make the mini sitemap less useful, as it is less likely to get noticed.

Finally, unless you operate a huge web portal, you would probably be wise to keep the mini-sitemap to the content pages, where users expect to scroll.  This however places more emphasis on design and information architecture for your website's homepage.

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