Most small business owners never think about their website footer. It came with the template, it has a copyright line and a few links, and nobody looks at it. Except customers do. When someone has scrolled to the bottom of a page and still has a question, the footer is where they look for your phone number, your hours or a way to get in touch, and a thin or outdated footer sends them away.

That matters because people check. TrustedFirms' 2026 Online Trust Report, a survey of 1,146 US adults, found that 68 percent of buyers check an unfamiliar business's website before spending money, even though only 13 percent picked a professional website as the single biggest factor in earning their trust. The website is part of the vetting, which makes the basics, such as contact details that are easy to find, worth getting right.

A good footer quietly does several jobs at once: it helps people reach you, helps them find pages they missed and shows that you are a real, established business. Below is what a small business footer should include, three examples you can adapt and what to leave out. If an agency such as Optuno manages your site, this makes a quick checklist for your next review.

What a footer is for

Think of the footer as the place visitors go when the rest of the page did not give them what they needed. Someone who reads a service page to the end and wants to call, someone looking for your address before they drive over and someone checking whether you are licensed all tend to scroll straight down.

Usability researchers at Nielsen Norman Group have found the same thing in their testing: users often go directly to the footer to find contact information or ways to get customer support. They also advise against hiding or collapsing the footer, because people expect it to be there.

For a small local business, that means three jobs. The first is contact: making it effortless to call, visit or send a message from any page. The second is navigation: offering a short set of links to the pages people most often look for, without repeating the entire menu. The third is trust: showing the details that reassure a cautious customer, such as licenses, service areas and the legal pages a legitimate business has.

Because the footer appears on every page, a small improvement there reaches every visitor. It is one of the few changes to a website that pays off across the whole site at once.

Contact details and hours

Your contact details are the most important thing in the footer. Include your business name, phone number, email or contact page link and, if customers visit you, your full street address. Make the phone number a link that dials when tapped on a phone, and consider linking the address to directions in Google Maps.

Add your hours, including any days you close early. If you are a service-area business that travels to customers, list the main towns or regions you serve instead of a street address, which saves out-of-area visitors a wasted call.

Keep these details identical to what appears on your Google Business Profile and other listings. The same name, address and phone number everywhere builds confidence with customers and helps search engines connect your website to your listings; this guide to NAP consistency explains why it matters.

If your business has more than one location, give each its own block with its own address, phone number and hours, rather than listing every phone number in one line where customers have to guess which is which. Update the footer the same day any of these details change, since it repeats on every page of the site.

Navigation and useful links

The footer is a good place for the links people look for but do not expect in the main menu: your services, an About page, contact, frequently asked questions, reviews, careers and any customer resources such as financing information or a client portal.

Keep it short. A footer with fifty links is as hard to use as no footer at all. Group the links under a few simple headings, such as Services, Company and Help, and stick to the pages a customer is likely to want.

Your main navigation menu is a separate job and deserves its own attention; these older guides to user-friendly page navigation and building a clear navigation bar cover the menu at the top of the page.

Links to your social media profiles belong here too, but only to accounts you keep active. A link to a Facebook page that was last updated three years ago suggests the business might be gone.

Before you redesign anything, it helps to see how your business looks online as a whole. Optuno's free local SEO report gives a snapshot of your rankings, listings, and reviews.

Trust signals and legal links

The footer is the natural home for details that build confidence without cluttering the rest of the page. For licensed trades, that includes your license number. Some states require it: California's Contractors State License Board, for example, requires licensed contractors to show their license number in all forms of advertising, and its rules specifically include company website content. Check your own state's licensing board for its rules.

Add memberships, certifications and awards only if they are current and meaningful to customers, such as a trade certification or a local business association. A row of badges for awards nobody has heard of adds clutter without adding trust.

Legal links usually live here as well. A privacy policy matters if your site collects personal information through forms, and some laws require one: California's online privacy law, for example, requires commercial websites that collect personal information from California consumers to conspicuously post a privacy policy. Terms of service and an accessibility statement are worth adding if they apply to your site.

A copyright line is optional. The US Copyright Office says a notice has been optional for works published on or after March 1, 1989, though it does make people aware that copyright is claimed. If you include one, keep the year current, because an old date makes the whole site look neglected.

Three footer examples for local businesses

A plumbing company's footer might open with a bold, tappable phone number and the line Available 24/7 for emergencies, followed by its license number, the towns it serves and three short link groups for services, company information and help. A small strip at the bottom holds the privacy policy and copyright line.

A hair salon's footer might lead with its address, a link for directions, opening hours for each day and a Book online button, with links to its services menu, gift cards and careers. Its social links go to an Instagram account it updates weekly, because clients want to see recent work.

A family restaurant's footer might show its address and parking notes, hours including kitchen closing times, a phone number for reservations and links to the menu, catering and private events. A short line about allergy information answers a common question before anyone has to call.

Each one puts the information its customers most need first, keeps the links few and leaves out anything that does not help someone decide or get in touch.

What to leave out

Long lists of keywords or city names crammed into the footer to help with search do not help customers and can make the site look spammy. If you serve many areas, a short list of main regions or a link to a service area page works better.

Leave out duplicate menus that repeat every link from the header, outdated promotions, links to pages that no longer exist and social accounts you have abandoned. Check that every link in the footer works, since it appears on every page and a broken link there is broken everywhere.

Avoid tiny, low-contrast text. Footer text is often shrunk and grayed out until it is hard to read, especially on a phone. Your phone number and address should be as easy to read as anything else on the page.

Finally, look at your footer on a phone. Columns that sit neatly side by side on a desktop often stack into a long scroll on mobile, so put the most important block, usually contact details, first.

If you'd rather hand this off, Optuno's plans cover your website and local marketing with no long-term contracts, no setup fees, and a dedicated contact.

Frequently asked questions

What should be in a small business website footer?
Your business name, phone number, address or service area, hours, a short set of links to key pages, links to active social accounts, your privacy policy and any licenses customers expect to see. Put contact details first.

Should I put my address in the website footer?
Yes, if customers visit your location. If you travel to customers and do not want to show a home address, list the towns or regions you serve instead.

Do I need a copyright notice in my footer?
It is optional in the United States, since copyright protection does not depend on a notice. Many businesses include one anyway; if you do, keep the year current so the site does not look neglected.

How many links should a website footer have?
Enough to cover the pages customers most often look for, usually a dozen or fewer, grouped under a few simple headings. More than that makes the footer harder to scan.

Should my phone number be in the footer or the header?
Both. The header catches people who want to call right away, and the footer catches those who read to the end of a page before deciding.

Does the website footer help with SEO?
Indirectly. Consistent contact details and clear links to important pages help visitors and search engines understand your business, but stuffing the footer with keywords or city names does more harm than good.