Developing my footer area

[Socialdude]

Hi,

My website has no footer area and I would like some advise on creating/optimising it for seo.

Would it advise to keyword link to 10 of my key pages

&

Have my full company address and this will help with localising my website

• Company name

• address,

• Dublin, Ireland

[TalkingSheep]

If I wanted to outrank this competitor www.hannibals  catering.com,  would it help me or not to use our keywords in the footer like they did, or is there a better alternative?

[sesertin]

It is not a simple text I suggested, but a hcard,and i did not suggest it for users, but for SEO and local search. It carries local value: http://smallbusinessshift.com/articles/microformats-for-local-seo/ I suggested links as well. A footer area in my opinion should hold definately more than two links. These links do carry useful value, as after finishing reading all the content on a page you get to the footer and you can scroll up till the main menu or you can find something useful you can clcik in the bottom. I think it is a great way to lead visitors through your site. I think a carefully designed sites should give some attention to this factor. If you do doubt that users click footer links just look at your analytics and draw the conclusions yourself.

[KnutDSvendsen]

I have found it useful to add a paragraph of text the describes the content of your page in 'human-readable' text, meaning that you expect your readers to see and make sense of the text. So 80 - 100 words of useful text where you use your 1 - 2 main keywords and associated terms. It can be particularly useful for pages that weren't designed with any copy. You see that often on ecommerce sites, in particular.

[sesertin]

Please mark this a good answer if you found it useful.

[Socialdude]

cool I will look into it, thanks for the link.

[sesertin]

Not exactly:) Read here: http://microformats.org/wiki/hcard

[Socialdude]

great thanks for the input - just a quick question what you mean by hcard format? As in use the correct html tag for address

<address>my company address </address>

[sesertin]

Hello,

I would definately place there my primary site-wide keywords with large and bald fonts and make them a link to the relevant pages. if you are going for  local seo than placing there your address may carry additional benefits, just make sure to do it in a hcard format. If place a hcard your campíny name will definately be needed there. Keep in mind that footer area forwads the least pagerank of any website area but it can be an important navigational aid for users.