Footer Styles & Options
Your footer is the section at the very bottom of every page. It's where visitors look for the practical stuff: links to key pages, your contact details, legal links, and often a last nudge to get in touch or sign up. A well-built footer makes your site feel complete and trustworthy. StoutStack offers three footer styles plus a set of options to tailor each one. Everything lives on the Layout tab of Branding.
Find these settings in Site Settings → Branding → Layout → Footer. Branding and Site Settings are available to Site Admins; Site Editors won't see them. The Layout tab includes a live preview with a Desktop / Mobile toggle so you can check both views before saving.
Choosing a footer style
| Style | Layout | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-column Pro | Up to three link columns (Footer Column 1, 2, 3), plus a brand area, a Connect column, and a bottom bar | Sites with lots of pages: services, resources, company info all organized into tidy columns |
| Centered Minimal | A centered logo with a single row of navigation links | Simpler sites that want a clean, uncluttered ending |
| Split CTA | A big "get in touch" call-to-action paired with an email capture | Lead-focused sites that want the footer to actively invite contact or signups |
Footer options
- Theme, the footer's overall color scheme: Dark or Light. Dark footers are popular because they visually "close" the page; light footers keep things airy.
- Pre-footer ribbon: an optional attention strip that appears just above the main footer. Choose one of:
- None: no ribbon.
- CTA ribbon: a call-to-action band (with editable copy) making one last ask, like "Ready to get started?"
- Stat strip: a row of headline numbers (with editable stats), such as "500+ projects" or "15 years in business," to build credibility.
- Bottom micro-bar: the thin line at the very bottom for your copyright and legal links. The copyright text supports two handy placeholders:
{year}automatically fills in the current year, and{siteName}fills in your business name, so your copyright line always stays up to date without you editing it each January. - Button style: the appearance of any button shown in the footer (for example on a Split CTA or a ribbon), so it matches the rest of your site.
- Link text size / weight: control the size and weight (boldness) of your footer links for the right balance of readability and subtlety.
- Collapsible menus on mobile (Multi-column Pro only): on phones, footer link columns can collapse into tidy expandable sections so the footer doesn't become an endlessly long list. Turn this on for a cleaner mobile footer.
- Show review rating (Multi-column Pro only): display your star rating in the footer as a final piece of social proof.
Where the footer's links come from
The link columns in your footer aren't typed in here. They're drawn from your Site Menus. You build menus and assign each one a location, and the footer displays whichever menus are assigned to the footer locations:
- Footer Column 1, Footer Column 2, and Footer Column 3: the grouped link columns (used most by Multi-column Pro).
- Footer Bottom: the small links in the bottom micro-bar, typically legal links like Privacy Policy and Terms.
So if you want to change what links appear in the footer, you edit the corresponding menu. See Logo, Contact Details & Navigation Menus. The Footer settings here control the look and structure; the menus provide the content.
Setting up your footer
- Go to Site Settings → Branding → Layout → Footer.
- Pick a footer style: Multi-column Pro, Centered Minimal, or Split CTA.
- Choose the Theme (Dark or Light).
- Optionally add a Pre-footer ribbon and edit its copy or stats.
- Set your Bottom micro-bar copyright text (use
{year}and{siteName}) and confirm your legal links. - Turn on Collapsible menus on mobile and Show review rating if you want them.
- Make sure your Site Menus are assigned to the footer locations so the columns fill in.
- Check the Desktop / Mobile toggle in the live preview, then save.
Good to know
- Placeholders keep your copyright fresh. Using
{year}means you never have to remember to update the year, and{siteName}keeps the name correct if your business name ever changes. - Empty footer columns? If a footer column looks blank, it usually means no menu is assigned to that footer location yet. Head to your Site Menus to fix it.
- Match the theme to your page. A dark footer pairs nicely with most sites; if your pages are very dark already, a light footer can provide a clean visual break.
- Related reading: Header Styles & Options and Logo, Contact Details & Navigation Menus.
Want to collect email addresses? Add the Newsletter section to any page from the page builder. It saves signups to your Subscribers list. There is no signup built into the footer itself.