Layout pattern · updated 3 Sept 2026
Mega footer
A mega footer is a multi-column footer that lists most of a site's pages under labelled headings, so that any page can be reached from any other in one step. It is a sitemap in the page, and it becomes a link farm the moment it lists pages nobody is meant to click.
Think of it as
The index at the back of a book. Complete, alphabetical, useful when you need it, and nothing you would read from the top.
Worked example
This site's footer reached 37 visible links and was condensed to four columns and 19, with the remaining 20 kept in a collapsed "Everything else" list that stays in the HTML on every page. Nothing lost its sitewide inbound link; the eye lost the wall. The visible set follows one rule: something we most want a visitor to do next, or a page with no external authority that needs internal discovery.
Why it matters
The footer is the only element on every page, which makes it the single biggest source of internal links a site has. That is why it grows, and why it must be governed: every link it carries is a link on every page, and every page it lists depends on that link to be found at all.
How it fails
Five columns of equal-weight links with no hierarchy. Removing footer links to tidy up and orphaning the pages that depended on them. Link text in a grey that fails contrast on the dark footer background.
What to measure open the decoder →
- Count of visible footer links against the count in the HTML
- Link contrast against the footer background
- Whether every footer target resolves and self-canonicalises, which the canonical gate on this site checks on every build
Where you meet it
- Every large marketing site
- E-commerce
- Documentation portals
On this site
The footer under this page is the worked example, and the rule that governs it is written into the site's architecture notes rather than left to taste.
Showcase collections that exhibit it
Build it
Next rung
The footer closes the page. The hero opens it, and the two should agree on the primary colour, the type scale and the nav; checking them against each other is the shortest consistency audit a page can get.