Sitewide, or sitemap, links at the bottom of pages to help visitors

New(ish) trend for putting a form of sitemap at the bottom of pages

[bouncybunny]

I’ve noticed over the past year or two, that it has become increasingly ‘fashionable’ to put a form of sitemap at the bottom of web pages. (I’m not talking about the ‘related info type of link).

This normally seems to occur mainly on large sites, or news sites - the BBC and Apple websites are classic examples (and I hope it’s OK to post those examples).

I just wondered if anyone had any opinions on this practice one way or the other? Has there been any usability research into this?

I’m not in the slightest bit interested in how this may or may not help in SERPs, I’m purely interested in helping site visitors to navigate large websites.

I initially thought it was kind of pointless and wondered who would notice or use it, until I found myself a few times on various sites (upon reaching the end of a page and not finding the info that I wanted) using the navigation to find specific sections.

[lucy24]

Increasingly fashionable?

:o

I thought I was being hopelessly retro by putting all my links down there :(

But your experience makes sense when you think about it. Who is more likely to want to see more of an informational site: the person who has read a whole page, or the one who took a quick look at the top?

[bouncybunny]

Well, comparatively fashionable. I hadn’t noticed it being done so wholesale until the last couple of years. Previously it had been a few sitewide links, but not a whole sitemap.