680 published examples
When I review a footer, I look at scan path first. Can someone find Privacy, Contact, and the primary product path without reading every column? Dense sitemaps work when headings are short and columns stay under a handful of links. They fail when every marketing page gets dumped in, or when legal, shop, and social sit at the same visual weight. I tend to ask for a two-row model: a working zone (nav, form, contact) and a quieter legal rail. If the brand mark is huge, the rest of the type has to recede or the closer feels like another hero. Forms need a reason in one line; an empty "subscribe" next to twenty links looks like leftover chrome. Test the mobile stack: columns that feel orderly on desktop become a long list of orphans. I would keep secondary links collapsed, make the email or address tappable, and leave a real destination as the last thing on the page.
Not a number. If the header already covers primary paths, the footer should catch leftovers: legal, careers, social, locale, support. Product companies with deep IA can justify columns. Copying the full mega-menu usually hides an IA problem. Count the unique destinations a first-time visitor would still need after the story ends.
Only if the list is a real product. A form with no benefit line, parked beside twenty equal links, feels like leftover inventory. Give it one promise and keep legal copy away from the submit control. If the page already asked for email, a second capture at the bottom is noise.
Scale is the trap. A giant wordmark can close the page if contact and legal stay small on a quiet rail. If the mark also needs a headline, a CTA, and a collage, you are designing a new section. The last scroll should still answer how someone leaves or continues.
