Behind the Scenes: The Footer That Became a Full-Time Job
Behind the Scenes: The Footer That Became a Full-Time Job
There are parts of a website that visitors notice immediately: the photographs, the articles, the buttons inviting them to join, and the general sense that someone competent is in charge. Then there is the footer, which most people assume simply appears at the bottom of the page by magic and quietly contains a few links. Today, the footer rejected that modest job description and demanded a complete career change. What began as “could we spread these links out a little?” rapidly became a site-wide redesign involving moving news, live events, trust badges, membership journeys, content previews and several WordPress plugins all insisting that they were the one truly responsible for everything. By the end of the day, the bottom of the website had become one of its busiest and most useful areas—which is frankly ambitious behaviour for something called a footer.
The first mission was the new Circles Wire: a scrolling ticker carrying the latest articles, upcoming events and, when needed, announcements. At first it looked excellent but refused to move, making it less of a ticker and more of a decorative burgundy shelf. There followed a brief period of asking why it was not ticking, what any of us had done to deserve this and where our lives were going. Eventually it sprang into motion and began gliding across the page exactly as intended. It now collects the latest articles automatically and mixes in upcoming events from the free version of The Events Calendar, proving that useful functionality can occasionally be achieved without feeding another subscription into the great WordPress money furnace. The ticker was also tested while logged out, because a news ribbon that only performs for the person who built it would be less “site-wide feature” and more “private office entertainment.”
Below the ticker, the footer graphics also received a long-overdue intervention. The Circles logo, trust badges and Join Now graphic had previously occupied the same general area without appearing to have met one another. The trust badges were surrounded by enough empty padding to qualify as their own studio flat, the graphics sat at slightly different heights, and the links beneath them were huddled together as though sharing gossip. Everything has now been resized, aligned and given enough breathing room to look intentional. The unnecessary social-media icons have gone for the moment—there is little point displaying a row of tiny platforms simply because websites traditionally do so—and the footer links are spread cleanly across the width. The result is smaller, sharper and much more balanced, while still making the important trust and safety information easy to find.
Then we moved from visual tidying into the mysterious and emotionally demanding world of logged-out users. The goal was simple: someone who is not logged in should be able to open an article, read a useful preview and then be invited either to log in or join. An existing member should not be thrown at the membership sales page as though the website has forgotten ever meeting them. After logging in, they should return to the same article and continue reading, not arrive on an unrelated profile page wondering where the red flags went. This entirely reasonable request led us into Profile Builder, Paid Member Subscriptions and the easily confused but completely separate Paid Memberships Pro—three names apparently chosen by people who wanted future troubleshooting sessions to feel like an identity parade.
The first restriction message came from the wrong set of settings and announced, rather bluntly, “You must be logged in to view this content.” The site theme then helpfully transformed the first letter into an enormous decorative Y, producing something that looked less like a membership prompt and more like the opening page of a medieval manuscript. We eventually established that Paid Member Subscriptions was controlling the plan-based article restrictions, while Profile Builder was managing the login journey. Their settings look remarkably similar, so both were aligned to stop them taking turns contradicting each other. Restricted articles now use the Message option and the All Subscription Plans selector, which automatically includes each individual membership plan. Merely possessing a login is not enough to bypass the subscription requirement, but an eligible member can access the full content exactly as intended.
The public preview is controlled using WordPress’s ‘More’ block. Everything above that point can be read by visitors, while the remainder stays protected. This gives each article the chance to establish its subject, tone and value before the membership invitation appears, rather than presenting readers with a title followed immediately by a locked door. Logged-out existing members are invited to log in, prospective members are directed to join, and logged-in users without an eligible subscription receive the appropriate membership message. During the Founding Member period, the joining route remains /join/. After the official launch, when Founding Membership is no longer available, those links will be changed to /pricing/. That future switch has been recorded now, because relying on Future Us to remember an obscure WordPress link months later would be an act of extraordinary optimism.
The final test was carried out in private browsing, which briefly claimed the tester was already logged in and therefore demonstrated that even private windows enjoy withholding relevant information. Once the article settings, restriction messages and redirect rules were properly aligned, the complete journey worked: a logged-out visitor opened the article, saw the preview, received the correct prompt, logged in and returned to the same article with the full text available. No detour to the joining page, no sudden appearance on Edit My Profile, and no need to search the ticker again for the article they had already chosen. That small piece of continuity makes an enormous difference. A member should feel recognised by the site, not treated like a stranger every time their session expires.
Finally, the work was documented in Jira, now renamed “Refine redirects for logged-out users (members and non-members).” The ticket records the finished configuration, the distinction between the plugins, the article-editing convention, the successful tests and the eventual change from /join/ to /pricing/. It has also been moved to Done, which is always a satisfying place to put something after spending an afternoon negotiating with a footer. Today produced real progress: a cleaner site-wide footer, a working Circles Wire, automatic event promotion, better trust presentation, clearer membership messaging and a login journey that brings readers back to exactly where they wanted to be. Not bad for a day that began with some links standing too close together.
Don’t forget to vote for this article to win ‘Best in Category’ at the annual ‘Circles Awards’ here:
