Built into each website is a code-based site map that is accessible to search engines to help them understand the organization of your website. You can create a similar map in your footer to help guide people through your site. It is a great way to list out links to the most important pages on the site.
It is helpful to organize links in your footer into categories with headers, like ‘Portfolio’ as a header for all your galleries (babies, families, portraits, weddings, events, fine arts, etc.).
Using your footer to list out links to key pages can make your website robust and informative. And it's ok to have links to pages in your footer that aren’t in your main navigation menu. For example, you may not include your FAQs page in your main menu, but it is a good idea to link to it in your footer.
As you consider how to use the footer of your website, think about what type of information you can display there and how to organize it, then you can build it up over time. I’d much rather see a dense footer than the main menu with tons of distracting drop-down menu options.