Is it true, that on phones the last item (last column on PCs) in the site's footer is (usually) read more often that the first one, because if the user scrolls to the end, he will see the last item (and probably not the first item or a part of the first item). I assume responsive design.
I am interested in this, because I have a column of the footer with affiliate links and wish them to be seen often.
It actually depends on the users and if they are reading or skimming the site. For a user reading the site, it doesn't matter where the items are placed as they will read everything but for those skimming, yes, they will skip to the last item in the footer.
It is very dependent on how your page is structured. What elements are bigger and smaller, what are the colors, is the footer distinct enough from the rest of the page?
You can look into this research, it gives pretty good insight on how users scan the pages: Scanning Patterns on the Web Are Optimized for the Current Task
There's also this pretty cool UX law called "Serial position effect" that states
Users have a propensity to best remember the first and last items in a series.
On the phones we have limited screen estate, so it's entirely plausible that while scrolling on a smaller screen the last item of the screen is percieved as the last item in the series. Like, on larger screen they see your footer as a series, but on the phone - the entire screen.
I've also noticed, that people are sometimes scrolling to the end of the screen just in case to see what else is there, so they reach the end "just in case" and of course notice the last item more than the beginning of the footer region.
But it is really dependant on your page's structure, so there's a lot to consider.
