What type of News to publish on your website?

You've got a shiny new website and it has been up and running for a while. In addition you've got that lovely powerful Content Management System (CMS) that lets you custom publish content with ease. Now you hit the brick wall - what type of news do you publish on it? In the words of one of our clients 'nothing ever happens - there is nothing to write!'.

This is actually a fairly common problem. Companies tend to think they've got nothing to publish so they don't write it - and their sites suffer through a lack of updates.

So, as a little aid to writers block, below is a list of the types of News you should consider publishing. You'll be amazed what people are interested in!

1: Product or service news - publishing news on new products and services is always a wise move. Many companies forget that new products or services introduced may be completely unknown to their clients, or perhaps they're not obviously promoted through your homepage. Publishing news on them draws people into your site. Some changes may be as simple as minor changes to the levels of service you're able to off. Have you changed the way you deal with customer enquiries? What about changes in payment methods accepted? When you think carefully about it, you'll be surprised how many items can fall under this category. Whatever you do, don't presume a visitor won't be interested. The fact is that if they're not interested they'll not click on the news item. If they do, it has proved its worth - and that is long before considering its benefit to the search engines.

2: Opening hours - if a Bank Holiday is approaching and it'll see a change in your opening hours, publish it as news. If you have extended hours for a single day for a particular event, publish it. News items are excellent ways of communicating short term changes without adjusting the primary content of certain pages of your site.

3: Offers - If you're running a special offer, of any type, make sure you promote it with a news item. Even if it is listed as an offer on a specific product or range in an eCommerce shop, be sure to list it as news. It is, after all, news!

4: Employees - if you have a new employee starting, one leaving, a promotion or even an event that is special to an employee - publish it. Users like to feel informed and you immediately convey the image of a company that values its employee input by sharing news on them and changes in your staffing.

5: Charitable events - if you make charitable donations to certain organisations, publish the fact. Furthermore, if you're taking part in or sponsoring a particular event connected with a charity it is common sense to let people know. Apart from the fact it is worthy news you're also demonstrating the caring or community feel of your organisation.

6: New business - if you've broken a record in sale or won a new account, tell the world. People like to see organisations that are doing well and they're much more likely to deal with you if you can demonstrate a track record of progression and success.

7: Ask existing customers - how do they use your products or services and what benefits do they see? In asking for feedback you're not only generating news worthy items of potential success stories but you're also showing your clients that you value their input.

8: Industry events - if the sector you work in has an upcoming event, show etc., it makes an excellent contribution to your news section in terms of information visitors might want as well as being extremely relevant.

9: Technological change - if you're introducing new systems this can be a little gem of a news item. Firstly it is the perfect demonstration of a company investing in its future. Secondly, even if the investment isn't directly tied to the products you sell, it is further evidence that you value efficiency, productivity or speed of process. It could be something as simple as changing the PC's in your office. It doesn't have to be ground-breaking or multi-million pound sums of money that you're spending in order to have the desired effect of encouraging somebody to click on the news snippet to read more.

10: Delivery times - this can cover a multitude of items. If you deliver a project early, say so. If you sell products that rely on postal services and there is the potential of delays due to industrial action (especially in the UK!), tell people what measures you're taking to try to counter this - or at least mention that you apologise in advance for any inconvenices caused. You'd be surprised how positively received news of this type is. If you are shown to be proactive in your thought process, especially when apologising for matters out of your control, your visitors read a whole new set of values into your customer service ethic.

11: Considerations - if you're considering moving your company in a certain direction, be it in diversifying into a new range of products, reducing or increasing service levels, etc - publish such thoughts as news (as long as they're not commercially sensitive or potentially damaging of course) and ask for feedback.

12: Vacancies - you might have a dedicated career section on your site. Whether you do or don't, you should always use your news section to highlight vacancies. You might even save yourself the costs of recruitment advertisements, agencies or whichever methods you might normally choose.

13: Social Media - if you join a particular socia media site, tell people. Giving them a new channel for contacting you is never a bad thing, but not telling them is a very bad idea when it makes for perfectly good news content!

14: Contact detail changes - if you change your telephone number, add new lines, introduce e-mail addresses or contact methods for specific purposes - it is news.

15: Branding - changing your brand image or logos is major news - yet you'd be surprised how many companies just go ahead with the change and don't communicate it. They just leave it up to people to see it. Why? Explain why you did as a news item. Branding changes are huge news - and it'll encourage people to let you know what they think of the change too.

Ultimately, there are a lot more items that could constitute being news worthy. The idea of this article is to spur thought and to make you realise that there is lots of news once you dismiss any misconceptions of what that word actually means. People who use the internet like to be aware of change, and search engines love change - so are you really as short of potential content as you thought you were?