If you look at thesitewizard.com, you'd probably noticed that it has a What's New section on its main page. What is probably more striking is that you can find a What's New section on almost every single sub-site on thefreecountry.com, which is saying a lot, since it means that that one site alone has five "What's New" sections in addition to a "What's New on This Site" page!
The story is that when I first experimented with such a section, I found that the traffic to the pages highlighted in that section increased by quite a large number. Apparently, even though I already had links to those sub-pages from my main page, highlighting them in this way actually increased their visibility, thus attracting more visits.
This does not mean that the number of unique visitors to your site increases - of course not. That depends on your advertising *outside* your site. This tactic only helps your existing visitors find interesting stuff on your site. It is essentially a facility that improves your intra-site navigation.
A "What's New" section is particularly useful if your site has the following characteristics (like thefreecountry.com):
If your site only has a main page with a "Feedback Form" and a "Reciprocal Links" for your sub-pages (or pages like that), a "What's New" section is probably meaningless for you.
Even if your site's content does not change frequently, you still can have a section that highlights certain sub-pages on your site. You should not however, call it a "What's New" section. If you do, your visitors will quickly notice that nothing new ever graces that section and think that your site is abandoned.
Instead, you can always call it a "Featured Pages" section, where you highlight certain pages on your site. You should of course link to those pages (and not merely mention them).
In the early days of thefreecountry.com, I only had a "What's New on This Site" page, which was linked from the main page. Although the content of this page changed frequently (since the site is constantly being updated), I noticed that there was one constant throughout the history of that page: the small number of visitors (relative to the overall site).
The basic rule of web design holds here as well: if visitors have to click to get anywhere or do anything, many will not bother to do it.
If you want something to be noticed by them, put it under their noses. Put it on your front page. You needn't put everything on the front page - maybe just the latest news. You can always link to your more comprehensive "What's New" page at the bottom for those who are really interested.
It's really up to you. The important thing here is to be sure that even as you mention changes (or features), you link to your sub-pages that hold those changes. Don't expect your visitors to have to search through your entire site to find the page you mentioned. I have encountered (many) sites with that kind of "What's New" section. They're really not using it to its full potential. It doesn't merely have to be informational - it can serve as a means to draw your visitors to certain pages.
Sure, if you want to maintain both a "What's New" section on your main page and a "What's New" page, it's a big hassle to have to keep both in sync. In my opinion, however, the results make it worth the effort. Your visitors appreciate that section because it helps them keep abreast of changes, and you benefit because those pages get highlighted and visited more often than it normally would.
Copyright 2000-2002 by Christopher Heng. All rights reserved.
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Adding a What's New Section to Your Website
