News on the Website

Investor Websites are the Authority

Investor websites are or should be the authority for investors on all news about the company. Certainly for all news produced by the company.
 
Companies go to a great deal of trouble to attract investors to their website.  Investors arriving at the website expect it to be authoritative and complete. Key information they are seeking is often a recent ASX Announcement. Why would companies fail at that point – either by not yet having “bothered” to publish the latest piece of news from a few minutes ago, or by sending the investor back to the ASX or a broker website to find out the news.
 
When visitors arrive at a well presented investor website to look at an announcement, they will often allow themselves to be “distracted” by other information on the site, and their memory will be jogged to check up on or explore other aspects of the company. Bringing traffic to the website when there is news maximises the chance of further investor engagement at that moment, and therefore increases the likelihood of the investor progressing further in their journey to become a committed shareholder.

Be the Authority on your ASX Announcements

Every ASX Announcement should be contained in the company website. Every one, including every historical announcement. Even though searching the archives of announcements is a low volume activity on a site, it’s an important one.
 
Here’s a few reasons why:

1. You sent out an email with a link in it, maybe last year or earlier. The investor thought it important enough to file it and come back to it. Make sure the link still works.
2. But they are all on the ASX Website, or the broker websites, aren’t they? Well, mainly, but not always. And they require several keystrokes and clicks to be found using those sites’ search navigation. All this activity might suit the determined investor, but provided they are not distracted by the “hostile” environment of the other website. Why hostile? Because those other websites have a  different main purpose – to promote their business, which means lots of other pages to click on to be distracted away from the original search for your announcement.
3. Other websites “lose” history  sometimes – for example, if the company changes its name or ticker code, and even for a while if the ticker code is temporarily changed e.g. with a DA added to it for a while.
4. Google does not find ASX Announcements or the text within the PDF’s from the ASX website. Strange, but true. Also it can’t search behind login codes for broker websites. The company website (properly structured) is the only way a company can reliably expose all of its historical ASX Announcements to a search engine.

Other News on the Website

It’s not just about the ASX Announcement. Companies often put significant effort into other forms of news, videos, audio interviews from third party providers such as Boardroom Media.  
 
Companies often also have a company blog, where there is informed comment on industry or social news relevant to investors. Promote that on the investor website if it’s relevant to investors.
 
Some companies show third party news, analysts’ reports, and their twitter feed on the website.
 
Those news items may or may not be published on non-company websites – for a while, and maybe intermingled with a lot of other “clutter”. But will they be found there by your investors? Promote them with specific pages on the investor website.

Presenting News on the Website

Key news is the very latest most important news. Investors arriving on the website expect that to be highlighted on the home page. Deliver a home page headline news box that delivers the latest most important news items there. These might be ASX Announcements, blog posts, webcasts and videos, or third party news.
 
A single page (with appropriate archiving behind it) should hold all ASX Announcements.
 
However, the single list of ASX Announcements can become long and cluttered with “regulatory” announcements. There should be separate web pages, easily found in the navigation, with the list of relevant announcements for

• Annual Reports
• Financial reporting
• AGM’s
• Presentations
• Dividends
• Analysts reports
• And perhaps other categories such as news for debt investors, NTA backing statements, quarterly reports for mining companies and so on.

Every company has different needs, but the principles are the same.

Searching the news

The investor website should provide investors with the ability to search all of the company news (no matter how old) based on keywords of their choosing. The search should include the ability to find words within the PDF’s of an ASX Announcement.