How to Add Site-Wide Alerts & Banners in SharePoint

Some information can't wait for someone to scroll. A system outage, an urgent policy change, a looming compliance deadline — these need to be impossible to miss the moment a user lands on a page. SharePoint's native options for this are limited, which is why so many important messages end up buried in a news post nobody opens.

Sprocket 365 gives you two ways to put a message exactly where people will see it: a page-level Alerts web part and a site-wide Alerts feature. This guide covers both, and when to use each.

Two kinds of alert

• The Alerts web part places a coloured alert banner on a single page — perfect for flagging that a specific page's content has changed, or drawing attention to something in context.
• The Alerts feature shows a banner across every page on a site or hub — the right choice for organisation-wide announcements like outages, office closures, or critical notices.

Adding an alert to a single page

The Alerts web part lets a content author bring attention to a change on any SharePoint page.

1. If you're not already editing the page, click Edit at the top right.
2. Add a new web part and search for Sprocket Alerts.
3. Type your message into the text box.
4. Using the configuration pane, choose an Alert Type from the dropdown.
5. Click Republish to make the alert live.

Choosing the right alert type

Alerts are colour-coded by purpose, so the styling matches the urgency of the message — for example an informational note, a positive confirmation, a warning, and a critical alert each carry their own colour. Pick the type that fits the message and the banner styles itself automatically; there's no need to fiddle with colours by hand.

Showing an alert across the whole site

When a message needs to appear on every page — not just one — use the site-wide Alerts feature instead of the web part. It places important messages at the top of every page on your site or hub, so users receive crucial information no matter where they are.

Configuration is simple, because all the alert content is stored in a SharePoint list that's easy to manage and update. From there you can:

• Set a publish and expiry date for each alert, so it appears and disappears automatically at the right time.
• Choose whether the alert is dismissible by users.
• Rely on dismissed alerts being remembered — once a user closes an alert, they won't keep seeing the same one.

This makes site-wide alerts ideal for scheduled notices: publish a planned-maintenance banner in advance, let it go live and expire on its own, and let users dismiss it once they've read it.

Which should you use?

Reach for the web part when the message is about a specific page and you want it shown in context. Reach for the site-wide feature when the message matters everywhere and you want scheduling, audience control, and dismiss-and-remember behaviour. Many organisations use both — the feature for company-wide notices, the web part for page-specific call-outs.

Try it for free

Alerts are part of the 40+ web parts and enhancements in Sprocket Studio. Start a 14-day free trial from the Microsoft AppSource and make sure your most important messages never go unseen.