Crafting a SharePoint Intranet Site Structure That Works

Effective information architecture is crucial for any SharePoint intranet portal. This guide will walk you through key steps for designing a site structure that helps employees find information quickly.

Building out an intranet site on SharePoint Online involves more than just creating pages. You need to think about how to organize content in a logical way that aligns with user goals and behaviors.

Approaching information architecture for intranet SharePoint requires understanding users' needs, mapping out site navigation, implementing search, and allowing for flexibility as the intranet evolves. Follow these tips to create an intuitive IA that fuels intranet adoption.

Understand Key User Tasks and Goals

The first step is gaining insight into how your users will interact with the intranet. Gather information by:

●      Conducting user interviews - Ask employees about their frequent tasks and pain points. Also, inquire how they currently get work information.

●      Observing workflows - See how employees currently share information without an intranet. What tools and processes are they using?

●      Gathering usage metrics - If migrating from an old intranet, look at usage data to see popular pages. Web analytics also provide insight.

Once you map out user goals and behaviors, you can design an IA tailored to their needs. Group related tasks and content together under site sections that make sense.

Map Out a Navigation Hierarchy

Now it's time to organize content. A few tips:

●      Limit menu levels - Go at most 3 levels deep to avoid convoluted navigation.

●      Use descriptive yet succinct page names - Summarize content clearly without getting wordy.

●      Separate sections logically - Group-related pages under distinct hubs focused on topic areas.

●      Only include necessary pages - Prune pages that won't add value for most users. You can always add more later.

●      Add metadata - Use managed metadata terms on pages to improve discoverability.

Here is an example IA outline:

●      Home

●      Departments

○      Marketing

○      Sales

○      IT

●      Resources

○      Brand Guidelines

○      Templates

○      Asset Library

●      Policies

○      PTO Policy

○      Travel Policy

●      Contacts

○      Employee Directory

Implement Intuitive Search

Even the best IA still requires search to help users instantly find specific content. Make sure SharePoint search is configured optimally with:

●      User-friendly queries - Allow natural language queries. Use synonyms and query rules.

●      Relevant results - Tune relevancy with managed properties and result sources. Promote key pages.

●      Search web parts - Add parts showing popular searches, queries without results, and people also searching for.

Maintain Flexibility

Information architecture needs to adapt over time as company priorities shift.

●      Add new sections - Don't lock your IA. Add sections as needed for new initiatives like diversity and inclusion.

●      Create dynamic pages - For example, an events section that displays upcoming events filtered by metadata.

●      Clean up outdated pages - Archive or remove stale content regularly to keep IA relevant.

●      Gather feedback - Survey users or analyze search queries to improve IA.

Following these steps will help you design an intuitive intranet site structure that evolves with your organization. Employees will be able to find the information they need quickly to work more efficiently.