9 January 2026

Creating an Intranet with SharePoint A step-by-step guide

Creating an intranet is where you turn your vision into a real, working platform. In the previous article, we defined users, structure, and governance. Now is the time to learn how to create your intranet using SharePoint.

There are many helpful guides out there. This article does not aim to compete with them. Instead, it provides you with a step-by-step guide to creating your intranet portal. It links to proven guides where more detail is useful.

Step 1: Translate Your Intranet Plan into Design Before Creating an Intranet

Before you start building your portal, align your intranet plan with the appropriate SharePoint or Viva elements. Each type has a specific purpose. The main options, used most commonly, are:

• Communication sites. Designed for broad communication. They offer a wide content area and a top navigation bar. These features make them ideal for news and the topic-focused regions.
• Team sites. Built for collaboration. Every Microsoft Teams team includes one. Team sites use left-hand navigation and do not support footers. They work well for department zones.
• Hub sites. Central points that connect multiple sites. They share navigation and branding. You cannot create them directly. First, create a communication site or a team site. Then promote it to a hub site. A hub site works best as your intranet homepage.
• Viva Engage communities. Used for community discussions. Employees can post, share ideas, comment, and react. These spaces work well for open dialogue around a specific topic.

There are two additional site types: Home sites and Organization news sites. A home site is a default site within Viva Connections. Organization news sites help to promote news across the company at scale. They are helpful, but you do not need to use these site types to build an effective intranet.

With a good plan at hand, the decision on which element to use is relatively straightforward. Still, you should think this through. Although it may not be crucial which site type you use, you may not be able to change it later.

If you’re looking for more guidance on your intranet’s site planning, please refer to the Planning Hub Sites article.

Step 2: Create Sites and Pages, then Structure Your Content

Once you have mapped your plan to the right site types, you can start building your intranet structure. Use the SharePoint Admin Center, the SharePoint Online landing page, and Viva Engage to create the necessary sites and communities. Please refer to the following guides for more details regarding the creation of the specific elements:

• Team and Communication Sites
• Organization News Sites
• Home Site
• Hub Site
• Viva Engage Communities

Once you create the high-level structure, you can move on to the pages. Each SharePoint site already comes with a landing page; no need to implement one. You should focus on:

• Preparing initial news articles, so employees see updates on day one. It is also a great way to make your portal appear more mature.
• Creating topic-specific pages, such as “Benefits” in the employee zone or “Mission and Vision” on the corporate site. Your information architecture will tell you exactly which pages to create.

SharePoint CMS is straightforward, and you should not have problems creating pages. If you need more guidance on this, please refer to the following page creation guide.

Fill pages with content using SharePoint Web Parts

When your pages are ready, start adding content. SharePoint’s CMS utilizes sections that contain web parts – page elements that display or store content. Using them allows you to create clear, engaging pages that present your information effectively. The most common web parts are:

• Text. Used for all types of text content, from headings to article bodies.
• Image. For photos or illustrations from local files, the web, or built-in stock images.
• News. Used to aggregate news into layouts such as lists, carousels, or tiles.
• Hero. A visual component that highlights key links, often used at the top of landing pages.
• Documents. Use to display files from a chosen library or folder.
• Events. A calendar-like component presenting upcoming events.
• Quick Links. An element that stores and displays a list of links in layouts like lists, tiles, or filmstrips.
• People. Used to show user profiles with contact information.

In case you need more help working with web parts, follow this knowledge base article on Using web parts on SharePoint pages.

A good structure transformed an outdated knowledge base. A retail company needed to replace its dying knowledge base system. Instead of a basic migration, IT expanded the scope—they’d build a proper intranet at the same time. They mapped the old content into a better structure and created templates that let subject matter experts easily add information. The knowledge base went from an IT-only tool to a company-wide resource.

Step 3: Build Navigation and Connect Sites with Hubs

With your structure and content in place, the next step is to link everything into a coherent intranet. Navigation ensures users can easily browse the portal. SharePoint offers four types of it:

• Global navigation. The top-level menu for Microsoft 365. It may match your intranet’s main navigation, but it does not have to.
• Hub navigation. The main navigation for a SharePoint portal. It stays the same across all connected sites. Changing it on the hub site updates the whole intranet.
• Local navigation. The menu for a single site. Its importance depends on the site. News sites may need little, while topic-heavy sites rely on it more.
• Footer navigation. Shown at the bottom of the pages. It usually holds global shortcuts. Each site can have its own footer, but keeping it consistent is better.

Finally, connect all relevant sites to your hub site and let them inherit hub navigation. Your users will see the same menu everywhere, reducing confusion and keeping them oriented.
You can find more details on navigation levels here.

Step 4: Design a Consistent Look and Feel

A good interface is key to user experience. Your intranet should feel predictable and familiar at all times. As users move between sections, they should feel they are still using one unified product. The content may change, but the experience should not.

The intranet is not a critical system. Users will abandon it if the experience feels confusing. Familiarity builds trust, and trust drives adoption.

Creating an Intranet Using Templates Makes It Simpler

Using templates and providing consistent branding helps a lot. SharePoint gives you a few helpful options here:

• Site templates. Used to ensure that sites follow a consistent layout and structure.
• Document templates. They standardize the file format used in document libraries.
• Pages and news templates. Used to provide a repeatable structure for content editors.
• Section templates in the CMS. They allow you to reuse proven page layouts.

Templates make the editing tasks easier. It makes browsing your intranet much simpler, too.

Creating an Intranet Branding Makes It More Personal

Branding takes this further. It visually connects the intranet to other digital services your employees use daily. And since users spend most of their time outside the intranet, consistent corporate branding helps them feel at home from the start.

SharePoint offers a variety of tools that let you customize the look of your portal. You can:

• change the color themes.
• use logos for different cases.
• use your company font.
• modify the headers and footers.

Custom branding not only fosters trust. It also signals that the intranet is a reliable, official part of your digital workplace.

SharePoint helps your intranet stand out. If you wish to take this a step further, you can use Engagy360 branding extensions. See for yourself how appealing your intranet will be.

Step 5: Make the Intranet More Useful

Digital friction happens when users spend extra time switching between tools. Every switch slows them down. Your intranet should reduce friction, not add to it.

You can go further and make the UX even better. Provide users with key information without switching apps. Ideally, directly within a homepage. For example:

• Show the latest updates from reports or data systems.
• Add direct links to the most-used digital tools.
• Let users submit requests or complete simple tasks right from the intranet homepage.

Microsoft 365 includes Viva Connections service, which helps you build a personal dashboard. It can show data from other systems, link apps, and provide shortcuts to save time.

Step 6: Make the Intranet Work on Mobile

A good mobile experience is essential. Every part of the intranet should work on a smartphone. Pages should adjust smoothly to different screen sizes. A mobile app can make access even easier.

SharePoint is responsive by default. Pages adjust automatically. There are also the SharePoint mobile app and the Viva Connections app. Both allow browsing intranet content on the go.

You can build a custom mobile app, but it takes careful planning. Making an app is easier today. Supporting it on different devices takes ongoing effort. Before investing, check if the built-in options already meet your needs.

What’s next when you are done with creating an intranet?

SharePoint lets you build an intranet that works from day one. It allows you to turn your plan into a usable platform. With the proper structure, clear design, valuable tools, and a mobile experience, you create a portal users can rely on from day one.

But creating an intranet is just the start. To truly succeed, you need to think about long-term adoption. In the following article, we will explore best practices for an intranet’s long-term success.