Do you want to create an organized central communication site for your team but don’t know how?
Microsoft 365’s SharePoint is a powerful tool that can bring your team together and help your business grow. See more managed IT services that can have a similar impact on your business.
In this blog post, we will show you five simple steps outlining how to create a SharePoint site your organization will not only use but also enjoy for years to come. Follow these steps to help expand your skills.
Before delving into the steps to create a team site, let’s focus on what exactly a site in SharePoint is.
What is a SharePoint team site?
SharePoint is a web-based productivity platform that’s part of the Microsoft 365 group of products. A team site enables you and your organization to share files and collaborate on documents in one central hub.
Whether you’re looking to create a site or become a Microsoft 365 pro, SharePoint online is a great place to start. SharePoint online gives users the ability to create websites to share info within their business or organization.
There are two main types of SharePoint websites:
Personal (or My) Sites – allow users to keep their SharePoint site private. Can include private documents and calendars.
Public (or Shared) Sites – provides a space where users can collaborate on public information. It is open to anyone with the link. A SharePoint team site falls under this category.
Benefits of having a central team site for your organization
A SharePoint site is a powerful tool that can help your business grow. SharePoint was created by Microsoft and has been on the market since 2001. There have been several versions of SharePoint over the years. These versions include SharePoint Server and SharePoint Online.
It’s important to know the difference so you can choose the best SharePoint solution for your business.
SharePoint Server is ideal for hosting content such as lists, libraries, and web parts on servers in a local network.
SharePoint online is great if you have several locations that need access to documents or websites hosted at one central location.
When you create your own SharePoint site, you’ll have immediate access to the following:
- Storing documents
- Sharing important information
- Worldwide communication channels for your employees
- Integration opportunities with other Office 365 products
You can organize and share information in one central location on your new team site, making it an ideal tool for all departments.
Each SharePoint site is also a customizable space that can fit any organizational needs you have.
You’ll be able to customize the look of your SharePoint site by selecting from dozens of themes available in Sharepoint’s built-in gallery.
Consider this before you create a new site in SharePoint
Before you create a team site in SharePoint, you need to know that SharePoint is a web-based application. This means SharePoint Online will be accessible through your web browser and not on the desktop like email.
You’ll also need Admin Access to your SharePoint console. Without access, SharePoint will allow you to create a SharePoint site like a public site, which allows anyone with the link to access it.
It’s also important to consider the primary language for your SharePoint site. Your team site is available in 26 different languages, so you can select the SharePoint language that best suits your business.
SharePoint sites are organized into geographic regions. You’ll need to know where your SharePoint site is hosted before you proceed with any further steps for building a SharePoint site.
Please note that SharePoint is designed to be used by various departments and should not be used for your marketing department. SharePoint will make it easy for you to share information with the whole team, regardless of their location, so don’t limit its use!
5 Simple Steps to Create a SharePoint Team Site to Improve Collaboration
If you’re ready to create a team site with SharePoint Online, we’ll go over the five simple steps you need to follow:
- Determine What Your Site Will Be For
- Name and Create Templates for Your Site
- Choose Privacy Settings for your Site
- Add More Owners and Members to your Home Page
- Customize Your Site with Themes and Web Parts
Step One: Determine what your site will be for
Is this site going to be a communication site? Or is this site going to be a document storage center? Regardless, this site will more than likely be a team site for your organization.
You’ll want to start by logging into the admin page of your Microsoft 365 group. Then, navigate to the Office 365 dashboard. Look for the SharePoint Icon. There should be a section labeled “Sites.” Select “Sites” and then select “new.”
When creating a SharePoint site, you’ll have two options. How you plan to use SharePoint will determine which kind you select.
Create a Communication Site – Used for display. You can include videos or documentation to read. This type of site is not used for collaborative teamwork.
Create a Team Site – A team site is for collaboration between team members. This can be used for a variety of projects like linking several sites together, working on a project, or event planning. Others will have access to edit and work inside of the documents located on your SharePoint team site.
After you’ve chosen the kind of SharePoint site to create, it’s time to name the team site or communication site.
Step Two: Name and Create Templates for Your Site
SharePoint Online offers a variety of layouts for sites, each with its unique Web Parts. If you want to build from scratch, you will keep the site under the default template. This is also where you will name your new site.
Choose a descriptive name for your SharePoint for others to understand its purpose. This will also help with the organizational aspect if you ever have more than one site.
For SharePoint Team Sites, there is a section for you to create a group e-mail alias. You should use the name of the site if it is available. The page will then display your URL.
Below the title and URL is a field for the Site Description. A Site Description should inform the users of what the site is being used for and should be short and concise.
Step Three: Choose Privacy Settings for your Site
Privacy Settings will affect who can enter your SharePoint. The Public allows anyone from the organization to enter. Private allows only members of the SharePoint group to access the information.
What you plan on storing on SharePoint will determine the privacy settings you should use and your site classification.
Site classification references the sensitivity of the information that you are storing. Choose the site classification that is best suited for the use of the SharePoint Site. Select ‘Finish’ and move on to the next step.
Step Four: Add More Owners and Members to your Home Page
The next page will have two fields for ‘Owners’ and ‘Members.’ If you want other users in your company to have access to manage the SharePoint site, you will add them under the ‘Owners’ section. They will have access to make changes and add new users to the SharePoint site.
Add users who only need access to the contents inside the SharePoint in the ‘Members’ section. This will ensure that they receive updates for the site and have access to the documentation.
Step Five: Customize Your Site with Themes and Web Parts
Once you have the site created, you can customize the theme, add a page, and add web parts to personalize your SharePoint. Microsoft offers basic themes to select from but for more complex theme design. For an in-depth and complex theme design, Microsoft offers a free PDF to download.
For this blog, we will take a basic approach to show you how to get started. Select the theme that you want your site to have.
From here, you can select your header for the top of your website. SharePoint has four different headers to choose from, varying in size. Headers also allow you to add a company logo or photo to the tops of your page. You can add your site logo to the page as well as a thumbnail that will appear in the browser version.
Admins will also be able to edit the site navigation by adding a custom URL or selecting a pre-made page to add. To create a custom page from scratch, you will add a new page and copy the URL to add to your navigation.
When creating a new page, you can select the distinctive layout that is right for you and your company. Layouts are often broken into a different number of columns. Before adding content, these sections will show up as lines with a plus sign.
To add your content or Web Parts, select the plus sign in the section you would like to add content. A pop-up will appear with the different options for content. The options are:
- Text
- Image
- File Viewer
- Link
- Embed
- Highlighted Content
- Button
- Divider
- Library
- And more!
You can use these Web Parts to build an organized and visually appealing site.
Tips for Maintaining Your SharePoint Site
Use SharePoint Web Parts in moderation. It’s not a good idea to load up SharePoint with web parts because they can overload the page, making it difficult for users to find what they’re looking for quickly.
SharePoint Sites need maintenance like any other site. Have an online backup service and track your SharePoint site for SharePoint Web Parts that need an update. You can also check if a site needs to be deleted and delete SharePoint Sites if they’re no longer needed.
SharePoint Web Parts will also need to be updated from time to time, so make sure that SharePoint is something you can keep up with diligently.
Frequently Asked Questions about SharePoint Sites
How many SharePoint Sites can I have?
You can have up to ten SharePoint Sites in your SharePoint Site Directory. They are ordered by priority, so other sites must be created before you can create the next one.
If a SharePoint site is deleted, do all pages and lists get removed?
No! If a SharePoint site is deleted, it does not remove any of the pages or lists underneath it.
Can SharePoint Sites be nested?
No, SharePoint sites cannot be nested in other SharePoint sites. They are only added to your SharePoint Site Directory and placed into priority order.
What SharePoint Site template should I use?
You can use the SharePoint Team Site template when creating a SharePoint site. This is the most widely used SharePoint Site and is great for teams of people working together.
Can SharePoint Sites be edited after they are created?
Yes, SharePoint Sites can be edited at any time! SharePoint Sites are created in SharePoint Online, which means you can edit the site anytime, from anywhere. SharePoint Site content is saved automatically. Editors can be working on the same SharePoint document simultaneously!
Does SharePoint provide a mobile version?
No. SharePoint does not have a native mobile solution. You can use various third-party apps such as SharePoint Mobile to access your sites on the go. You can also check out Microsoft’s Office Lens App for some great SharePoint features.
Final Thoughts on How to Create a SharePoint Site
SharePoint is a useful and powerful platform to use as an internal business page. The options and settings make it a perfect fit for any business, large or small. The flexibility to tailor every detail while maintaining a user-friendly design makes it the perfect tool for showcasing work or creating a collaboration platform.
If you are interested in SharePoint but need help to get started, WGM can help you get your SharePoint up and running.
