SharePoint's flexibility is a blessing and a curse. It gives you everything you need to build a working intranet, but it also means the experience your team gets depends entirely on how you set it up. And most organisations discover this the hard way... after months of messy folder structures, version chaos and nobody knowing where to publish content.
The good news? A few intentional decisions made upfront solve most of these problems for good.
Keep it simple, really simple. Deep folder structures feel safe at first, but they slow people down. Three levels maximum. Beyond that, use metadata (tagging documents with labels like "2025," "Marketing" and "Policy") and let people sort as needed. One location, infinite organisation.
Clarify permissions from day one. SharePoint's permission system is powerful, but it becomes a nightmare when you customise it ad hoc. Stick to the default security groups (visitor, member and owner), use groups instead of individual permissions and document the approach. It takes 20 minutes now; it saves months of confusion later.
Define where news actually lives. One of the biggest sources of frustration? Authors don't know where to publish. Define three to five approved publishing locations and make them obvious. When people know exactly where to post, content reaches the right audience without friction.
Embrace regular maintenance as a feature, not a chore. Archive old content quarterly. Review your homepage twice a year. Assign clear ownership to major content areas. SharePoint doesn't decay by accident — it decays by neglect.
The real insight? SharePoint best practices aren't about becoming technical. They're about removing friction so your team can focus on what actually matters: keeping people informed.
What's been your biggest SharePoint headache? Curious what the community's dealing with.
