WonderLaura @iwmentor – Laura Rogers

Today in this post and associated video, we’re diving into one of my favorite topics – creating an effective SharePoint home page that people will actually want to visit. You know I’m all about making SharePoint work for real people in real organizations.

The SharePoint Home Page Dilemma

Let’s start with a truth many of us have faced: when you create a SharePoint site, you get a generic home page that often doesn’t get the love and attention it deserves. Sound familiar? Most teams quickly abandon the homepage and head straight for the document library where the “real work” happens.

And then there’s the dreaded “everyone wants their link on the homepage” syndrome. Before you know it, your beautiful homepage has turned into link soup! 🍜

Finding the Sweet Spot 🧁

The key to a great SharePoint homepage is balance. Too little content? Boring and stale. Too much content? Overwhelming and confusing. Let’s find that sweet spot together with some practical tips.

Design Principles That Work

1. Keep it simple – Focus on clean layouts that guide the eye rather than bombarding visitors with content.
2. Navigation should make sense – Avoid redundant links and the dreaded “wall of links” that makes users’ eyes glaze over. Use categories and flyouts strategically.
3. Web parts with purpose – Just because a web part looks cool doesn’t mean it should take up valuable homepage real estate. Every element should earn its place.

Web Parts: The Good, The Bad, and The Useful 🕸️

Let’s talk about some specific web parts and how to use them effectively:

The Hero Web Part

This one can be a space hog! If you only have a few important links to share, this may be all you need on the page. But when you have truly important information that deserves to be highlighted, this one may be taking up too much real estate.

Quick Links Web Part

This is my go-to for organizing frequently accessed resources. Pro tip: you can duplicate this web part to create different categories of links. For example, one section for “Remote work links” and another for “Advance your career” Segment those links!

Site Activity Web Part

This web part is very simple. The only setting entails a number of items you would like displayed. All it does is show a thumbnail grid of all of the files that have been worked on recently. For example, if you set it to “8”, it will just show the eight most recently modified files anywhere on your site.

Highlighted Content Web Part

This one’s like magic for keeping your homepage fresh without extra work. It dynamically displays content based on criteria you set:

• Show the most recent documents
• Display trending content
• Feature most viewed items
• Many more ways to roll up, filter, etc.

You can even limit it to content from specific sites or libraries. Perfect for surfacing important policies, project charters, or reference documents on another site, without needing multiple copies.

Events Web Part 📆

Adding this web part automatically creates a calendar list on your site (if you don’t already have one). This is great for team meetings and upcoming deadlines, but remember – this is separate from your Outlook calendar.

For more details about ALL of the web parts and site design in SharePoint, check out my 3 hour on-demand course called SharePoint Site Design & Web Parts.

Keeping Content Fresh and Relevant on your SharePoint Home Page 🪟

Nothing says “ghost town” like outdated content on a homepage. Here are my favorite approaches to keep things fresh:

1. Add dynamic content – Use web parts like Site Activity or Highlighted Content to automatically show recent updates.
2. News web part – Great for organization announcements, but remember someone needs to write that news!
3. Planner web part – Show active tasks right on the homepage so team members can see what everyone’s working on without extra clicks.

Accessibility Matters ♿

Let’s not forget about making our SharePoint sites accessible to everyone:

• Always add alt text to images if it is relevant content to anyone searching for the page or viewing the page with a screen reader.
• Ensure high contrast between text and backgrounds
• When you mark an image as decorative, you’re telling screen readers to skip it

Governance: The Not-So-Sexy but Super Important Part

Be sure to limit your site owners to just one or two people. Having too many cooks in the kitchen leads to inconsistent experiences and potential security issues.

Your site owners should be mainly responsible for:

• Setting appropriate permissions
• Managing content and keeping it current
• Regular homepage reviews and updates

Check out my SharePoint Site Management, 2 hour on-demand course where I deep dive into site owner responsibilities.

Copilot to the Rescue!

The newest tool in our SharePoint toolkit is Copilot, and it’s changing how we create pages. Need a team homepage for your marketing department? Just ask Copilot to create one, and it will even generate all of the text and image content on the page while you watch.

Tips for Using Copilot Effectively:

1. Be specific in your prompts – “Create a project management page describing [Project]” is better than “Make me a page.”
2. Use the Design Ideas feature – After Copilot generates content, use Design Ideas to enhance the visual appeal.
3. Save as draft first – Review and refine before publishing to your team.

My 2 hour on-demand course Copilot for Power Users is perfect for getting started.

Final Thoughts

Remember, your SharePoint homepage should be a helpful starting point, not a dumping ground for links or completely ignored. Keep content relevant, engaging, and up-to-date. Think about your team’s workflow and what they actually need quick access to.

What are your SharePoint homepage struggles? Drop me a comment below or join me for Power Hour on Wednesdays at 11 AM Central, where we can chat about all things SharePoint, Power Apps, and more!

Summary

In summary, these are the principles to keep in mind when working on designing your SharePoint home page, and these are covered in the above video.

• Design Simplicity
• Effective Use of Web Parts
• Dynamic Web Parts for Fresh Content
• Branding Consistency
• Tailoring to team’s flow of work
• Accessibility
• Governance
• Creating Pages with Copilot Demonstration

References

Blog post about the SharePoint Modern Calendar

My post about SharePoint Security Best Practices

My post about Ways to automatically create a SharePoint home page via flow