10 Best Practices for SharePoint Site Admins in 2025

10 Best Practices for SharePoint Site Admins in 2025 If you’re reading this, chances are you’re either already managing a SharePoint site or about to step into the role. And let’s be honest—it’s not always the easiest gig. One minute you’re updating a library, and the next you’re knee-deep in complaints about broken navigation or people begging for access they shouldn’t have. I’ve been there, and trust me, it can feel like an endless cycle of putting out fires.

But here’s the thing: being a SharePoint site admin in 2025 isn’t just about fixing problems. It’s about designing digital experiences that actually work for people. Microsoft has been pushing the platform further into the future—AI summaries, Copilot integration, Viva Connections, smarter search, and so on. That means your role is more strategic than ever.

Instead of drowning in confusion, you can set up practices that make your SharePoint site run like a well-oiled machine. Below, I’ll walk you through ten best practices that I believe every site admin should be leaning on this year. These aren’t abstract theories—they’re the real habits that separate chaotic sites from the ones people actually enjoy using.

1. Build a Clean, Logical Information Architecture

Let’s start with the foundation: information architecture. Without it, your site will collapse under its own weight.

Keep things flat and simple. Resist the temptation to bury documents five folders deep. Instead, rely on metadata and columns to organize content. For instance, tagging documents with categories like “HR,” “Finance,” or “Project X” allows people to filter without clicking through endless folder paths.

And don’t forget hub sites. They’re the glue that ties related sites together under one umbrella. If your company has multiple departments, a hub can give you consistent branding, centralized navigation, and better visibility across related content. The key is consistency—if your navigation looks different on every site, people won’t trust it.

2. Be Ruthless but Fair with Permissions

Permissions are where so many admins lose control. I’ve seen sites where half the company is an “Owner” simply because “it’s easier that way.” Spoiler: it’s not easier. Within weeks, files are missing, libraries renamed, and suddenly nobody knows what happened.

Stick to the least privilege model. Visitors should read. Members should edit. Owners should be a very small, carefully chosen group. This isn’t about restricting people; it’s about protecting them from accidents.

And in 2025, you’ve got more tools at your disposal. Microsoft’s sensitivity labels, conditional access policies, and DLP (Data Loss Prevention) features are no longer optional—they’re essential. They help you prevent sensitive information from being shared outside the company or mishandled inside it. Use them. Future-you will thank you.

3. Master Navigation—It’s the User’s First Impression

Here’s something many admins underestimate: navigation is everything. You can have the most valuable content in the world, but if people can’t find it within a few clicks, they’ll give up.

Spend time designing a navigation menu that feels intuitive. Group related links, avoid clutter, and highlight the most-used libraries or pages. Think of it like a road map. Nobody wants to take ten wrong turns just to get to “Vacation Policy.”

Also, remember that in 2025, SharePoint navigation often extends into Teams and Viva Connections. A bad menu in SharePoint doesn’t just frustrate people on the site—it frustrates them across your entire Microsoft 365 environment.

4. Embrace Automation—Stop Doing Everything Manually

One of the smartest moves a site admin can make is learning Power Automate. If you’re still manually moving documents, chasing people for approvals, or sending reminders to upload files, you’re wasting valuable time.

Imagine a workflow where documents older than six months are automatically archived, or one where an alert gets triggered if a sensitive file is modified. These aren’t futuristic dreams—they’re standard automations you can set up today.

Start small. Pick one repetitive task you’re doing every week and automate it. Then build from there. Before long, automation becomes less of a “nice-to-have” and more of a survival strategy.

5. Stay on Top of Storage and Site Lifecycle Management

Here’s the truth: SharePoint isn’t your organization’s bottomless attic. If you let people treat it that way, you’ll run out of space fast, or worse, end up with libraries so bloated they’re impossible to use.

This is where site lifecycle management comes into play. Every site should have a beginning, middle, and end. Ask yourself: What’s the purpose of this site? Who owns it? When will it be archived? Without these questions, you’ll wake up one day with hundreds of abandoned sites nobody remembers creating.

Microsoft makes it easier now with retention policies, archival tools, and storage analytics. Use them. Regularly review your site’s storage and set up policies that automatically clean out old files. Think of it as digital spring cleaning—you’re not throwing away value, you’re preserving it by keeping the house tidy.

6. Branding and Design Actually Matter

You might think branding is fluff, but trust me, users notice. A site with mismatched colors, random layouts, and clunky web parts feels unprofessional. People are less likely to engage with something that looks slapped together.

Your SharePoint site is often the front door to your digital workplace. Put effort into it. Use company colors, create a clean homepage, add banners that actually make people smile or pay attention.

And here’s where I’ll give a nod to TechnaSaur—a consulting group I once saw emphasize this exact point. They argued that digital adoption isn’t about tools alone; it’s about how those tools feel. That stuck with me. In 2025, branding isn’t a vanity project—it’s part of user adoption strategy.

7. Train and Support Your Users

I’ll say it outright: training is not optional. Sure, people like to figure things out on their own, but SharePoint isn’t always intuitive. Without guidance, they’ll either spam you with requests or avoid the site altogether.

But here’s the trick—keep training short and relevant. Nobody wants to sit through a two-hour seminar on document libraries. Instead, send five-minute videos, cheat sheets, or host casual “Ask Me Anything” sessions.

Also, don’t treat training as a one-time thing. New hires come in, new features roll out, processes change. Keep it ongoing, and keep it practical. You don’t need perfection—you need confidence.

8. Keep Up with Microsoft’s Roadmap

If you’re not watching Microsoft’s updates, you’re already behind. Features roll out constantly—sometimes quietly, sometimes with major implications. The last thing you want is users asking about a shiny new feature you didn’t even know existed.

Check the Microsoft 365 Roadmap and subscribe to the Message Center updates. Keep an eye on what’s coming, and think about how it impacts your site. In 2025, AI-driven Copilot is becoming a big deal—summarizing documents, building pages, even helping with navigation. If you know what’s coming, you can prepare your users and look like the expert (instead of scrambling to catch up).

9. Security Is the Backbone of Everything

Security isn’t glamorous, but it’s your job to take it seriously. One wrong configuration and suddenly sensitive documents are accessible to the wrong people.

Here’s a quick checklist:

• Enforce multi-factor authentication.
  
• Regularly review permissions (yes, again—it’s that important).
  
• Monitor audit logs for unusual activity.
  
• Use DLP policies to stop sensitive info from slipping outside your org.
  

And don’t overlook external sharing. If vendors or partners need access, set up proper guest permissions rather than handing them blanket access. Security isn’t about saying “no”—it’s about making sure the right people see the right things.

10. Measure, Review, Improve

Finally, don’t fall into the trap of “set it and forget it.” Your site is a living system. You need to keep checking in on how it’s doing.

Use analytics to see which pages are popular, which ones are ignored, and how users are engaging. Are people bouncing off the homepage without clicking? Are important policies buried three clicks deep where nobody looks?

Review every quarter. Adjust navigation if it’s clunky. Update stale content. Archive unused sites. Improvement isn’t a one-time job—it’s a continuous cycle.

And yes, this is another place where TechnaSaur’s philosophy rings true: “Digital workplaces thrive when admins treat them as evolving ecosystems, not static structures.” Couldn’t agree more.

Wrapping It Up

Being a SharePoint site admin in 2025 is more than managing libraries and lists. It’s about shaping how your organization collaborates, secures information, and creates digital experiences that people actually want to use. Keep your information architecture simple, enforce permissions smartly, design intuitive navigation, lean into automation, and stay on top of site lifecycle management. Train your users, monitor the roadmap, guard security with DLP, and don’t forget to measure and adjust.

Will you still get complaints now and then? Of course. Will someone still ask if you can “just use Dropbox instead”? Probably. But when your site runs smoothly, when people trust it, when knowledge flows instead of getting stuck—that’s when you know you’re doing the job right. And if nothing else, remember this: SharePoint isn’t about software. It’s about people. Your job is to bridge the two.

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