Part One – How to Create a SharePoint Online Intranet

SharePoint Online is now the default intranet platform for SMBs on Microsoft 365. If you run between 50 and 500 seats, you almost certainly don’t need a third-party “intranet in a box” like Unily or Valo — native SharePoint covers 90% of what an SMB needs, at no extra licensing cost.

In this three-part series, we show you how to build a clean, branded intranet using only what’s included in your M365 license. Part 1 covers site setup: picking the right site type, creating it from the SharePoint admin center, and locking down the basics (logo, title, header).

What you’ll build in Part 1

• Pick the right SharePoint site type for an intranet homepage
• Create the site from the SharePoint admin center
• Set the logo, title, and header branding
• Remove the default footer for a cleaner look

Part 2 covers branding (custom theme, colors, typography). Part 3 covers content (news, hero sections, quick links, audience-targeted web parts).

Why native SharePoint beats third-party intranets for SMBs

SharePoint Online in 2026 is a vastly different product from its 2018 version. What used to require SPFx customizations, promoted links, or third-party add-ons is now handled natively:

• Modern pages with hero banners, quick links, news, and events web parts
• The SharePoint Look Book ships 10+ professional templates
• Audience targeting filters content by Entra ID group membership
• Hub sites cascade branding and navigation across associated sites
• Viva Connections turns the intranet into a Teams-native experience

The math is simple. Unily and Valo start around $5 per user per month. For a 200-seat SMB, that’s $12,000 per year on top of M365 licensing — for features SharePoint now provides natively. In 60+ tenant audits at Wintive, we’ve only seen two cases where a third-party intranet was genuinely justified (both regulated industries with complex governance requirements).

SharePoint site types: which one for an intranet?

SharePoint Online offers three main site types. Each serves a different purpose — picking the right one at creation time saves a lot of rework later.

Short version: use a Communication Site for your intranet homepage. Team Sites auto-create a Microsoft 365 Group (unnecessary baggage for a one-way intranet). Hub Sites are for connecting multiple sites together — useful in Part 3 when we add department sub-sites under a central homepage.

Step 1 — Create the Communication Site

You need to be a Global Administrator or SharePoint Administrator. If you’re neither, stop here and get your admin to run these steps — granting yourself temporary roles just to create a site is a governance red flag.

From the admin center (GUI):

1. Go to admin.microsoft.com
2. Navigate to Admin Centers → SharePoint
3. Click Active Sites, then Create
4. Choose Communication Site → Blank template (Topic and Showcase templates pre-populate web parts you’ll likely remove)
5. Fill in site name, web address, owner, language, then click Finish

Or in one PowerShell command:

# Connect to SharePoint admin center
Connect-SPOService -Url https://<tenant>-admin.sharepoint.com

# Create a Communication Site (blank template)
New-SPOSite `
  -Url https://<tenant>.sharepoint.com/sites/intranet `
  -Owner admin@<tenant>.onmicrosoft.com `
  -Title "HUB 365" `
  -Template SITEPAGEPUBLISHING#0 `
  -StorageQuota 1024

The SITEPAGEPUBLISHING#0 template is the blank Communication Site. The site appears in the active sites list within 30 seconds.

Step 2 — Remove the default footer

Most SMB intranets look cleaner without the default footer. One toggle:

1. Click the gear icon (top right) → Change the look
2. Select Footer → toggle Off

Keep the footer if you need legal disclaimers or contact info visible on every page. Otherwise the extra visual weight competes with your actual content.

Step 3 — Upload your logo

1. Change the look → Header
2. Click Edit → upload your logo (PNG or SVG, 64×64 minimum)
3. Pick header layout (Standard, Compact, Minimal, or Extended)

PowerShell alternative (uploads logo programmatically via PnP):

# Connect with PnP PowerShell
Connect-PnPOnline -Url https://<tenant>.sharepoint.com/sites/intranet -Interactive

# Upload logo to Site Assets and set as site logo
Add-PnPFile -Path .logo.png -Folder "SiteAssets"
Set-PnPSite -LogoFilePath .logo.png

Step 4 — Set a memorable title

By default the site title matches the site name you entered at creation. For a more distinctive intranet identity, give it a short, memorable name:

1. Click Site Contents → Site Settings
2. Under Look and Feel, click Title, description, and logo
3. Enter a short, distinctive title (examples: “HUB 365”, “Atlas”, “Pulse”, “Nexus”)
4. Click OK

Or via PowerShell:

Set-PnPSite -Title "HUB 365" -Description "Your company intranet homepage"

Tip: uppercase or letter-spaced titles (“H U B 365”) feel more designed, but it’s pure aesthetics. Your team will read it hundreds of times — pick something that feels right, not just clever.

Wintive take: 3 branding mistakes we see in tenant audits

1. Logo too detailed. Square logos with fine text or thin lines render as mush in the 32×32 app launcher tile. Use a bold monogram or stylized icon that stays legible at small sizes.
2. Site name with spaces or accents. A name like “Zürich Marketing” generates a mangled URL (/sites/z_rich_marketing). Pick an ASCII slug at creation — you can’t rename the URL later without recreating the site.
3. No sensitivity label at creation. Set “General” or “Internal” from the start. Retrofitting labels across an active intranet with thousands of items is painful and generates user-facing access denied errors during re-classification.

Conclusion

You now have a blank SharePoint Communication Site with the branding basics locked in: clean header, your logo, a memorable title, no default footer clutter. This is the canvas for your intranet homepage.

Next: in Part 2 we apply a custom theme and color palette to match your brand. Part 3 fills the homepage with news, hero sections, quick links, and audience-targeted content.

See also our introduction to SharePoint pages and web parts.

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