SharePoint Modern Pages: Design and Publishing Guide

SharePoint Modern Pages: Creating Engaging Digital Experiences

Modern pages are the content creation backbone of SharePoint Online. They replace classic wiki pages and publishing pages with a responsive, mobile-friendly canvas that supports rich multimedia, interactive web parts, and professional layouts without requiring any code. Every intranet, department portal, and project site relies on modern pages for communication.

This guide covers page creation, design principles, web part configuration, news publishing, and page management for enterprise SharePoint environments.

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Page Types

Site Pages

Standard pages for any content purpose. Site pages can contain text, images, web parts, videos, and embedded content. They are versioned, support co-authoring, and can be promoted as news posts.

News Posts

News posts are site pages with enhanced distribution. When published as news, the page appears in the SharePoint start page news feed, the site's news web part, hub-level news aggregation, Viva Connections feed, and the Teams activity feed (with Viva Connections). Create a page and click Post news from the command bar to promote it as news.

News Links

Lightweight news items that link to external content rather than hosting content on a SharePoint page. Use news links to surface industry articles, partner announcements, or content hosted on other platforms within your SharePoint news feed.

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Page Design Fundamentals

Sections and Layouts

Modern pages use a section-based layout system. Each section spans the full width of the page and can be divided into columns.

Section layouts:

• One column for full-width content
• Two columns with equal width or one-third/two-thirds split
• Three columns for dashboard-style layouts
• Vertical section adds a sidebar alongside the main content area

Section Backgrounds

Each section can have a background color: None (white), Neutral (light gray), Soft (tinted), or Strong (dark with white text). Use background alternation to create visual hierarchy and guide readers through the page.

Content Width

Page content can be set to standard width (for text-heavy pages) or full width (for visual pages with hero images and dashboards). Configure this in page details under Page layout.

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Essential Web Parts

Text Web Part

The rich text editor supports headings (H2, H3, H4), bold, italic, and underline formatting, bulleted and numbered lists, hyperlinks, tables, block quotes, and code snippets. Structure your text with clear headings to improve readability and search engine optimization. Use H2 for main sections and H3 for subsections.

Image and Media

The image web part supports uploading images, selecting from the site's assets, searching stock images, and linking to external image URLs. Configure image sizing (automatic, custom), alt text for accessibility, and optional captions and links.

The Stream web part embeds videos from Microsoft Stream or YouTube. Videos auto-play in the page and support captions and transcripts.

Hero Web Part

The hero displays up to five items in a visually prominent layout. Each item shows an image, title, description, and link. Use the hero on landing pages to highlight key resources, news, or calls to action.

Hero layouts: Tiles (1 to 5 items in a grid), Layers (overlapping cards), or single item full-width.

Quick Links

Display a collection of links in various layouts: Compact, List, Tiles, Button, or Filmstrip. Use quick links for navigation to key resources, frequently accessed sites, and tools.

News Web Part

Aggregates news posts from the current site, hub sites, or specific sites. Configure news sources, filtering, and the number of items displayed. Use on landing pages and hub sites to keep users informed.

People Web Part

Display team members or contacts with photos, names, titles, and contact information pulled from Azure AD profiles.

Highlighted Content

Dynamically displays content from SharePoint based on filters. Show recent documents, trending content, items from specific sites, or content matching metadata criteria. The most versatile web part for creating dynamic pages.

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News Publishing Workflow

Creating News

• Navigate to a communication site
• Click New then News post
• Choose a template or start blank
• Add content using the page editor
• Set the first image as the news thumbnail
• Add page properties (author, publish date, description)
• Click Post news

News Templates

Create custom news templates to ensure consistent formatting. Design a template with your organization's standard layout (header image, author section, body content areas, call to action) and save it as a page template. News authors select the template when creating posts.

News Distribution

Published news posts distribute automatically to the site's news web part, the SharePoint start page for site followers, hub site news aggregation for all associated sites, Viva Connections feed for Teams users, and email digests when configured through SharePoint notification settings.

Scheduling News

Schedule news posts to publish at a future date and time. This is essential for coordinated communications where content must go live simultaneously with other announcements.

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Page Templates

Creating Templates

Design a page with your standard layout and save it as a template. Go to Page details then Save as template then provide a name and description. The template appears in the page template gallery when users create new pages.

Template Categories

Organize templates for different use cases. Common categories include news templates for announcements, updates, and spotlights. Department templates for team pages and resource pages. Project templates for status updates and milestone pages. Event templates for event announcements and recaps.

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Page Performance Optimization

Image Optimization

Large images are the primary cause of slow page loads. Resize images to the display size before uploading (do not upload a 5000 pixel image for a 1200 pixel display area). Use JPEG for photographs and PNG for graphics with transparency. Compress images using tools like TinyPNG before uploading. Use the built-in image web part which handles responsive sizing.

Web Part Count

Each web part adds to page load time. Keep the total number of web parts under 15 per page. Consolidate related information into fewer web parts rather than using many small ones.

Third-Party Web Parts

Third-party SPFx web parts can significantly impact performance if they make external API calls, load heavy JavaScript libraries, or render complex visualizations. Evaluate performance impact before deploying third-party web parts to high-traffic pages.

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Accessibility

Accessible Page Design

SharePoint modern pages support accessibility standards when content is created properly. Use heading hierarchy correctly (H2, H3, H4 in order). Add alt text to all images. Use sufficient color contrast between text and backgrounds. Provide captions for videos. Use descriptive link text (not click here). Structure tables with header rows.

Accessibility Checker

SharePoint includes a built-in accessibility checker that scans pages for common issues. Run the checker before publishing and fix all identified issues.

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Page Management

Version History

Modern pages maintain version history. Each save creates a new minor version. Publishing creates a major version. Restore previous versions from the page details panel.

Page Approval

Configure page approval workflows to require review before publication. Navigate to Pages library settings and configure approval with Power Automate. Submitted pages show as Pending until approved.

Analytics

View page analytics from the page details panel. Metrics include unique viewers, total views, average time on page, traffic sources, and viewer demographics (department, location). Use analytics to understand what content resonates and inform future page creation.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can I add custom CSS to modern pages?

Not directly. Modern pages do not support custom CSS injection. Use SPFx Application Customizers for tenant-wide styling or SPFx web parts for component-level styling.

How many pages can a site have?

The practical limit is around 5,000 pages per site for optimal performance, though the platform supports more.

Can pages be exported or backed up?

Use PnP PowerShell to export pages as part of a site template. Individual pages can be exported as HTML through browser save functionality.

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For help designing engaging SharePoint pages for your intranet, [contact our design team](/contact) for a content and design assessment. We create modern SharePoint page experiences for organizations where [employee engagement and communication](/services) drive business outcomes.

Advanced Page Techniques

Dynamic Content Pages

Create pages that display different content based on the viewing user. Use audience-targeted web parts to show department-specific news, role-based quick links, and personalized highlighted content. The same page serves different content to different users, reducing the need for department-specific pages.

Multi-Language Pages

For global organizations, create multilingual versions of key pages. Enable multilingual features on communication sites, create translation copies, and assign translators. SharePoint automatically directs users to the page version matching their browser language.

Page Performance Monitoring

Use the SharePoint page diagnostics tool (a browser extension from Microsoft) to analyze page performance. The tool identifies slow web parts, large images, excessive API calls, and configuration issues that impact load time. Run diagnostics on every page before publishing and fix all issues flagged as critical.

Content Scheduling and Lifecycle

Schedule pages to publish at future dates for coordinated announcements. Set page expiration dates to automatically flag or remove outdated content. Create a content calendar in a SharePoint list that tracks planned publications, assigned authors, review dates, and publication status. Link the calendar to your page creation workflow so authors receive reminders when their assigned pages are due.

Page Collections and Navigation

Organize related pages into collections using metadata tags. Create a page library view that groups pages by topic, department, or content type. Add a Highlighted Content web part configured to display pages from the current site filtered by metadata, creating a dynamic table of contents that updates automatically as new pages are published.