How to get more from SharePoint analytics

If you manage content in SharePoint, you probably already know this: analytics matter. But getting to the data you actually need? That’s a little trickier.

You want to know what people are reading. Which content is landing or being ignored. Which pages need a refresh. And ultimately, you want to improve how your intranet performs for your audience. SharePoint’s built-in analytics give you a helpful starting point - but as your environment grows, so do your questions. And that’s where things can get a little… manual.

So what does SharePoint offer out of the box? And how can you go further when the basics aren’t quite enough? Let’s break it down.

 

What SharePoint analytics offers natively

Site Usage Dashboard

Every modern SharePoint site includes a built-in Site Usage page, available from the site settings menu. It’s designed to provide a snapshot of how your site is performing, including:

• Unique viewers - Total number of individual users visiting the site

• Site visits - All visits, including repeat visits from the same users

• Average time spent per user - A helpful attention metric

• Popular content - Top-performing pages, news posts and documents

• Sharing activity - Details on externally shared content

For small teams or standalone sites, this view offers just enough insight to guide content improvements. But if you manage multiple sites - or even just lots of pages - it quickly becomes clear that this dashboard only tells part of the story. It’s also limited to reporting on the last 7, 30, or 90 days. Microsoft has recently announced that a 12-month view is coming soon, but it will require additional licensing - a limitation that often drives teams to look for more advanced solutions.

If your intranet is built around a Hub site structure, you can also view analytics aggregated from all connected sites. This can be a huge time-saver, giving you one dashboard to understand how an entire section of your intranet is performing without opening each site individually.

 

Viva Connections Analytics

For organizations using Viva Connections as their intranet home in Microsoft Teams, there’s an additional analytics dashboard available. It shows:

• Unique users
• Total views
• Engaged users
• Returning users

Activity for desktops, websites and mobile devices is combined in this section, regardless of platform. Data can be filtered down to the last 7, 30 or 90 days - or up to 12 months with the right licensing. This can be particularly valuable for understanding adoption and interaction within Teams as part of the broader intranet experience.

 

Page-Level Analytics

When you need to zoom in further, Page Analytics gives you a per-page breakdown, including:

• Page viewers
• Page views
• Average time spent per user
• Page traffic by time

It’s quick to access and useful for reviewing individual pages, though it doesn’t provide a cross-site view for editors managing multiple areas.

 

Microsoft 365 Admin Reports

At a higher level, admins can access SharePoint Site Usage Report through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. It provides access to statistics such as:

• Number of total and active sites

• Number of total and active files

• Amount of storage used

• Number of page views

Furthermore, for those with admin permissions, Microsoft Search Usage Reports provide insight into what people are searching for across the whole tenant. When filtered carefully, these reports can reveal:

It’s a great way to uncover content gaps, but access requires users to be granted the roles of search admin, search editor, global reader or global administrator in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.

These reports are useful for governance, compliance, and licensing oversight, giving IT the data they need to track activity and adoption trends. But for editors and comms specialists, they often fall short. What you really need are insights into which pages are being read, which campaigns are landing, and what content is being overlooked - practical answers that admin-level reports simply don’t provide.

 

When native isn’t enough

Microsoft gives you good foundations - but if you need to connect the dots across sites, track complete user journeys, or build custom dashboards in tools like Google Analytics, you’ll hit some limits quickly.

If you’ve ever asked:

• How are people navigating through our intranet?

• Which departments or user groups are the most engaged?

• What content are people finding via search (or not finding)?

• Can we set goals or track click-through rates?

... then it’s time to look beyond the native tools.

 

Introducing Site Analytics by Accelerator 365

Site Analytics is designed to answer the questions that matter to intranet and comms teams - without requiring workarounds or complicated integrations. With seamless support for Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager, Site Analytics brings enterprise-grade analytics into the heart of your SharePoint environment.

Here’s what you can do:

Site Analytics gives you a holistic understanding of your intranet’s performance, turning SharePoint from a content hub into a measurable, optimizable platform. But what if you could go a step further and include a tool that helps content managers oversee intranet content more effectively?

 

Bonus: Content Manager Dashboard (CMD)

While Site Analytics gives you deep insight into user behavior and traffic, many content teams also need visibility into the status and health of their actual content. That’s where Content Manager Dashboard (CMD) comes in.

Where Site Analytics shows you how users behave, CMD helps you manage the content behind that experience - ensuring your intranet stays up to date, accurate, and relevant. Together, these two tools give you the best of both worlds: macro and micro insights, behavioral data and editorial control.

 

See It in Action

Ready to see how Site Analytics and CMD can transform the way you manage, measure, and improve your SharePoint intranet?

 → Try Site Analytics free for 60 days and get real-time behavioral insights in the analytics tools your teams already use.

→ Explore CMD free for 60 days to take control of your content estate and keep your intranet sharp and up to date.

Because SharePoint works best when it works smarter - with tools designed for the way real teams work.