Within SharePoint, you have a few options when creating a new site. It's important that you know what purpose the site has in order to confirm which type of site you will be creating.
Note: To create sites, you will need to be a SharePoint administrator.
- In the top left corner of the page, select the app launcher icon Office 365 app launcher icon and then select the Admin tile.
- Once you are in the Admin Centre, select 'Show all' from the left menu and choose 'SharePoint' which appears underneath 'Admin Centres'.
- To go to the modern SharePoint Admin centre, click on the 'Open it now' button.
- From the menu on the left, select 'Active sites'.
- At the top of the SharePoint admin page, click + Create site.
Should I create a Communication Site or a Team Site?
Use a communication site to broadcast information out to a broad audience. With a communication site, typically only a small set of members contribute content that is consumed by a much larger audience. We use the Communication site template for all "Outer Loop" sites, these sites will typically be accessed by everyone.
If you want to collaborate with other members of your team or with others on a specific project, a team site is the better choice. With a team site, typically all or most members can contribute content to the site and the information is limited to only the members of the team or project and specific stakeholders. We use the Team site template for our "Inner loop" sites and typically lock these areas so only team members have access.
SharePoint use to allow you to create a parent site which would then have multiple child sites that sit underneath it however SharePoint now uses a flat structure in terms of creating sites so each site will sit at the same level and you don't have a clear hierarchy.
SharePoint then introduced a concept called "Hub Sites" which virtually brings back that parent/child site concept, by turning a site into a "Hub", you then allow other sites to be joined to it to provide that link between the two. In order to create a hub site, you would initially create a Communication site and then you can apply a setting which turns it into a Hub site.
In our intranet solution, typically most communication sites have been registered as a "Hub site" so that other team sites can then be linked to it. An example would be "HR" is created as a Hub site and then you may have multiple Team sites created such as "Benefits", "Recruitment", "Health and Safety" which are linked to the "HR" Hub.
Depending on the type of Site you want to create, follow the relevant linked sections:
If you have more questions or want some more clarification on the terminology, please reach out to your CSM at Perspicuity.