Differences Between a SharePoint Site and a SharePoint Page

It is important to understand the structure of SharePoint, particularly when you are new. A site in SharePoint can be thought of as the workspace where people can collaborate. It is a place where you can store information and keep it organized. A site has its own URL and can contain multiple Web parts. Web Parts are like apps on your phone that display specific types of information. For example, there is a News Web Part where you can display news and announcements, similar to having a news app on your phone. Your company can have multiple sites. A site can have security settings and is not set at the page level.

A page can be thought of as a means to visualize and display content on your site. You can add additional pages to your SharePoint site, as only one page is added, by default. Each page also has it’s own URL.

To make this easier to understand, think of SharePoint as your computer:

• The whole computer itself is a SharePoint site.

• The screen you’re viewing the computer from is a SharePoint page. It can change depending on how you manipulate the things in your computer (like arranging the desktops or opening a new program).

• The programs and applications in your computer are the web parts. They are made for different purposes and you can use each one and see them on the screen (the page).

Some other ways to use sites is to create only one for everyone in your organization. You can additionally create a site for each department. Sometimes, a site is created for every project you have going on in each department. You can also create subsites, under the parent site (ie. the organization-wide site). The ways you and your organization choose to use SharePoint are limitless.

Hopefully, this has given a bit more clarity on some of the terminology. Until next time!