Intranet Management: Strategies for Sustainable Success

Intranet management is more than keeping your company’s internal site running—it’s about making it useful, relevant, and aligned with your business goals. A good intranet can improve communication, boost productivity, and support employees in their daily work. But it takes long-term effort to get there. Download this document to learn more about The Step-by-Step Guide to Intranet Success.

In this post, we’ll break down what intranet management involves and how to do it well—without the fluff.

Intranet management covers everything it takes to run and improve your intranet over time. That includes:

✔ Setting strategy and goals – Defining what the intranet should achieve, such as improving communication or streamlining access to internal tools.

✔ Driving employee adoption – Encouraging staff to use the intranet regularly through onboarding, ambassador programs, and internal campaigns.

✔ Managing content – Keeping information up to date, accurate, and easy to find, with clear ownership across departments.

✔ Tracking performance – Measuring success using analytics like page views, search trends, and engagement rates.

✔ Updating the platform – Applying system updates, refining features, and adding integrations to keep the intranet functional and user-friendly.

✔ Aligning with changing business needs – Adjusting content and features to support evolving goals, such as remote work or organizational restructuring.

It’s a shared effort between teams like Communications, IT, HR, and others. Launching your intranet is only step one—keeping it successful is where the real work begins. Learn more in this blog post: Intranet Success - A Long-Term Commitment to Empowering Employees.

Strong intranet management starts at the top. Leaders need to do more than approve budgets—they should back the intranet as a long-term business tool. Their involvement adds visibility, ensures resources, and helps embed the intranet into the company's broader communication and productivity strategies.

When leadership is involved, employees are more likely to engage. Clear support also helps communicate the value of the intranet across the company.

Why does your intranet exist? What should it do for your organization? These are the first questions to answer.

A simple strategy should outline:

✔ The intranet’s purpose – For example, serving as the main hub for company news, resources, and collaboration.

✔ How it supports business goals – Such as improving internal communication, supporting onboarding, or enabling faster access to HR tools.

✔ Who’s responsible for results – Identifying key roles or teams that manage adoption, content, and technical upkeep.

✔ How success will be measured – Using metrics like engagement rates, user feedback, or how well the intranet supports key workflows.

Check in on this strategy regularly and adjust as the business evolves. A living strategy helps ensure the intranet remains relevant and effective.

Intranet management needs structure. That usually means:

✔ An intranet board for big-picture decisions and resource planning.

✔ A governance team to handle content, UX, support, and adoption.

This structure creates accountability and enables a coordinated approach to both daily operations and long-term improvements. The governance team should include representatives from different departments to ensure the intranet supports a broad range of user needs. As the organization changes, the team structure should evolve too.

Image: Role-based publishing settings ensure clear editorial ownership and secure intranet content management.

Even the best intranet won’t help if no one uses it. Driving adoption is one of the most important goals of intranet management.

Try things like:

✔ Campaigns to drive specific usage (e.g., onboarding new teams or promoting new features).

✔ Ongoing training and support to help users become confident and self-sufficient.

✔ A network of ambassadors to help others, share tips, and encourage peer-to-peer support.

✔ Involving users early in the design and feedback process to build ownership and ensure relevance.

See this blog post Driving User Adoption of Your Intranet: 10 Tips and Tricks for more actionable learnings on getting employees to use the solution.

Also, make sure the intranet works well on mobile devices, integrates with tools like Microsoft Teams, and fits naturally into employees’ daily workflows. Accessibility and ease of use go a long way in driving sustained adoption.

Image: Intranet training modules help drive adoption and empower users with the knowledge to navigate key tools.

A big part of intranet management is making sure content stays relevant. That means:

✔ Training content owners so they know how to publish effectively and follow brand and communication standards.

✔ Setting up regular reviews to clean up outdated or duplicate content.

✔ Using templates and standards to maintain consistency and usability.

And don’t forget feedback. Use surveys, polls, and metrics like page views or time on page to see what’s working—and what’s not. Regular audits and user feedback help shape a more engaging and reliable intranet experience.

Image: User feedback tools like content ratings help improve intranet content relevance and quality over time.

Managing content effectively ensures the intranet remains relevant, useful, and trustworthy. The Governance Team should:

✔ Support decentralized content ownership.

✔ Provide training and templates.

✔ Schedule regular content reviews and audits.

Feedback loops are just as important. Use surveys, polls, and user interviews to gather insights. Monitor engagement metrics such as page views, time on page, and content interactions. These measurements provide both qualitative and quantitative input for improvement.

Learn more about monitoring and improving results in this blog post: 8 Effective Ways to Measure Intranet Impact and Drive Results,

You can also track a wide range of intranet management KPIs to understand how your intranet is performing and where it needs attention. Key metrics include:

✔ Usage: Visits, unique users, interactions, actions per visit, and average session duration.

✔ Content-level usage: Data tied to individual pages, documents, or processes.

✔ User behaviors: Visits by time of day, transition patterns, and heatmaps.

✔ Content reach: How well content reaches the intended target audience.

✔ Community and teamwork activity: Engagement in social and collaborative areas.

✔ Filters: Segment data by time period (e.g., week or month), user type (e.g., office vs. frontline), department, or location.

✔ Search analytics: Top search terms, abandoned searches, and searches with no results.

✔ Health indicators: Access errors, broken links, and underused content.

Evaluating what resonates with employees helps tailor content and strengthen the intranet’s overall impact.

Image: Intranet analytics dashboards track KPIs like user engagement, content reach, and search behavior.

Your intranet should grow with your organization. Keep it relevant by:

✔ Reviewing usage and feedback often to identify what's working and where updates are needed.

✔ Updating the roadmap to reflect new goals, features, and content priorities.

✔ Communicating changes clearly so users are aware of improvements and feel involved.

✔ Sharing a public roadmap so users know what’s coming and can give input.

On the technical side, stay on top of updates, integrations, and platform health. Good intranet management means balancing user needs with platform stability. Make space for experimentation and iteration—continuous improvements are what keep the intranet evolving and valuable over time.

Learn more about continuous improvements in this blog post: Continuous Improvements: The Key to Intranet Success.

Some things that can get in the way of good intranet management:

✔ No clear ownership – Without defined roles, it's hard to maintain accountability and momentum.

✔ Outdated or messy content – Reduces trust and makes the intranet harder to use.

✔ Low user engagement – Often caused by lack of relevance, visibility, or training.

✔ Technical limitations – Can prevent scaling or hinder the user experience.

You can overcome these with structure, consistent communication, regular audits, and a strong focus on user value and feedback. 

Image: AI-powered tools support intranet content audits by detecting outdated, underused, or hard-to-find pages.

Intranet management isn’t just about maintenance—it’s about helping your intranet stay useful, used, and aligned with your goals.

With the right people, strategy, and commitment, your intranet can become a key part of how your organization works—empowering employees, improving communication, and driving better business outcomes.

Need help with intranet management? Reach out for a free session with an Omnia Coach.