Understanding how frequently SharePoint sites are visited can help administrators identify heavily used sites, understand usage trends, and make informed decisions about site management and content.
To check SharePoint site usage, the method depends on your SharePoint environment. In SharePoint Server Subscription Edition, site owners can use the built-in Popularity Trends report to analyze site usage over time. In SharePoint Online, administrators can use the SharePoint Site usage report in the Microsoft 365 admin center to compare usage across sites, while the Site usage page provides more detailed information for an individual site.
The following sections explain how to check SharePoint site usage in both SharePoint Server Subscription Edition and SharePoint Online.
How to Check Site Usage in SharePoint Server Subscription Edition
SharePoint Server Subscription Edition includes a Popularity Trends report that you can use to analyze usage for a specific SharePoint site. The report provides information such as hits and unique users, helping you understand how frequently the site is being accessed and how its usage changes over time.
To view the Popularity Trends report for a site:
- Sign in to SharePoint Server and navigate to the site whose usage you want to check.
- Click Settings, and then select Site Settings.
- On the Site Settings page, under Site Administration, click Popularity Trends.
- On the View Usage Reports page, under Usage Reports, click Usage.
- Click Open to open the report in Microsoft Excel. You can also select Save or Save As to save the report for later analysis.
- Review the available tabs in the Excel report to analyze usage statistics for the different usage event types.
The Popularity Trends report provides daily and monthly statistics for the site. Daily statistics are available for the last 14 days, while monthly statistics are available for the last three years. The report includes metrics such as hits and unique users for the available usage event types.
Note: The user account used to view the site-level Popularity Trends report must be a member of the site’s default Owners group.
How to Check the Most Visited Sites in SharePoint Online
SharePoint Online provides an organization-wide Site usage report in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Administrators can use this report to compare usage across SharePoint sites and identify sites receiving higher levels of activity.
To view the SharePoint Site usage report:
- Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center.
- In the left navigation pane, go to Reports → Usage.
- On the Usage page, under Reports, select SharePoint.
- On the SharePoint report page, select the Site usage tab.
- Select a reporting period, such as the last 7, 30, 90, or 180 days.
- Review the site-level usage information to compare activity across SharePoint sites.
- Use Choose columns to add or remove the metrics you want to display in the report.
- Click Export to download the report as a CSV file for further analysis in Excel. You can then sort and filter the data to compare usage across sites.
The Site usage report provides a centralized way to review SharePoint Online usage across the organization, making it more suitable for comparing multiple sites than opening the usage report for each site individually.
How to Check Usage for an Individual SharePoint Online Site
If you need more detailed usage information for a particular SharePoint Online site, you can use the site’s built-in Site usage page. This provides insights into how users interact with that specific site and its content.
To check usage for an individual site:
- Sign in to SharePoint Online and open the site you want to analyze.
- Click Settings in the upper-right corner.
- Select Site usage.
- Review Unique viewers to see the number of individual users who have accessed content on the site.
- Review Site visits to see the total number of visits to content on the site.
- Check the site’s popular content information to identify frequently accessed pages, news posts, and documents.
- Review the other available usage information to better understand how users are interacting with the site and its content.
The Site usage page is useful when you want to investigate activity within one particular site, while the Microsoft 365 admin center’s SharePoint Site usage report is more appropriate when you want to compare usage across multiple SharePoint Online sites.
How Lepide Helps with SharePoint Auditing
Native SharePoint usage reports help you understand how frequently sites are being used, but they are not designed to provide detailed visibility into security-relevant changes and user activity. Lepide Auditor for SharePoint complements native usage reporting by providing detailed auditing of changes and access activity across SharePoint Server and SharePoint Online.
With Lepide SharePoint Auditor, you can:
- Track SharePoint changes: Monitor changes to SharePoint content, site settings, lists, libraries, configurations, and other objects, with details about who made the change, what changed, when it happened, and where.
- Audit data access: Monitor user activity involving SharePoint files and folders, including read, write, modify, and delete operations.
- Monitor permission changes: Track changes to user permissions, group memberships, and access levels to identify unauthorized or unexpected modifications.
- Track external sharing: Identify when SharePoint data is shared externally and gain visibility into potential data exposure.
- Receive real-time alerts: Configure alerts for security-relevant SharePoint changes and activities that may require investigation.
- Generate audit reports: Use predefined and custom reports to investigate SharePoint activity and support security and compliance requirements.
Lepide does not replace SharePoint’s native site usage reports for identifying site popularity or usage trends. Instead, it provides deeper auditing and security visibility into the changes and access activity occurring within your SharePoint environment.