Audience Management for Intranets: Why Page-Level Permissions Sound Good but Rarely Work

How Steegle.One Delivers Control Without Complexity

Steegle.One works with Google's permission model rather than fighting against it. Here's how organizations achieve practical access control:

1. Google Drive Permissions Work Automatically

Files embedded in a Site (documents, spreadsheets, PDFs) inherit their permissions from Google Drive. You can display a document on a page visible to everyone, but restrict who can actually open it.

For example, on your sales team page, you might embed quarterly reports. The page is visible across the organization, but when someone clicks a report, Google Drive permissions determine access. Sales team members see all reports; other employees see only public summaries.

2. Steegle Share: Your Smart Window Into Google Drive

This is where Steegle.One becomes genuinely different from basic Google Sites.

Think of Steegle Share as a smart window into your Google Drive content—one that automatically adapts to whoever is looking through it.

Here's how it works: Place a Steegle Share widget on any page and point it to a Drive folder. That's it. The widget dynamically displays only the files each user has permission to see. The content changes itself based on who is looking at it, so the intranet manager doesn't have to lift a finger.

In practice: Create one sales page with a Steegle Share widget. Add generic resources to a "Public" folder and confidential reports to a "Sales Team Only" folder in Drive. When the VP of Sales visits the page, she sees everything. When someone from Finance visits, they see only public resources.

Same page. Same widget. Personalized automatically through Drive permissions everyone already understands.

No audience groups to define. No membership lists to maintain. No troubleshooting why someone can't see what they should. The permissions you're already managing in Google Drive do all the work.

3. Smart Navigation and Information Architecture

Clear structure often eliminates the need for hiding content. When information is well-organized and easy to find, users naturally navigate to what's relevant without needing every page personalized.

This isn't a limitation—it's a feature. Transparency and discoverability beat hidden content in most organizational contexts.

4. Multiple Sites: Only When Absolutely Necessary

While Steegle Share and Google Drive permissions handle the vast majority of access control needs, there are rare situations where creating separate Google Sites for distinct groups becomes necessary—such as when you need to completely isolate highly sensitive information or comply with strict regulatory requirements that demand absolute separation.

When multiple sites are truly vital, you can create separate Google Sites for specific audiences (HR, clinical staff, executive leadership ) and link them together through navigation. Users experience one integrated intranet while administrators manage access through standard Google Workspace sharing.

However, this approach should be the exception, not the rule. Multiple sites introduce management overhead and complexity that most organizations don't need. Start with Steegle Share and Drive permissions—they solve the vast majority of access control challenges without the administrative burden.

What Works in Practice: Lessons From 100+ Organizations

After working exclusively with Google Workspace intranets for over a decade, clear patterns emerge:

•Limited targeting is useful. Separating staff and student communications in a school district makes sense. Creating distinct sites for clinical and administrative teams in healthcare organizations serves a clear purpose.

•But most organizations succeed through clarity, not complexity. The best intranets connect people through good navigation, consistent design, clear content ownership, and a culture of transparency—not through elaborate audience rules that require constant maintenance.

•The tools that look most sophisticated in demos often create the most friction in daily use. Simple systems that people actually maintain outperform complex systems that become unmanageable.

•Administrative overhead is real. Communications teams don't have unlimited time. Every feature that requires ongoing configuration is time not spent creating valuable content.