Audience targeting on SharePoint navigation links

Most of us know that you can set security on SharePoint sites, Document Libraries, Folders and even individual files. But did you know that you can set security on links in your SharePoint navigation?

Historically, any link added to your SharePoint navigation would be seen by everyone, even if it was a link to a private site such as Payroll. When a user would click on the link, they would get “Access Denied”, which often causes frustration with users not knowing whether or not they have access to a site until they click on it.

The Audience Targeting functionality however offers a solution to this frustration! It allows you to set security on your navigation links so that users will only see links that that they have access to. Any links that they haven’t been given access to will simply be hidden from view.

So how do you do it?

1. Enable Audience Targeting

Firstly click “edit” next to your site or hub navigation

Then in the navigation pop up window, scroll to the bottom  to “Enable site navigation audience targeting” and toggle this to “On” (it is off by default), then click Save.

2. Set Security on the Navigation

Once Audience Targeting is enabled, you can go ahead and set security on your navigation links.

Click edit on your navigation again, then click the ellipses next to the links you want to set security on, then click “Edit”

Then in the edit pop up, you can enter the name of the security groups you want to be able to see this link, then click ok. Note that you can enter a maximum of 10 security groups for each link.

You will now see an audience icon next to the link you have audience targeted and the link will only be viewable to those groups of users.

Just note that changes to security on links can take a little bit of time to show for your users.