Sitecore Optimization Checklist

<customErrors mode="RemoteOnly" />

<agent type="Sitecore.Tasks.UrlAgent" method="Run" interval="00:15:00">
        <param desc="url">/sitecore/service/keepalive.aspx</param>
        <LogActivity>true</LogActivity>
</agent>

Sitecore recommends disabling WebDAV on the production content delivery servers to reduce the number of log files being created. Also, Sitecore recommends disabling WebDAV on the content management servers if the WebDAV functionality is not being used.

Performance counters create a minor overhead and is recommended to be enabled only when running in troubleshooting mode

 <setting name="Counters.Enabled" value="false" />

Sitecore recommends disabling the Memory Monitor in production environments, and only enabling it for troubleshooting memory related issues.

 <setting name="Counters.Enabled" value="false" />
<!--<hook type="Sitecore.Diagnostics.MemoryMonitorHook, Sitecore.Kernel">
 <param desc="Threshold">800MB</param>
 <param desc="Check interval">00:00:05</param>
 <param desc="Minimum time between log entries">00:01:00</param>
 <ClearCaches>false</ClearCaches>
 <GarbageCollect>false</GarbageCollect>
 <AdjustLoadFactor>false</AdjustLoadFactor>
 </hook>-->

The <strong>title</strong> tag is required in all HTML documents and it defines the title of the document. This tag displays the page title in browsers toolbar and in the search-engine results (SERPs). It also provides a title for the page when it is added to favorites. A descriptive <strong>title</strong> tag is important in helping search engines determine the web page's relevancy for certain keywords.

The meta description tag is meant to be a short and accurate summary of your page content. This description can affect your search engine rankings and can also show up directly in search engine results (and affect whether or not the user clicks through to your site).

This indicates if any H1 headings are used in your page. H1 headings are HTML tags than can help emphasize important topics and keywords within a page.

This indicates if any H1 headings are used in your page. H1 headings are HTML tags than can help emphasize important topics and keywords within a page.

Check if your website is using a robots.txt file. Search engines send out tiny programs called spiders or robots to search your site and bring information back so that your pages can be indexed in the search results and found by web users. If there are files and directories you do not want indexed by search engines, you can use the "robots.txt" file to define where the robots should not go.

These files are very simple text files that are placed on the root folder of your website: www.yourwebsite.com/robots.txt.

There are two important considerations when using "robots.txt":

- the "robots.txt" file is a publicly available file, so anyone can see what sections of your server you don't want robots to use;

- robots can ignore your "robots.txt", especially malware robots that scan the web for security vulnerabilities;

a sitemap is an XML file that lists URLs for a site along with additional metadata about each URL (when it was last updated, how often it usually changes, and how important it is, relative to other URLs <g class="gr_ gr_9 gr-alert gr_gramm undefined Grammar multiReplace" id="9" data-gr-id="9">in</g> the site) so that search engines can more intelligently crawl the site.

Check images on your webpage for required alt attributes. If an image cannot be displayed (wrong source, slow connection, etc), the alt attribute provides alternative information. Using keywords and human-readable captions in the alt attributes is a good SEO practice because search engines cannot really see the images. For images with a decorative role (bullets, round corners, etc) you are advised to use an empty alt or a CSS background image.