Sitecore SEO Issues and How to Raise Them With Your Team

Most Sitecore SEO issues are not caused by the platform itself but by how a site has been configured: robots.txt, sitemaps, URL rules, redirect maps and the front end that renders each page. A marketer rarely has access to those settings, so the fastest route to a fix is a clear ticket. Below are the faults that come up most often, each written as a ticket you can raise with your Sitecore team.

How to write a Sitecore SEO ticket that gets fixed

Developers prioritise tickets they can reproduce. Each one below follows the same shape, and yours should too:

• Symptom: the URL, what a crawler or Search Console shows, and when you noticed it.
• Ask: the specific setting, template or rule you want checked.
• Done when: a test anyone can repeat, such as a response code, a line of HTML or a sitemap entry.

Sitecore products have changed over time. Many sites still run Sitecore XP, many have moved to XM Cloud, and Sitecore has renamed parts of its product line over time, so match each fix to the product and version you actually run. Ask your team which product and version you run, and check each item against the matching documentation.

Ticket 1: robots.txt and indexing settings

Symptom: new pages are not indexed, or Search Console reports pages blocked by robots.txt.

Ask: Sitecore's SEO recipe for XM Cloud warns that an incorrect robots.txt can cause indexing problems. Ask the team where the live file is generated, whether the production site has its own entry, and whether staging or preview hosts block all crawlers. Also ask whether any template outputs a noindex tag by default.

Done when: the live robots.txt allows everything that should rank, references the sitemap, and staging hosts do not appear in Google.

Check this ticket before and after every launch. A setting carried over from a test environment can block a whole site, and the cost grows each day it goes unnoticed.

Ticket 2: sitemap content and language

Symptom: the sitemap lists pages that redirect or are noindexed, misses new pages, or uses URLs that differ from the live ones.

Ask: Sitecore's documentation describes the Sitemap item in the site settings and how to control language codes in sitemap URLs. Ask how pages are included or excluded, how often the sitemap refreshes, and whether the language setting matches how the live site shows languages.

Done when: a sample of sitemap URLs each returns a 200 response, matches its canonical tag exactly, and includes every language version you want indexed.

Ticket 3: Sitecore URLs and duplicate addresses

Sitecore URLs are built from the content tree, so naming and structure decisions made by authors show up directly in search results.

What to look for

• Spaces or uppercase letters in item names producing encoded or mixed case URLs.
• The same page available with and without a language prefix, or under both www and non www hosts.
• Deep folder structures that add words to URLs without adding meaning.
• Campaign or tracking parameters that create indexable duplicates.

Ask: Sitecore's SEO recipe for XM Cloud recommends choosing one domain version, running the site only on it, and setting canonical URLs to avoid duplicate content. Ask how item names are converted into URLs, whether lowercase and hyphenated URLs are enforced, and whether every template outputs a self referencing canonical.

Done when: each page resolves at one address, and every alternative form redirects to it or carries a canonical pointing to it.

Ticket 4: Sitecore redirects

Redirects cause more lost traffic during relaunches than any other setting. Sitecore's documentation on redirect URLs in XM Cloud describes redirect maps with permanent, temporary and server transfer options.

Points to raise

• Type: moved pages should use a permanent redirect. Temporary redirects are for genuinely temporary moves, and server transfer keeps the old URL visible, so it is not a substitute for a redirect when a page has moved.
• Publishing: the documentation states that the site root item must be republished to clear the Edge cache and apply redirect map changes. If a new redirect is not working, ask whether that step was done.
• Order: rules are evaluated from top to bottom and the first match wins, so specific redirects belong above broad patterns.
• Volume: Sitecore recommends a limit on redirections per map. For large migrations, ask whether bulk redirects should sit in the front end or hosting layer instead, and confirm the right approach with Sitecore's current guidance.
• Old rules: if you moved from Sitecore XP, ask whether redirects held in old server configuration were carried across.

Done when: a test list of old URLs each returns one permanent redirect straight to the right page, with no chains or loops.

Ticket 5: metadata, headings and structured data

Symptom: titles are duplicated across pages, descriptions are empty, or the rendered page has several H1 headings.

Ask: Sitecore's recipe advises keeping meta descriptions within crawler limits, avoiding empty or stuffed meta tags, keeping one H1 per page, and adding structured data through fields or components rather than rich text. Ask whether each template has dedicated title and description fields with a sensible fallback, and whether schema comes from structured fields.

Done when: a crawl shows no missing or duplicated titles on indexable pages, and structured data passes Google's Rich Results Test.

Ticket 6: images and page speed

On headless Sitecore builds the front end controls speed. Sitecore's recipe recommends compressing images before upload, using modern formats, lazy loading and descriptive alt text, and for Next.js front ends using its image component. Ask for Core Web Vitals by template, not just for the homepage, and for alt text to be a required field on image components.

Ticket 7: Sitecore analytics and search data

Sitecore analytics, personalisation and tag management can each affect search data.

• Ask whether personalised variants change titles, headings or canonicals for crawlers. Search engines should see a stable default.
• Check that analytics tags fire once per page and respect visitor consent, which matters under the UAE PDPL; confirm your obligations with counsel.
• Connect Google Search Console and your analytics so organic landing pages can be tied to enquiries.

Our guide to SEO data that actually guides decisions explains which reports are worth the effort.

Sitecore SEO tickets at a glance

Hypothetical example: a retailer in Dubai relaunches on XM Cloud and adds hundreds of redirects to one map. Some stop working after a later edit because the site root was not republished. A ticket naming the step, and a test list of old URLs, turns a vague complaint into a quick fix.

Similar scale issues appear on other platforms, as covered in SEO for large WordPress sites and Shopify Plus SEO for large catalogues. If you are deciding who should own this work, see in house SEO team or agency for large Dubai companies.

Need findings your Sitecore team can act on?

Codeeo's technical SEO review examines a live site for crawl, indexing, redirect, canonical and speed issues and reports them as prioritised actions, which suits the ticket approach above. For a broader look at content and conversion, consider a website audit or our ongoing digital marketing and SEO services. Get in touch with the Codeeo team in Dubai to talk through your site.