[The Ultimate Guide] How to Implement Sitecore

If you have chosen Sitecore for your digital transformation, it is a significant investment. Therefore, it is crucial to know how to implement Sitecore correctly the first time to ensure it meets your expectations in terms of budget, functionality, and deployment time.

To achieve this, you must have the right people and processes in place, whether you plan to implement it internally or work with an outside vendor.

To ensure you are working with a team of real experts, it is essential to identify a qualified Sitecore partner. We've written an article on how to choose a certified Sitecore partner, feel free to read it.

In this article, we will discuss the best practices you need to follow when implementing Sitecore.

1. Start with a Sitecore Architecture Document

To ensure a successful Sitecore implementation, whether you are building a new site or enhancing an existing one, it is essential to start with a comprehensive Sitecore Architecture Document written by QEdge.

This document outlines all the implementation requirements, including the content structure on the site, necessary modules, users, and their permissions. By providing detailed information, the Sitecore Architecture Document enables everyone involved in the implementation, including content editors, marketers, IT teams, UX agencies, and Sitecore vendors, to be on the same page, avoiding any unpleasant surprises.

It is a crucial component of the discovery and planning stage for any successful Sitecore implementation, along with your SOW. Some Sitecore partners, such as QEdge, offer Sitecore Architecture documentation as a separate service, which you should consider taking advantage of if you plan to implement internally.

2. Follow Helix Best Practices in Sitecore

In 2016, Sitecore published its Helix architecture conventions and guidelines, providing developers with comprehensive guidance on how to best architect a Sitecore solution. We've written an article to introduce Helix as well.

Helix's technical design principles and development process recommendations contribute to a higher quality architecture, faster time to market, and a future-proof implementation.

When developing a Sitecore implementation, it's important to follow Helix's best practices to ensure a successful and efficient architecture. Sitecore partners should be familiar with Helix and incorporate its guidelines into the development process.

3. Follow Development Best Practices in Sitecore

In addition to Helix guidelines, Sitecore development teams should follow other development best practices to ensure high-quality implementation. These practices include peer-reviewing all code, using well-defined version control and release strategies, using configuration transforms, and deploying first to a staging environment before production.

It's also important not to reinvent the wheel. Don't spend time creating your own version of something that comes built-in with Sitecore. This will introduce unnecessary complexities that can cause Sitecore performance issues down the line. Instead, use Sitecore's built-in modules to create the functionality you need and save time and effort in the long run.

By following development best practices and utilizing Sitecore's built-in modules, you can create a successful and efficient Sitecore implementation. Ensure your Sitecore partner understands and incorporates these practices into your implementation.

4. Deploying Sitecore on Azure PaaS

With the release of Sitecore 9.0 in 2017, Sitecore moved toward a microservices architecture. This complicated the topology of a Sitecore environment, making it more time-consuming to set up physical or cloud environments manually. However, Sitecore also developed an Azure Marketplace module that simplifies the process of launching a Sitecore environment by answering a few questions and clicking "Go!"

Deploying Sitecore on Azure PaaS (Platform as a Service) offers benefits beyond deployment speed. Azure PaaS makes it easy to automate scaling for your Sitecore environment, so you can adjust your hosting needs to meet your site's traffic demands. Azure PaaS also supports deployment slots for production-tier app services, allowing you to implement a blue/green deployment strategy for future feature rollouts that will be seamless.

If you're unable or unwilling to deploy Sitecore on Azure PaaS, we recommend having at least one more production Content Delivery (CD) instance than you would in a cloud environment to handle your traffic. This way, it's possible to take individual machines out of the load balancer rotation and deploy seamlessly. Plus, your website will continue to operate if one server unexpectedly requires maintenance during peak traffic.

Consider deploying Sitecore on Azure PaaS to take advantage of the benefits it offers. If you're unsure how to proceed, work with a Sitecore partner who has experience deploying Sitecore on Azure PaaS to ensure a successful implementation.

5. Size Your Sitecore Environment Appropriately

Sizing your Sitecore environment appropriately is crucial to balance cost and performance. Ensure that all instances, including Content Delivery, Content Management, and xConnect, and all databases and database servers have appropriate resources, such as RAM and CPUs. Work with Sitecore experts to determine how many Content Delivery instances you need to support your site's traffic demands.

For physical and SaaS virtual deployments, it's important to select the correct edition of SQL Server. SQL Server Professional limits the number of CPUs and RAM that SQL Server can access, while SQL Server Enterprise does not have this limitation. Websites with high traffic and high content scenarios may require SQL Server Enterprise.

Work with a Sitecore partner who can help you size your environment appropriately and strike the right balance between cost and performance.

6. Plan for Multiple Languages in Sitecore

Implementing a site in multiple languages in Sitecore is easy, but it requires planning ahead. Sitecore has built-in functionality for setting up languages and adding different versions of content using the language versioning feature. However, a truly multi-language site also involves URL handling, language switching, automated language selection, non-editable text, content inclusion and exclusion per language, and search.

URL handling is important for both SEO and automated language selection. Consider how your URLs will be structured and whether each language is treated as its own site or as a single site with a primary language selected as the default. Determine the mechanism for language switching and whether the language selection will be stored for future visits. Decide whether to use the GeoIP of a user to select the language and the implications for testing. Use Dictionary Items to define the non-editable text that needs to be translated.

Decide which pages or sections of the site appear in each language and whether the navigation needs to reflect differences between language versions. Ensure that search results are in each language by indexing multiple language versions. Plan for multiple languages from the beginning to avoid complications later on.

Work with a Sitecore partner who has experience in implementing multi-language sites in Sitecore to ensure a successful implementation.

7. Implement a Testing Environment

Implementing a testing environment is vital to ensure that new features are tested thoroughly before deploying them to your live site. While licensing additional non-production Sitecore instances may take the budget away from other investments, the cost of poorly-tested code deployed to production can be much higher. It can render a part or all of your web presence unusable, resulting in a negative impact on your organization.

Allocate resources to create a UAT or QA environment that you can access to test new features before deploying them to your live site. This will help you avoid notoriety and ensure that your website is functioning as intended.

8. Configure HTML and Data Caching Appropriately

Appropriately-configured caching can significantly improve the performance of your Sitecore environment. However, it's important to understand the functionality of each page and module to assess the right kind of caching to apply. Incorrectly applying caching settings or not clearing the cache at the right time can cause production issues, such as showing the wrong content to users and breaking the functionality of your website.

Thoroughly understand caching settings and get them right before going live with caching. Consider including caching configuration on your development checklist to ensure that it's appropriately configured.

9. Use Automated Deployments

Manual deployments can introduce mistakes and inconsistencies in the deployment process, even if the code itself is fine. Automated deployments can eliminate the human element from critical steps in the process, making it easier to reliably roll back to a known good state if necessary and reducing the risk of making your website unusable or unstable due to deployment issues.

An experienced Sitecore partner can recommend technologies and processes to build and deploy your solution in a consistent manner. The output should be consistent each time, require minimal human intervention, and be as safe as possible. A well-designed and implemented automated deployment can help achieve those objectives and avoid many of the pitfalls of manual deployments.

Final Thoughts

Implementing Sitecore correctly can be complex, and it's best to have experts lead the way. QEdge's team of Sitecore Certified Architects, Developers, and Support Engineers have over a decade of experience in implementing and supporting Sitecore.

Whether you need an ultra-fast Lift-and-Shift or a completely custom solution, QEdge's Sitecore Implementation Services team can get the job done on time, on budget, and the right way the first time. With our expertise, you can avoid common pitfalls and ensure that your Sitecore implementation is optimized for your specific needs.

If you're interested in learning more about how QEdge can help you with your Sitecore implementation, let's schedule a time to talk.