The new Umbraco Engage marketing suite, easier content migration to newer versions of the system, tools for maintaining design consistency across multiple managed websites, improved convenience in managing SEO, and best practices for website accessibility—these are just some of the insights we gathered from the fantastic Umbraco US Festival in Chicago this month.
Maybe even Taylor Swift doesn't have fans as devoted as we are to a certain Danish CMS platform. This year alone, we've traveled through three countries and two continents following the 'Tour de Umbraco,' with the US Umbraco Festival being our latest event in the series. Sure, this is hyperbole, but one could argue whether a Swiftie gathering or an Umbraco conference sees more talk about friendliness and friendships.
As Umbraco continues its expansion into the US market, its cooperation with the developer community is growing stronger—a stark contrast to the ongoing WordPress trademark dispute with some of its extension service providers, which has raised concerns within the open-source community—but that's a topic for another time.
The relationship between Umbraco's management and its community members couldn't seem more open. Upon entering mHub, we received a package of building blocks among the other swag—a nod not only to LEGO, which shares its Danish roots with Umbraco, but also to the company's mantra: 'Build how you want to build.' And what better sign of friendliness and openness than kicking off the festival with the official introduction of the festival mascot, Narly the Narwhal?
Maybe even Taylor Swift doesn't have fans as devoted as we are to a certain Danish CMS platform. This year alone, we've traveled through three countries and two continents following the 'Tour de Umbraco,' with the US Umbraco Festival being our latest event in the series. Sure, this is hyperbole, but one could argue whether a Swiftie gathering or an Umbraco conference sees more talk about friendliness and friendships. 
UMBRACO ENGAGE MARKETING SUITE
Umbraco maintains its practice of acquiring high-quality third-party solutions and transforming them into more integrable, first-party, purpose-built tools for the back office. The uMarketing Suite—a toolkit for traffic analysis, A/B content testing, and marketing personalization—was the company's latest acquisition, something the entire community had already heard about on LinkedIn last month.
At the Festival, participants had a unique opportunity to see what Umbraco plans to do with this popular extension. Umbraco Engage was introduced during a keynote speech by Senior Software Engineer Heather Burns. Although detailed information about the expanded functionality was still limited and understandably so, given that the new toolset is in its early development stages, we learned that Engage will be a powerful solution for collecting and utilizing user data while remaining fully GDPR compliant. One of its key features is the ability to create a website heatmap, offering a comprehensive assessment of how design impacts user attention.
We await more updates on this product and look forward to proposing its use in future projects.
We await more updates on this product and look forward to proposing its use in future projects. VERSION 8 IS GOING TO FIJI FOR RETIREMENT
We were reminded of the release timelines and end-of-life dates for various Umbraco versions—something we, as developers, stay aware of but companies using the platform may overlook. Umbraco 8 is set to lose support and 'retire' on February 24th, 2025, after six years of service. Heather Burns, like us before, discussed the best upgrade options. Umbraco 14 features a fully rebuilt backoffice without AngularJS, which may not suit all customers. Meanwhile, version 13, the latest long-term support release, is reliable for ensuring project stability.
Due to changes in the .NET framework, new websites in Umbraco 13 must be built from scratch, but your content remains safe. Callum Whyte, known in the Umbraco community, explained the Deploy tool, which helps migrate content, media, and schemas from v7 and v8 to v13 by exporting data to a zip file for import into the new site.
Naturally, migration will require additional development, especially for custom templates and integrations with external systems or databases. Our ADHDEV experts are ready to assist you with these upgrades.
Due to COHESION AND USER EMPOWERMENT
While website rebuilds require expert developer skills, Umbraco aims to make content editors independent of developers and simplify life for end users. This 'editor-first' approach, introduced at Codegarden in June, was reinforced throughout the Festival sessions.
A case study by Nora Lahl and Stacy Hanneman highlighted the transition from a complex custom CMS to Umbraco, driven by the need to empower content managers. Umbraco was chosen not only for its affordability but, more importantly, for its ability to manage content across multiple separate websites while ensuring visual consistency and ease of use.
Umbraco is enterprise-ready, and this theme was also highlighted during presentations on the system's development strategy. If you're looking for a scalable, flexible solution to manage dozens of brand websites with user-friendly editing tools, Umbraco offers:
● A consistent look and user experience across all sites.
● Reduced implementation costs and time through reusable components and templates.
● Simplified content editing for non-technical marketing and editorial teams.
SEO AND ACCESSIBILITY: HOW TO MAKE YOUR SITE MORE VISIBLE ON DIFFERENT LEVELS
Joe Stofel and Alex Vilmur showcased how Umbraco simplifies SEO implementation—a topic familiar to anyone involved in content editing but often neglected, even by large companies. Umbraco provides built-in fields for meta titles, descriptions, and image alt text, while tools like the SEO Toolkit enhance the management of robots.txt files and sitemaps.
Vilmur also highlighted how Umbraco allows developers to create SEO-optimized page templates, including auto-generating friendly URLs and H1 headings. For Schema.org structured data, .NET libraries like Schema.NET simplify code generation. The speakers emphasized the importance of collaboration between developers and SEO specialists to create websites that are both user-friendly and search engine-friendly.
Making your website visible in search engines for business reasons is one thing, but making it genuinely accessible is another. Dennis Kardys dedicated his powerful speech to this topic, emphasizing that accessibility is not just about technical compliance—it's about creating an inclusive online environment that welcomes all users, regardless of their abilities.
Kardys pointed out that 96% of websites fail to meet basic accessibility standards, making them less useful for the 15-25% of the US population living with a disability. He criticized a purely WCAG compliance-driven approach, which can lead to mechanically ticking off criteria without considering the actual usability for people with disabilities. Instead, we should focus on users' needs, designing sites that foster a sense of belonging and inclusion.
'Accessibility is simply personalization that considers human diversity,' Kardys said, offering practical tips such as using tools like JAWS, a screen reader and incorporating both automated and manual testing to fully assess accessibility.
Vilmur also highlighted how Umbraco allows developers to create SEO-optimized page templates, including auto-generating friendly URLs and H1 headings. For Schema.org structured data, .NET libraries like Schema.NET simplify code generation. The speakers emphasized the importance of collaboration between developers and SEO specialists to create websites that are both user-friendly and search engine-friendly. WHY CHOOSE UMBRACO
Our tour of Umbraco events this year has reaffirmed our belief that the Umbraco Community is unique in its commitment, mutual kindness, and open knowledge-sharing. This healthy environment, combined with the company's clear vision for development and ambitious plans, offers a stable foundation for your website—making Umbraco an excellent choice as your primary platform.
To sum up the Umbraco US Festival, here's what you'll gain by choosing one of our favorite CMS platforms.
1. Exceptional flexibility and scalability
The platform offers many configuration options, from simple landing pages to complex multilingual ecosystems with multiple subpages, various websites and advanced functionalities.
2. Umbraco has many built-in features and extensions that improve SEO
The platform offers an SEO panel that makes it easier for content editors to optimize metadata, as well as content templates that automate SEO settings for selected pages.
3. Umbraco emphasizes user-friendliness for both content editors and developers.
The platform's intuitive interface makes it easy to create and edit content, as well as manage pages and multimedia. Block List Editor allows you to create pages from ready-made components, which makes it easier to maintain visual consistency and website structure. Umbraco also offers extensive interface customization options for editors, adapting it to the specific needs of each project.
4. Umbraco is a platform that is constantly evolving
Umbraco version 13 introduced significant changes to the user interface, focusing on simplicity and intuitiveness. Version 14 of the platform introduces further improvements, including features that revamps component-based website creation. Umbraco actively listens to the community's feedback and constantly develops the platform, adding new features and improving existing ones.
There's so much going on with Umbraco right now. Call us and catch up or talk to us abour your new Umbraco project.
