Building the CMS Conf Website: Structure, CMS, and SEO Optimization

When we set out to build the foundation for CMS Conf 2026, we knew we needed more than just a pretty landing page. We needed a website that would be fast, maintainable, SEO-friendly, and ready for the AI-first future of search.

Here’s how our team came together to make it happen.

The Vision: Design and User Experience

Agnieszka Palmowska brought order to chaos. As our Design Magician and frontend developer, she didn’t just design beautiful mockups, she built the entire visual experience of the site.

What does that mean in practice? Agnieszka created:

The complete layout system (Header, Footer, Hero sections)
Dark mode implementation with Tailwind classes
Mobile and desktop navigation with overlay menu
Responsive components that work seamlessly across devices
The visual language that makes the conference feel cohesive

With over 40 commits to components and layouts, she transformed designs into a living, breathing interface. Every section has a purpose. Every interaction feels natural. Nothing is arbitrary.

The Technical Foundation: Astro 5 + Tailwind CSS 4

We chose Astro for one reason: speed. With zero JavaScript shipped by default and full static site generation (SSG), we knew we could deliver lightning-fast page loads, critical for both user experience and SEO rankings.

Tailwind CSS 4 gave us the styling power we needed while keeping the build pipeline lean. Using the new Vite plugin (@tailwindcss/vite), our CSS compiles in milliseconds.

But speed isn’t everything. We also needed maintainability.

The Game-Changer: Pages CMS

Enter Maciej Palmowski, who brought Pages CMS into the mix and set up the initial SEO infrastructure.

For those unfamiliar, Pages CMS is a headless CMS that works directly with Git repositories. No database. No backend. Just pure, version-controlled Markdown files managed through a friendly UI.

Why did this matter?

Content team empowerment: Non-technical team members can now add blog posts and manage author profiles without touching code.
Git-native workflow: Every change goes through GitHub, maintaining our CI/CD pipeline.
Zero hosting costs: Pages CMS is free for public repos and integrates seamlessly with our static build.

Maciej configured the .pages.yml schema to define exactly what fields our blog posts and authors need. He also integrated the sitemap functionality and Twitter Card metadata. The result is a content management experience that feels like WordPress but deploys like Vercel.

The Invisible Work: SEO, Schema, and LLM Optimisation

This is where Mariusz Szatkowski, our Conference Coordinator, went deep into the technical trenches.

SEO Fundamentals

Using the astro-seo-meta package, we implemented:

Dynamic page titles and descriptions
Open Graph tags for social media previews
Twitter Card metadata
Event-specific Open Graph properties for the homepage

Every page gets its own optimised metadata automatically.

Schema.org Structured Data

We didn’t stop at basic SEO. Mariusz built a custom SchemaOrg.astro component that generates JSON-LD structured data for:

Event schema: Conference dates, location, geo-coordinates, ticket pricing
Organisation schema: Full legal entity details for Openweb S.C.
WebPage schema: For every subpage
BlogPosting schema: For blog content

Why does this matter? Google and other search engines use Schema.org to create rich results, those fancy event cards you see in search. We’re not just ranking; we’re standing out.

LLM Optimisation: The AI-First Approach

Here’s where things get interesting. With AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google Gemini increasingly answering questions directly, we needed to make our content AI-readable.

Mariusz implemented:

llm.txt: A structured text file at /llm.txt that provides AI systems with a complete overview of the site, including:
- Event details
- All page routes
- Technology stack
- Organizer information
llm.json: A machine-readable version for programmatic access
Auto-update script: A Node.js script (scripts/update-llm-txt.js) that runs during every build to:
- Scan all .astro pages
- Extract frontmatter metadata
- Update the LLM files with the current site structure
- Timestamp the last update

This means when an AI system crawls our site, it gets a comprehensive, structured snapshot of everything we offer, without needing to parse HTML.

Performance Optimizations

We didn’t just build fast, we built deliberately fast:

LightningCSS: Rust-based CSS minification for blazing-fast builds
Sharp: High-performance image processing (also Rust-based)
Font preloading: Critical fonts (Montserrat, Clash Display) are preloaded to eliminate flash-of-unstyled-text
CSS preloading: Custom Vite plugin to ensure stylesheets load without render-blocking

The Result: A Foundation That Scales

What we built isn’t just a landing page. It’s a content platform ready to scale through the conference and beyond.

Team members can publish blog posts without developer intervention
Search engines get rich, structured data for optimal indexing
AI systems get purpose-built content files for accurate answers
Users get a fast, accessible, mobile-first experience

All of this runs on static hosting with zero backend infrastructure.

Looking Forward

As we approach CMS Conf 2026 (November 12-14 in Gdynia, Poland), this website will be the primary touchpoint for attendees, speakers, and sponsors.

The foundation is solid. The CMS is simple. The SEO is bulletproof.

Now, we’re ready to fill it with the stories, insights, and community that will make CMS Conf the premier event for CMS creators and web product builders across Europe.

Want to explore the tech stack yourself? The site is built with Astro 5, Tailwind CSS 4, Pages CMS, and comprehensive SEO/Schema/LLM optimisation. Check out our llm.txt to see what we’re telling AI about the conference.

Questions about our tech choices? Drop us a line at hello@cmsconf.com.