DrupalCon 2025 Highlights: Tools, Trends and What Comes Next

Since 2009, Drupal – a free, open-source content management system (CMS) and framework – has hosted DrupalCon, their own global conference aimed at showcasing successes and bringing together developers and marketers to network, learn and collaborate on how they use it every day.

This year, Swanson Russell’s Chris Johnson (UX Engineer), Madison Knopik (Senior Web Specialist) and Mikayla Flanagan (Developer) attended DrupalCon 2025. The event’s speakers covered a lot of ground, but one message was made clear to everyone: brands need to adapt faster. From the three days we were there, here are a few of the biggest points of emphasis we walked away with.

Your Website Should Be Built for the People Using It

One of the clearest themes from the event was simple: your website isn’t for you.

Websites are, and always have been, those who are using them. But, internal priorities often shape digital experiences, and that can lead to confusing navigation, inaccessible content or messaging that misses the mark. DrupalCon speakers challenged brands to get back to the fundamentals of user-centered design. This includes simplifying structure, streamlining copy and prioritizing ease of access across devices and abilities.

This matters because better usability directly supports marketing outcomes. It keeps people on your site longer, improves conversion flow and strengthens your brand’s credibility.

AI Just Got a Lot More Useful

The use of AI in content management is no longer theoretical. Drupal’s core and contributed modules are leaning far more into practical AI features that can actually help marketing teams move faster. From auto-tagging to smart content suggestions, Drupal now supports tools that reduce manual work while keeping messaging consistent. These tools aren’t about replacing marketers — they’re about freeing up time to focus on strategy and storytelling.

If your CMS isn’t helping you scale, personalize or speed up content creation, you may be falling behind. There is still a time and a place for large scale, team-led content. But when time and budgets are working against you, using AI tools to get a head start on new pages can work in your favor (just don’t forget to edit).

New Tools Make It Easier for Growing Brands to Compete

Drupal’s power has always come from its flexibility, but up until now that’s required a big lift from technical experts. Moving forward, page creation will become more dynamic through Experience Builder, set to be in beta come July 2025, allowing users of all capabilities to build pages with a drag-and-drop interface. On top of that, developers can utilize Drupal Recipes to more easily package site components that need to be reused or adapted quickly. Used together, these tools make it easier to get a site up and running without custom development at every turn.

Reconsider Adding PDFs Everywhere

PDFs may still be everywhere, but that doesn’t make them effective. DrupalCon presenters put hard numbers and usability insights behind what many already suspected: PDFs aren’t built for how people browse the web today. They’re difficult to read on mobile, inaccessible to assistive tech and largely invisible to AI tools. Worse yet, once downloaded, they’re out of your control — no analytics, no updates, no interaction.

For marketers, this is a signal. If you’re using PDFs to deliver key content, it’s time to consider accessible, SEO-friendly web pages that can be tracked, updated and actively engaged.

SEO Isn’t Dead, It’s Just Evolving (Again)

DrupalCon reinforced that following well-known SEO best practices (e.g., semantic HTML, unique metadata, Schema markup, etc.) still matters. But now, you need to be thinking about more than search rankings. Instead of resting on “if I build a good site with good content, people will find me,” you need to think, “how can I make it easier for customers to find me?”

Invest in email strategies, be active on social media, showcase your skills and the awards you’ve earned — and be an advocate for your brand. Organic traffic from Google may not spike like it used to, but if you’re providing customers with value and being out in front of them in more places than just SERPs, you can build channel traffic from more places and directly with potential customers (who hopefully turn into actual customers over time).

Search Behavior Is Shifting at a Breakneck Pace

It’s not just about being first on Google anymore. People are getting their answers directly from AI snapshots, which means your content has to be structured, clear and trustworthy enough to surface in those moments.

This change makes content modeling and Schema implementation more important than ever. Which means that if your primary goals still revolve around finding ways to get your content to show up in new search environments, the backend of your site needs to be just as dialed as the front. Does this mean you’ll drive more traffic from this? Maybe not. But you’ll at least know your site is once again set up for success for those who do choose to visit.

DrupalCon 2025 proved that content management is entering a new phase — one where structure, scalability and usability are just as important as design. For marketers, the message is clear: the tools are here, the trends are shifting and now’s the time to realign your digital foundation.

Swanson Russell, the Nation’s Leading Agency for Brands That Work and Play Outdoors, is a full-service advertising and marketing agency in Lincoln and Omaha, NE. We’re on a mission to Make Belief™ by uncovering a brand’s reality, unleashing creative possibilities and building trust over time. See the work we’ve created, get to know our approach — then, contact us to see how we can help.