The document discusses the top ten features of content management systems (CMS) that can enhance traffic and revenue for location-based businesses such as hotels, retail, and healthcare. Key highlights include built-in SEO capabilities, mobile-friendly design, dynamic event listings, ease of use, and unique vertical-specific features to cater to various industries. The document emphasizes the importance of a CMS in meeting digital demands and improving site performance through effective management of content and user experience.

1. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Top 10 CMS features to
increase traffic and revenue
Mike Supple, Elizabeth Dalrymple, Brent Csutoras

2. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Mike Supple Elizabeth Dalrymple Brent Csutoras
Sr. Director of Product
Management,
Milestone
Product Manager,
Digital Studio,
Marriott International
Advisor & Owner,
Search Engine Journal

3. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Milestone Presence Cloud Platform
CMS Local
Reviews AnalyticsInsightsSocial
Schemas Voice Search
DRIVE REVENUE AND TRAFFIC FROM DIGITAL

4. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
CMS for location-based businesses
Hotels and
spas
Retail location
pages
Automotive
Dealerships
Healthcare
providers
Banking and
finance
Restaurants
Corporate
website

5. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Poll Question 1
Which CMS system are you using currently?
– Wordpress
– Adobe Sitecore
– Joomla
– Other

6. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
• What is a CMS?
• Advantages in general
• Features vary across
platforms
• Large companies are
investing heavily in SEO
technology
Why CMS?
Booking.com SEO visibility score up 120% yoy from Q116 to
Q117

7. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Built-in SEO
1

8. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Optimize on-page SEO
Platform Performance
and Site Speed
Optimization
Crawlability
Optimization
Search
Optimization
Minimize
HTTP requests
Minify
JS & CSS
Optimize
images
GZIP
components
HTML validation CSS validation Link checker / internal
links
Canonical tags XML sitemap
(images, video)
Optimized
meta tags
Header tags (H1,
H2, H3)
Alt Tags for
images
Schemas
markup
Social
tags

9. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Schemas: voice and
visual search readiness
2

10. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Schemas:
Rich Snippets / Featured Snippets / Position "0" Rankings
Structured data markup that enables search engines to
understand the context of your website content.

11. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Milestone platform DELIVERS most content in structured format
The data-driven web
~90% of your content is tagged with
schemas to make your site easy to find in
search engines and Siri, Alexa and Google
Home
Support for
120+ schema
tags Google
Assistant
Apple
Siri
Amazon
Echo

12. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Mobile features
3

13. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Speed: Milestone sites are faster than competitors
How quickly the page
displays for user
Webserver speed &
responsiveness
# of individual files that load
from the site
The total size of a webpage
in bytes
RENDER TIME TIME TO 1ST BYTE LEAST REQUESTS LOWEST WEIGHT (MB)
Average of 52 sites from major
competitors
Milestone
websites
50%+ of consumers leave a mobile site after 3 seconds if it does not load

14. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Advanced mobile features
Adaptive Responsive Design
Milestone mobile traffic averages 6% higher than the industry, with significantly better conversion

15. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Accelerated mobile
pages (AMP)

16. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Eye-catching
designs
4

17. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Experiential design is KEY to conversion

18. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Event calendar
5

19. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Dynamic event listings on your site
Automatically push locally-relevant events
from a specified radius around your
property to your website
Each event is wrapped in schemas to
make them discoverable in “near me”
searches
Add your own custom events for a full
custom calendar

20. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Easy-to-use
site tools
6

21. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Quick access to edit content

22. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Built-in
compliance
7

23. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
WCAG 2.1, GDPR and CCPA Compliance

24. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Ongoing Compliance Testing

25. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Business-focused
insights
8

26. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Sample Analytics Report

27. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Fast site access;
always-on availability
9

28. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Cloudflare CDN enables super fast speed
CONTENT DELIVERY
Cached versions of static content lowers
bandwidth usage, page load times, CPU
usage.
DDoS PROTECTION
Distributed denial of service
protection.
DOMAIN NAME SERVICE (DNS)
One of the fastest DNS providers in the
market.
100% UPTIME
Protection from local outages

29. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Vertical-specific
features
10

30. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Vertical specific
• Translation support
• Shopping cart abandonment
• Restaurant reservations
• Appointment request forms
• Car inventory system integration
• CRM integrations
• eCommerce integration
• Store locator and detail pages
• Members-only sections
Hospitality Retail
AutomotiveHealthcareFinancial
Restaurant Corporate

31. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Wrapping it all up
Prioritizing your needs

32. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Total Cost of Ownership
• What are the critical capabilities and features for your site?
• Do you need native platform or will external plugins work?
• Is the platform flexible to support latest technology and change?
• Is built-in functionality cheaper than a la carte?
• How easily can your team update key areas of the site?
• Do you have a technical support team?
• Does the platform support A/B testing?
• How will you generate reports showing success & opportunities?

33. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Poll Question 2
When do you think you might switch content management
systems?
– I currently need a new CMS or website
– I may look In the next few months
– Maybe in a year
– I just switched to a new CMS

34. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Marriott key features

35. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Marriott Digital Studio – Product Portfolio
Standalone Sites
• Independent websites for
Autograph Collection, Tribute
Portfolio and The Luxury Collection
properties
• The goal is to showcase the hotel’s
unique brand and story with a
custom design and site functionality
Custom Web
• Fully-custom products that solve
unique marketing needs
• Current projects include regional
wedding sites, enhanced Outlet
Sites, and regional F&B sites
Outlet Site Builder
• A solution for hotel F&B or Spa
outlets with a strong local source
market
• Intended for outlets with a wide
target audience (not just hotel
guests)

36. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Key Features
• Using a CMS has allowed us to solve an internal business need at scale
• Across our product portfolio, there have been several key features that have benefitted
our team, clients and end-users:

37. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
• A CMS has allowed us to build and
launch over 630 Outlet Sites (incl.
translations) in ~ 11 months
• We created a template within the CMS;
do not have to build sites from scratch
Feature #1 – Quick to Market

38. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Feature #2 – Look & Feel
While the structure of our Outlet
Site offering is retained, clients can
still modify the aesthetic
Clients are able to update the
font, color, background, etc. to
align with their branding needs
Clients can activate/deactivate
certain carousels and repurpose
pages for unique content

39. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Outlet Site Designs

40. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Collection Site Designs: The Daytona

41. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
EASY TO USE
We can launch products to
clients with varying levels of
marketing and digital
experience
SEAMLESS CONTENT CHANGES
Clients can make copy, image and
carousel updates without
programming assistance
REAL TIME UPDATES
Clients can make daily updates
in real-time; beneficial for
promotions, offers, etc.
Feature #3 – Self-Service

42. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Feature #4 – Advanced Mobile Features
• According to Google, the number of Smartphones has
surpassed the number of personal computers in many
countries
• Mobile cannot be a ‘afterthought’ in the design of our websites
• ~ 60% of traffic comes
from mobile sites
• Mobile-first design retains
readability and usability
Mobile First Design
• AMP is automatically
applied across all pages
on our sites
Native AMP
• Adaptive/responsive design
• The Notary’s standalone site
loads in <1 second
Fast Load Time

43. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Built in schemas allow search engines to
index and understand on-page content
Menu vocabulary from Schema.org allows an
automatic mark up of each individual item
A CMS provides a user-friendly method for
adding/editing menu items without programming
Feature #5 – Schema

44. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Site Structure
• Best-practice site
structure, defined with schema
• AMP site ranking first
for fastest user experience
• Organic result includes full sitelinks
for all major pages in the site
• Combined with local listing, own
the entire above the fold space

45. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Menu Structure
• Menu schema on home page and detail pages
• Includes imagery with content
• Ranks above TripAdvisor, OpenTable, Michelin,
Yelp, TheFork, etc.

46. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Local Search

47. #SEJThinktank
@MilestoneMKTG
Feature #6 – Fixes & Enhancements
Can add and test a feature on one site, and
then roll it out to others without coding each
one
With the right CMS, can develop, test and
launch custom enhancements
Able to make global fixes across all sites,
as necessary