About: AICPA

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) is the world’s largest association serving the accounting profession. Today, it serves 580,000 members, candidates and registrants in 150 countries and territories and publishes trusted resources including:

• Journal of Accountancy
• The Tax Adviser
• FM Magazine

These publications serve professionals across corporate finance, public accounting, and government sectors. Collectively, they reach over 1.6 million readers each month with timely updates, research insights, and industry analysis.

The Challenge: A Legacy CMS Slowing Growth

Despite strong readership, AICPA’s editorial teams were constrained by Adobe Experience Manager.

Adobe Experience Manager was rigid, complex, and resource-intensive. Editorial teams struggled with publishing efficiency, and the platform limited flexibility across multiple properties.

The organization faced several key challenges:

• Rigid Publishing Workflows: Editors relied heavily on technical teams for routine updates.
• Performance Constraints: Core Web Vitals, especially mobile performance, needed improvement.
• Search Limitations: Readers required faster and more accurate search functionality.
• Accessibility Requirements: All properties needed to meet WCAG AA compliance standards.
• High-Stakes Migration: Each publication had unique branding and structure, increasing migration complexity.
• Zero SEO Risk: Any traffic loss during transition was unacceptable.

The Goal: Build a flexible, scalable WordPress VIP multisite platform that could handle millions of monthly readers while empowering editorial teams with faster workflows and stronger performance.

The Solution: Enterprise WordPress VIP Multisite

Multidots executed a full-scale migration from AEM to WordPress VIP, ensuring structural integrity, performance improvements, and seamless transition across all three publications.

Key Technical Implementations:

• Automated AEM-to-WordPress Migration: A custom conversion process preserves URLs, metadata, and content structure to avoid SEO loss.
• Brand-Specific Gutenberg Blocks: Custom blocks were developed for each publication, enabling faster publishing and design consistency.
• VIP Enterprise Search Integration: Implemented enhanced search functionality to deliver more relevant and faster results for readers.
• Performance Optimization
  • Lazy loading
  • Script optimization
  • Efficient CSS delivery
  • Core Web Vitals improvements
• Accessibility Compliance: All sites were built to meet WCAG AA accessibility standards.
• WordPress VIP Multisite Architecture: Each publication received separate access controls within a centralized multisite network, balancing autonomy with governance.

The Results: Speed, Scale, and Editorial Control

The migration modernized AICPA’s digital publishing ecosystem across all three publications.

1. Performance & Experience

45% Faster Page Load Speed (Overall Network)

Journal of Accountancy (570,000+ monthly views)

• Significant mobile and desktop performance improvements
• Increased accessibility scores
• Measurable SEO performance increase

The Tax Adviser (1M+ monthly views)

• 100%+ improvement in mobile speed
• Strong desktop performance gains
• 10% increase in SEO metrics

FM Magazine (128,000+ monthly visitors)

• Improved speed across devices
• Accessibility scores increased
• Faster and more accurate search functionality

2. Operational Efficiency

• Zero SEO or Traffic Loss During Migration
• Delivered Within 12 Weeks (FM Magazine delivered in 9 Weeks)
• Unified WordPress VIP Multisite Architecture for All Three Publications
• Brand-Specific Gutenberg Workflows Enabled Editorial Flexibility
• VIP Enterprise Search Improved Content Discoverability
• Editorial teams now publish faster with reduced developer dependency