Scaling to 1.6M+ Readers: AICPA’s Strategic Migration from AEM to WordPress

About AICPA

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) is the world’s largest association representing the accounting profession. It publishes trusted resources like the Journal of Accountancy, The Tax Adviser, and FM Magazine. These platforms serve professionals across corporate finance, public accounting, and government sectors, providing timely updates and expert insights.

Goal

AICPA needed to move away from a rigid, high-maintenance publishing system. The previous platform, Adobe Experience Manager, made it difficult for editorial teams to update content and slowed down site performance. AICPA was looking for a more flexible and cost-effective solution that could:

• Improve Core Web Vitals, especially on mobile
• Support custom publishing needs for each publication
• Handle millions of monthly readers without delays
• Offer faster and more accurate search
• Meet accessibility standards
• Avoid any traffic or SEO loss during the transition

Each publication had unique branding, content structures, and technical requirements, making the migration both complex and high-stakes.

Solution

Multidots led the full migration of AICPA’s three flagship publications to a modern WordPress VIP multisite setup. Each site had a unique structure and brand identity, so the migration involved custom workflows and tools.

Key components of the implementation:

• A custom process to convert AEM content to WordPress without breaking URLs, metadata, or structure
• Brand-specific Gutenberg blocks to make publishing easier and faster for each editorial team
• VIP Enterprise Search to help readers find what they need quickly
• Speed improvements like lazy loading, script optimization, and efficient CSS delivery
• Full accessibility support following WCAG AA standards
• A WordPress VIP multisite setup with separate access for each publication team

Result

Journal of Accountancy

This publication sees around 570,000 monthly views. After the migration:

• Site performance improved significantly on both mobile and desktop.
• Accessibility scores went up, and the SEO performance showed a measurable increase.
• Editors now enjoy faster publishing workflows with more design flexibility, while readers benefit from improved site speed and search relevance.
• The project was completed on time in 12 weeks.

The Tax Adviser

With over 1 million monthly views, The Tax Adviser required high-performance and seamless search functionality. 

• Post-migration, the site achieved over 100 percent improvement in mobile speed and strong gains in desktop performance. 
• SEO metrics improved by 10 percent, and the editorial team gained more control over content creation. 
• The site also launched within the 12-week timeline.

FM Magazine

FM Magazine, with roughly 128,000 monthly visitors, also saw notable improvements.

• Site speed and accessibility scores increased across devices, and search became faster and more accurate. 
• The new publishing setup gave editors more freedom with layouts and reduced dependency on developers. 
• The migration was delivered on schedule in just 9 weeks.

The migration helped AICPA streamline its publishing operations without losing any search traffic or brand identity. Each site now runs faster, ranks better, and offers a more user-friendly experience for both readers and editors. Editorial teams across all three publications now have more control, more flexibility, and more speed.