Seamlessly Migrated Ask Media Group’s 11 Websites to WordPress from Legacy CMS

The Client

Ask Media Group, a performance marketing company based in Oakland, California, specializes in leveraging advanced technology and data science to effectively monetize large-scale audiences. As part of IAC’s portfolio, Ask Media Group manages a diverse range of search and content sites, prominently featuring Ask.com. Globally, their network attracts 245 million unique visitors monthly, generating over 500 million unique page views. With an estimated annual revenue of $17.4 million, Ask Media Group has a team of over 100 people. Originally founded as Ask Jeeves in 1996 and rebranded as Ask.com in 2005, the company has maintained a steadfast commitment to enhancing personal knowledge by providing insightful answers.

The Challenge

• Complex ad implementation required for each website.
• Lack of a central content management console/dashboard.
• Features, modules, and business logic needed reverse-engineering due to limited support from previous CMS developers.
• The content structure was incompatible with the standard Gutenberg WordPress editor.
• Complex editorial workflow and advertising management had to be translated into the WordPress ecosystem and further optimized.

The Solution We Delivered

The following websites were part of the migration:

Due to the complexity of the project, Multidots put together a dedicated team of engineers and project managers.

• The first step was to conduct a joint review with the client of all the features and business logic needs, followed by solution design.
• Multidots utilized WordPress’s Multisite feature to organize Ask Media Group’s properties into a network. Combined with a content syndication approach by the central site to each individual, the Multisite feature provided the editor with a unified dashboard to manage content for all sites.
• Multidots used WP-CLI, a command-line interface for WordPress, to build custom scripts to convert data into a WordPress-compatible format, which allowed the team to migrate the data in bulk.
• The team developed various custom Gutenberg blocks to ensure compatibility and provide editors with a seamless editing experience.
• To fulfil the complex advertising management needs of Ask Media Group, Multidots developed a custom plugin to define ad rules across sites and made it reusable across multiple sites.

Multidots assembled a dedicated team of engineers and project managers for focused expertise. They conducted a thorough review with Ask Media Group to align feature and business logic requirements. 

Leveraging WordPress’s Multisite feature, Multidots consolidated properties and implemented a content syndication strategy. Custom WP-CLI scripts facilitated the migration of over 50,000 posts, maintaining data integrity. Multidots developed various custom Gutenberg blocks to ensure compatibility and provide editors with a seamless editing experience. 

Additionally, a bespoke plugin streamlined complex advertising management across sites. This integrated approach optimized efficiency, enabling Ask Media Group to enhance monetization and audience engagement.

When the Multidots proposed that they could migrate 11 sites in 12 weeks, I was very skeptical and wasn’t really sure that it actually seems doable! But they did it. It’s a pleasure working with the whole team.

Vinodh Krishnamoorthy

VP of Software Engineering

The Result

• Migrated 11 websites within 12 weeks with zero downtime.
• Created a future-proofed centralized management system.
• Reduced publishing time through optimized workflow processes.
• Enhanced user engagement attributed to modern design elements.
• Advanced event tracking and search API integration further enhanced the properties’ analytics capabilities.

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