Managing and Scaling the Web Infrastructure for a Multi-Billion Dollar Hospitality and Entertainment Group

About The Ryman Hospitality Group

The Ryman Hospitality Group is a premier lodging and hospitality real estate investment trust specializing in upscale convention center resorts managed by Marriott International and entertainment experiences. With an estimated revenue of $2.2 billion and a team of around 1,000 employees, they are notable for their unique combination of hospitality and entertainment offerings.

Goal

• Migrate 11 existing WordPress websites from Pantheon to WordPress VIP hosting and integrate them into a unified multisite architecture.
• Complete the migration and multisite restructuring within the strict six-week timeframe to meet project deadlines.
• Preserve existing SEO scores and rankings throughout the migration and consolidation process to ensure no negative impact on search visibility.

Solution

• Utilized the WordPress VIP Code-Scanner tool to identify thousands of issues, prioritizing and fixing hundreds of critical code and database problems.
• Conducted thorough manual code audits to address and resolve all critical issues promptly.
• Cleaned up and optimized themes for ADA compatibility within the VIP infrastructure.
• Performed comprehensive plugin audits, removing unnecessary plugins and replacing slower or non-compatible ones to enhance performance.
• Employed CLI scripts to efficiently migrate content, assets, and the multisite architecture to WordPress VIP.
• Optimized all codes and plugins, resulting in improved stability and speed of the websites.

Result

• Within six weeks, all 11 websites were successfully migrated to the WordPress VIP platform, seamlessly integrated into a multisite architecture. The meticulous optimization of codes and plugins led to significant improvements in website stability and speed. 
• By addressing critical issues and ensuring ADA compatibility, the overall user experience was enhanced. The streamlined migration process ensured no negative impact on SEO scores and rankings, enabling Ryman Hospitality Group to maintain its online presence while benefiting from a more robust and efficient digital infrastructure.