Sector: Management Consultancy / Marketing Operating Models
SoBold worked with AAR Group, a management consultancy with over 40 years' experience advising on marketing operating models, to redesign and rebuild their website from Umbraco 8 onto WordPress.
The project covered research and planning, UX, design, and full development, working closely with AAR's Marketing Lead, Katrina Law, the wider executive team, and AAR's existing SEO agency, Gooey Digital.
The challenge
AAR Group’s existing website was built on Umbraco 8, a CMS that had reached End-of-Life. The platform had become difficult to manage internally, and upgrading to a newer version was costly.
Beyond the technical limitations, the site did not reflect AAR’s dual service offering, with one proposition for senior marketers and another for agency leaders, and the existing structure made it difficult for either audience to find what they needed.
With a brand refresh underway, the timing was right to re-platform entirely and rethink how their services, content, and identity were presented online.
The results
20% decrease in bounce rate
90% increase in average session duration
50% increase page views per session
Working with SoBold since: 2025
What we did
SoBold was engaged to redesign, rebuild, and host the new AAR Group website from the ground up. The project began with a research and planning phase covering competitor analysis, a review of existing site data via HotJar, and keyword discovery in partnership with Gooey Digital. This work informed the new site structure and ensured SEO was built in from the start.
The build then moved through wireframing, UI, and development, with three developers bringing the site to life on WordPress. The platform was chosen for its flexibility, scalability, and ease of content management, giving AAR’s team full control over their content while SoBold provides ongoing support for anything more technical.
New website data metrics
Success snapshot
A visual identity aligned to a refreshed brand
Two moodboards were presented at the outset, one with a bolder, brand-services feel and another with a lighter, agency-facing aesthetic.
The visual direction was agreed quickly, and SoBold rolled the design system out across all key breakpoints with animated hero imagery, a refined colour palette, and a clean, confident visual language aligned to AAR’s refreshed brand.
The wireframing phase was the most involved part of the project. With two distinct audiences and a repositioned service offering, every page needed careful thought around messaging and content structure.
SoBold produced high-fidelity wireframes using a modular content block approach, ensuring senior marketers and agency leaders could each find what they needed without diluting either proposition.
The site was built on WordPress with reusable content blocks the AAR team can mix, reorder, and update themselves.
The modular system gives the team full control over page composition without needing developer support for routine updates, while keeping the visual language consistent across the site.
SEO was considered from wireframes through to launch, with header tag hierarchy, structured data, URL structures, redirects, and on-page elements aligned to Gooey Digital's requirements throughout the build.
LLM optimisation was treated alongside traditional search, ensuring the new site is structured for both Google and AI search platforms.
The development phase covered GA4 and GTM integration, GDPR-compliant cookie consent, enhanced security, and full cross-browser and cross-device responsiveness.
The result is a fast, secure, and accessible website that performs reliably across the range of devices AAR's audiences use.
The wireframing phase was the most involved part of the project. With two distinct audiences and a repositioned service offering, every page needed careful thought around messaging and content structure.
SoBold produced high-fidelity wireframes using a modular content block approach, ensuring senior marketers and agency leaders could each find what they needed without diluting either proposition.
The site was built on WordPress with reusable content blocks the AAR team can mix, reorder, and update themselves.
The modular system gives the team full control over page composition without needing developer support for routine updates, while keeping the visual language consistent across the site.
SEO was considered from wireframes through to launch, with header tag hierarchy, structured data, URL structures, redirects, and on-page elements aligned to Gooey Digital's requirements throughout the build.
LLM optimisation was treated alongside traditional search, ensuring the new site is structured for both Google and AI search platforms.
The development phase covered GA4 and GTM integration, GDPR-compliant cookie consent, enhanced security, and full cross-browser and cross-device responsiveness.
The result is a fast, secure, and accessible website that performs reliably across the range of devices AAR's audiences use.
Beyond the launch
Following launch, SoBold provides ongoing hosting and website management to keep the site secure, updated, and evolving alongside AAR’s activity. This includes plugin updates, WordPress core maintenance, security monitoring, and additional development as AAR’s content and service offering grow.
What they said
Katrina Law
Marketing Lead
