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WordPress Rebuild & Digital Foundation for AMA Toronto

The Results

A+

Security

98

Performance

+158%

Form Submissions

9.0%

CTR

AMA Toronto’s website is a central communication platform for one of Canada’s leading marketing communities. It supports events, programming, membership, volunteer engagement, thought leadership, partnerships, awards, and Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends.

Over time, the site had become difficult to manage. Years of updates from different volunteers, developers, plugins, forms, and page-building tools had created a complex website that was hard to navigate, inconsistent to update, and difficult to maintain.

KZ worked with AMA Toronto to rebuild the site on a modern WordPress foundation, improving performance, accessibility, maintainability, mobile usability, content structure, and long-term governance. The goal was not only to refresh the look of the site, but to create a stronger platform that AMA Toronto’s volunteer teams could manage more confidently over time.

Screenshot of AMA Toronto's home page

The Challenge

AMA Toronto’s existing website contained a large amount of valuable content, but the site had become fragmented after years of updates by multiple contributors.

Different sections used different layouts, content structures, forms, plugins, and manual workarounds. Some content was dynamically managed, while other content was manually placed on individual pages. This made it easy for information to fall out of sync, especially in areas like board members, advisory council members, mentors, presidents, and Hall of Legends records.

The site also needed to support a complex internal structure. AMA Toronto is volunteer-led, with multiple portfolios responsible for events, membership, marketing communications, programming, partnerships, volunteers, Leadership Excellence, and Hall of Legends content. Any rebuild needed to account for that reality.

KZ needed to improve the site without creating a platform that only developers could manage. The new website had to be faster, more consistent, easier to update, better structured for accessibility, SEO, AI Search (GEO / AEO) and flexible enough to support future website updates.

The Solution

KZ rebuilt AMA Toronto’s website on a modern WordPress / Gutenberg / full-site editing foundation.

The rebuild reduced dependency on older page-building tools, removed Elementor, cleaned up plugin overhead, and created a more stable editing experience for the AMA team. The site was rebuilt using a more consistent system of templates, blocks, patterns, post types, metadata, and taxonomies so content could be managed more reliably across the website.

The project was guided by a “progress over perfection” approach. Rather than waiting months for a full strategic overhaul before beginning development, KZ focused first on rebuilding the existing site on a stronger foundation. Larger strategic opportunities were captured in a future-state roadmap, allowing AMA Toronto to launch a better platform while continuing to plan for future enhancements.

Rebuilding for Maintainability

The old site had become difficult to maintain because similar content was handled in different ways across different sections.

KZ standardized how repeatable content is managed. People-related records, including board members, past presidents, mentors, advisory council members, and Hall of Legends inductees, were rebuilt using more structured back-end systems. This helps reduce duplication and makes future updates easier to manage.

The new WordPress setup also provides a stronger editing experience. Content managers can work with reusable blocks and patterns, update key sections more consistently, and rely less on developer-only workflows for routine content changes.

Improving Accessibility and Content Structure

KZ rebuilt pages and posts with better semantic structure, improving the foundation for accessibility, SEO, and AI Search (AEO / GEO).

Many older pages contained visual formatting that looked correct on the front end but was not structurally correct behind the scenes. For example, some headings were created as bolded paragraph text rather than true heading tags, and some lists were built manually instead of using proper list formatting.

KZ cleaned up these issues by rebuilding content with proper heading hierarchy, real list blocks, clearer layouts, improved spacing, and more consistent typography. This created a stronger experience for users navigating by sight, keyboard, mobile device, or assistive technology.

Screenshot of AMA-Toronto Events page mobile
Screentshot of AMA toronto's contact form on their webpage

A Cleaner Experience for Users and Volunteers

The rebuild improved the front-end user experience while also making the back end easier for volunteers to manage.

Navigation and page structure were cleaned up to make the site feel more consistent. Complex areas, such as awards and Hall of Legends content, were reorganized with clearer hierarchy and more logical pathways. Outdated or intrusive elements were removed or reconsidered, including legacy pop-ups and inconsistent content modules.

The result is a website that feels more professional, more readable, and easier to move through.

Simplifying Forms and Future Integrations

AMA Toronto’s old site included multiple form systems, including Google Forms, Jotform, Elementor forms, WP forms, and future GoHighLevel considerations.

KZ identified the need to centralize and rationalize this form ecosystem. As Elementor was removed, KZ began replacing Elementor-based forms and introduced Formidable Forms as a more flexible and maintainable option.

This created a clearer path for future form management, including internal notifications, confirmation messages, entries, and potential integrations with tools like Mailchimp, GoHighLevel, or other CRM and marketing platforms.

After these improvements AMA’s form submissions has seen a measurable improvement. With a growth of 158% in tracked form submissions just a month and a half after launch.

Measurable Improvements

  • Driving immediate impact:
    After launch, the new AMA Toronto website showed meaningful improvements across engagement, conversions, search visibility, performance, and security.
  • Leaping ahead of expectations:
    The new site generated a 158% increase in form submissions compared with the previous reporting period.
  • Audience connection deepened:
    Average engagement time increased from 34 seconds to 44 seconds. Users spent more time engaging with the new site, with average engagement time improving by 29%.
  • Maximizing search presence:
    Google Search Console CTR increased from 7.9% to 9.0%. In the available before and after reporting window, the site’s click-through rate improved following the website launch.
  • A faster, more responsive foundation:
    Performance improved from 73 to 95. The new site delivered a stronger performance score, supporting a faster and smoother user experience.
  • Eliminating frustrating delays:
    Total Blocking Time improved from 361ms to 123ms. The site became more responsive, reducing the delay users may experience before being able to interact with page content.
  • Maximized security:
    Security improved from D to A+. The new site significantly improved its security grade after KZ’s implementation work.
  • Drastically reducing organizational risk:
    Critical vulnerabilities were reduced from 7 to 0. The rebuild helped eliminate known critical vulnerabilities and created a safer foundation for ongoing site management.

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