An NYSE-listed company generating over $2 billion in annual revenue, CDK Global provides end-to-end technology solutions for vehicle dealerships. From industry-leading Dealer Management Systems, to cutting-edge digital marketing and a range of other operational solutions, CDK is an industry leader.
CDK Global operates in over 30 countries and across a wide range of dealership types. From cars to heavy machinery, from boats to RVs, if it’s on wheels (or on water), CDK software powers the dealership and drives business success.
After 40 years of expansion through mergers and acquisitions, CDK wanted a website that gave it a cohesive presence worldwide. Leveraging Drupal 8 on Acquia, we set out to create “One CDK”, a global brand with a single unifying vision: Customer Connected. Dealer Driven.
The Challenge
This was a big project in every way. More than 40 existing websites spread across more than 30 countries. More than 26 languages. More than 325 unique pages of content to be written for the US site. We had a lot of work to do quickly, efficiently, and to a high standard.
At this scale, it was also challenging to centralize the information scattered across so many sites. Excellent planning was required to accurately catalog what content existed, strategically plan what to include, and organize it in a logical, navigable way.
The Approach
We designed and developed a multi-lingual website to support 30+ countries and languages using Drupal 8 on Acquia, merging all existing sites onto the same top-level domain and the same CMS.
websites merged
languages supported
Discovery & Strategy
We first created an extremely comprehensive two-part audit and strategy. We audited existing sites’ performances, conducted stakeholder interviews with more than 30 individuals (the notes ran to more than 50 pages), conducted SEO research, and delivered strategic recommendations, user personas and a sitemap that set the project up for success.
Information Architecture
Next we needed to inventory the enormous amount of content that already existed, while planning for what was really needed on the new site. We built individual sitemaps for each country, each of which organized relevant information intuitively for the user.
On the US site – which served the most industries and contained the most content – we built a solution finder to enable dealers to address their main pain points quickly, without having to navigate deep into the site.
Outstanding Design & Content
We delivered stellar designs that reflected CDK’s brand and met the client’s high standards, intelligently using animations and parallax to add the touches that take a site from good to great.
For the US site, our content team produced a beefy copydeck of over 325 completely new web pages, all of which spoke compellingly to dealer pain points and epitomized the “humbly confident” CDK brand tone. In the end, over 130,000 words were written in a matter of months.
Development & SEO Preservation
We completed frontend and backend development to WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance standards and followed up by rigorous QA.
In order to handle more than 30 international sites on the same domain, plenty of custom CMS functionality was needed, and we delivered. We also carried out robust SEO preservation efforts across all legacy websites.
Result
The brief was to create “One CDK”. With a single digital presence that delivers a compelling user experience, CDK Global now has one international, unified website that reflects its size, scope, and commitment to its customers. And with the scalability and capabilities that come with building on Acquia, CDK is set up for long-term success.
