Benchmark Senior Living Migrating from Outdated Drupal to Modern WordPress with Gutenberg

Client

Benchmark Senior Living

Industry

Non-Profit / Healthcare

Technology

Drupal

Delivery

6 Months

Background

Benchmark Senior Living is a leader in senior care services across the Northeast United States. With over 60 communities and a strong commitment to enriching the lives of seniors, their online presence plays a crucial role in informing families, generating leads, and highlighting their care philosophy. However, over time, their website—built on an aging version of Drupal—became a barrier rather than a bridge.

This case study outlines the journey of migrating Benchmark Senior Living legacy Drupal website to a modern, intuitive, and scalable WordPress solution using the Gutenberg block editor.

Challenge

The Benchmark website had become outdated by 2023, creating multiple operational and user experience challenges. Running on an end-of-life Drupal CMS increased security risks, maintenance costs, and limited support.

Content management was overly complex, requiring developer involvement for basic updates. The rigid, outdated design lacked responsiveness and failed to reflect the brand’s modern identity.

Slow page load times impacted both user experience and search rankings. Additionally, integrations with CRM systems, analytics tools, and lead generation platforms were inefficient due to outdated modules and heavy reliance on custom code, making the website difficult to scale and maintain.

Solution

Discovery & Planning

We conducted a comprehensive audit of the existing Drupal site—mapping out all content types, user flows, and custom modules. Through workshops with Benchmark internal stakeholders, we clarified goals and pain points to prioritize what truly mattered.

Design System Redefined

We collaborated closely with their brand team to deliver a clean, welcoming, and highly accessible design that better reflected Benchmark mission. The new UI focused on usability for both senior users and their families—larger fonts, mobile-first layouts, and simplified navigation.

Custom Gutenberg Blocks

To empower non-technical editors, we developed a library of custom Gutenberg blocks tailored to Benchmark needs. These included: Community location cards Team bios with accordion toggles Testimonial sliders Lead forms embedded within content Call-to-action blocks with variations This approach turned the CMS into a visual building tool—giving editors the freedom to create rich, branded pages without needing a developer.

SEO and URL Mapping

We worked hand-in-hand with their SEO team to ensure every page and redirect was accounted for. Metadata, alt tags, structured data, and 301 redirects were meticulously handled to preserve Benchmark strong search visibility.

Data Migration

Using custom scripts, we migrated over 2,000 pages, blog posts, and media files from Drupal to WordPress. Each content type was carefully mapped to its WordPress equivalent, ensuring nothing was lost in translation.

Performance & Accessibility

The new site was optimized for Core Web Vitals, with lazy-loaded images, minified assets, and a CDN for global delivery. We also conducted accessibility audits (WCAG 2.1) to ensure compliance—an essential factor for an audience that includes older users.

Benefits

The new platform gives Benchmark’s marketing team full control over content, removing the need for developer support for everyday updates like text changes or image swaps. A modern, fast, and responsive interface improves the experience for both users and internal teams. Built on WordPress with Gutenberg, the system is reliable, easy to maintain, and ready to support future growth. The refreshed design better reflects Benchmark’s brand, highlighting its warmth and professionalism. By reducing dependency on developers for routine tasks, the organization benefits from improved efficiency and lower long-term operational costs.