The Challenge

Ascend Professional Services is an exclusive UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group) partner delivering premier implementation services for UKG Pro, UKG Workforce Management, and UKG Ready. The company was formed through a merger of two former consulting firms, each with its own brand, website, client relationships, and hard-won SEO equity built over years in the HR technology space.

Consolidating two brands into one presented three simultaneous problems. Building a new brand identity strong enough to unify both legacy client bases. Building a website that could compete for UKG implementation searches against larger consulting firms. And executing a technical SEO migration from two legacy domains to the new ascendps.com without losing the accumulated organic authority both predecessor companies had earned.

The Solution

ST8 delivered an end-to-end brand and digital rebuild designed around the SEO preservation risk. We started with a new brand identity: logo, visual system, and messaging framework positioning Ascend as the specialist UKG partner enterprises trust for complex implementations. We designed and built a new website structured around UKG search intent (UKG Pro implementation, UKG Ready consulting, UKG Workforce Management deployment), with content architecture designed to inherit and amplify the SEO equity of both predecessor sites.

The critical technical work: a carefully planned SEO migration mapping every legacy URL from both former sites to its new equivalent on ascendps.com. Full 301 redirect audit, canonical consolidation, XML sitemap resubmission, and keyword ranking monitoring throughout the transition. On top of the migrated foundation, we deployed an acquisition system covering Google Ads, ongoing SEO refinement, conversion optimization, and CRM integration for the long-cycle enterprise HR technology sales process.

The Outcome

The migration preserved organic authority from both legacy sites and consolidated it under the new Ascend brand. Rankings for high-intent UKG implementation terms migrated cleanly with no material loss during the transition. Ascend now operates with a unified brand, a single search footprint, and a full acquisition system built for the enterprise HR technology sales cycle.