The George Institute for Global Health partnered with Marameo to transform its fragmented multi-site setup into a unified global platform. Over seven years and multiple project phases, we migrated more than 15,000 pages, streamlined complex data structures, and eventually consolidated five regional sites into one authoritative Drupal 10 platform. The result is a flexible, editor-friendly, high-performing site that strengthens brand consistency, improves SEO, and empowers the Institute’s global mission in medical research and policy.
The George Institute for Global Health (TGI) is a world-leading independent medical research organisation. Over more than seven years, Marameo has worked alongside The George Institute to evolve their digital presence, culminating in a full platform redesign launched in March 2025.
This engagement traces the arc from the organisation’s earlier site architecture and infrastructure through to the modern, unified, scalable platform in production today.
Key challenges
Before the most recent rebuild, The George Institute operated multiple regional websites (each with its own domain) built on Drupal 7 / 8. While functional, this setup increasingly exposed major limitations:
Fragmented digital presence & brand inconsistency Each regional site functioned largely in isolation, duplicating content, creating conflicting messaging, and weakening the perception of a unified global institute.
Competing domains & SEO inefficiencies Despite best practices (hreflang, canonical tags, etc.), the separate domains competed against each other in search rankings, undermining the combined domain authority. (This issue grew over time as content expanded.)
Rigid CMS / editor constraints The site used paragraph-based editing approaches, which restricted flexibility and often required developer input for richer layout work. The content architecture (built during the Drupal 7→8 migration) had grown unwieldy with many content types, custom fields, and tangled relationships.
Complex infrastructure & maintenance overhead Supporting five separate sites meant duplication of effort with redirection logic, cross-site data syncing, and burdensome updates across environments.
User experience mismatch The structure of the sites mirrored the internal regional divisions of the Institute, rather than the journeys and priorities of external users (researchers, funders, policymakers, global health advocates). This misalignment led to fragmentation and confusion during navigation.
In earlier phases, we had already assisted with migrating over 15,000 pages from Drupal 7 into Drupal 8, re-architecting data relationships, and introducing multi-language and multi-domain support. That phase laid critical groundwork, but new challenges had since surfaced that required a more radical rethinking.
Our approach & strategy
To meet the evolving needs of The George Institute and address legacy constraints, we adopted a holistic, user-centric strategy:
Unify & simplify domain structure Rather than maintain multiple siloed sites, we consolidated the five regional domains into a single authoritative global site. This eliminated internal SEO competition, simplified content governance, and strengthened brand coherence.
User-first content architecture We reframed the architecture to reflect how audiences actually search, rather than how the organisation is structured. Deep persona work informed this shift, making researcher, funder, policymaker, and advocate journeys central.
Editor empowerment via modular tools We migrated from Drupal 8 to Drupal 10, introducing a flexible block-based content system (Gutenberg) that enables editors to build pages, campaign hubs or microsites independently and reliably without developer involvement.
Smart integrations & data flows We integrated real-time APIs to pull in publication and project data from the Institute’s SPoT system, automatically surfaced across researcher profiles and program pages, ensuring consistency with minimal manual effort.
SEO & performance optimisation With domain consolidation came the chance to rationalise metadata, canonical tagging, and redirect strategies, significantly improving search performance. We also prioritised performance, accessibility (WCAG compliance), and scalability on the new Drupal 10 platform.
Maintain continuity of past investments The earlier migration (Drupal 7 → 8) and re-architected data models weren’t discarded; they formed the backbone upon which the new site would be rebuilt, refined, and optimised. (In effect, the “old” project became the foundation for the new jump.)
The solution
We rebuilt The George Institute’s digital presence on a consolidated Drupal 10 platform, replacing five siloed regional sites with one global website. The architecture was restructured around user needs rather than internal divisions, ensuring intuitive journeys for researchers, funders, policymakers and advocates.
To give content teams independence, we implemented a modular block-based editor that allows pages, campaign hubs, and microsites to be created quickly and consistently without developer involvement.
We also integrated the Institute’s internal SPoT system via real-time APIs, so that publications and projects are automatically surfaced across researcher profiles and program pages. This eliminated duplicate data entry and strengthened accuracy.
Finally, the platform was engineered for performance, accessibility, and scalability, meeting WCAG standards and ensuring the site works seamlessly across devices, regions, and connection speeds.
five separate regional sites consolidated into one authoritative platform.
five separate regional sites consolidated into one authoritative platform.
Improved SEO performance
stronger domain authority, no more sites competing against each other in search.
stronger domain authority, no more sites competing against each other in search.
Editor empowerment
block-based content tools allow teams to create pages and microsites without developer support.
block-based content tools allow teams to create pages and microsites without developer support.
Automated content consistency
real-time API integrations keep publications and project data accurate across profiles and programs.
real-time API integrations keep publications and project data accurate across profiles and programs.
Automated content accuracy
Real-time API integration with the SPoT system ensures up-to-date publication and project data, reducing manual admin and improving consistency across the site.
Real-time API integration with the SPoT system ensures up-to-date publication and project data, reducing manual admin and improving consistency across the site.
Accessibility compliance
site built to WCAG standards, ensuring inclusivity for global audiences.
site built to WCAG standards, ensuring inclusivity for global audiences.
Successful partnerships
Don’t just take our word for it—hear directly from our clients about the success we’ve achieved together.
These testimonials highlight the power of collaboration and the value of working as one team.
“We’ve had the absolute pleasure of working with Mara and her team at Marameo Design. As a client, they have been an exceptional agency – understanding our requirements and delivering solutions that consistently exceed expectations. Their ongoing support for our digital and web needs has been invaluable, and we cannot recommend them highly enough for any digital services.”
Nisha Gurung
The George Institute
★★★★★
“Marameo are incredible to work with. They provide creative and intelligent digital solutions to complex marketing and communication challenges, with particular expertise in the research sector. They are incredibly reliable and have deep expertise in the rapidly evolving online world. Plus they are amazing people. I can’t recommend them highly enough.”
Jo Savill
Australian Research Data Commons
★★★★★
“We have engaged Marameo Design on two occasions for the development and delivery of two websites and continue to work with them on digital strategy and website maintenance. Mara and her team are truly an amazing team of professionals! They are always ahead of the pack – asking critical questions, thinking things through thoroughly and leading with digital expertise second to none. Working with them and their highly attentive customer service is a breeze. We can not recommend their services highly enough!”
HTQ
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“Thank you SO MUCH for your incredible work. It’s an amazing result I am really proud of having worked on.
I know we’ve demanded perfection from you many times! – and you deliver. It’s been wonderful to work with a team who are so professional about achieving the best quality for the end product.”
Tim Johnson
The Australian Prevention Centre
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“Marameo Design has shown a very high level of customer service, strategic advice and understanding of the audiences, as well as great skill and expertise in development delivery since taking over the rebuild and then the maintenance of the ARDC website.”
Adelle Coote
Australian Research Data Commons
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“I have worked with Mara and Marameo Design for over three years and have been consistently impressed with the skills and knowledge that the team has. Work is delivered in a spirit of collaboration, on time and on budget. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.”
Lindsay Complin
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Bridget Walker
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Jo Savill
Australian Research Data Commons
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“I can’t recommend Mara and the team at Marameo Design highly enough. Mara has been doing work for our company for many years. I have always found the Marameo Design team to be pro-active, efficient, super responsive and a pleasure to deal with. Nothing is too much trouble and they always go above and beyond in their service.”
Shelley Sher
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“I wanted Marameo as our agency knowing that I could trust them and their work output. We have just launch a whole new customised WordPress website in collaboration with Mara and her fabulous team, and I couldn’t be prouder of the output. Bonus that they’re all such cool cats to work with. I couldn’t recommend Marameo enough”
Katrina Batho
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“I have worked with Marameo Design on several projects over the years. They have built Drupal and WordPress websites for my clients, or migrated a Drupal website to WordPress. Mara and her team are very valuable to have on the team as she has great insight into human web behaviour and offers best practice in terms of web design and usability. They have a wonderful problem-solving attitude to every challenge.
Jen Galama
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“I have known Mara and the Marameo Design team since 2023—over two years now—and it’s been an absolute pleasure working with them. They truly understand requirements, consistently deliver on time, and go the extra mile by suggesting what works best (and what doesn’t) in this space. Their expertise and guidance have been invaluable. If you are looking to collaborate and strengthen your online presence, this is the team you can trust!”
Dr. Shilpa Sadanand
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Kevin Brumpton
Return Fire Productions Pty Ltd
★★★★★
“Worked extensively with this agency for over 3 years when I was at The George Institute of Global Health. They were always prompt, professional and gave excellent support with our Drupal website. Recommended”
Kevin Truong
The George Institute
★★★★★
” Mara and her team were so accommodating and went above and beyond to try and get what we needed in a short period of time. The transition was incredibly seamless. I always found them so switched on and eager to assist. They know their stuff and their caring and warm approach really fits well in the not-for-profit space”
Katrina Batho
Liverty Housing
★★★★★
“The Marameo Design team are always responsive, efficient & explain things very well. I have a wordpress e-commerce website & they have done an awesome job helping me & understanding what I need. So easy to deal with. I highly recommend their services. Thank you so much for your help & patience. Give stars all the way!!!”
Melissa Cremasco
Cremamia
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“Thank you again for your time today – I could have stayed on that call for hours! Your insights on potential opportunities and improving Sepsis Australia’s website were incredibly valuable.”
Harriet Benjamin
Sepsis Network Australia
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Steve Stamatellis
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“Working with Marameo Design has been a wonderful experience. They are professional, supportive and always reliable. True collaboration.”
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