A manufacturer's old WordPress site, new TYPO3 site and domain move

The client is a metalworking company in Bosnia and Herzegovina with a website in German and Bosnian. In 2026 a German web agency brought me in on the old WordPress site, and I stayed through the new TYPO3 site and the domain move between them.

On the old site and the move I was the only developer. On the TYPO3 build I did the content and QA next to the agency’s lead developer. Anything I found outside a ticket went back to the agency as a note.

Projects

1. 2026

   WordPress maintenance and bilingual content update

   I maintained the company’s older WordPress site (WordPress from 2020 on PHP 7.2, a premium theme, WPBakery and Polylang) and updated most of its sections in both language versions.

   German pages were returning 404. I traced it to Apache’s MultiViews, which caught those addresses before WordPress did, and fixed it with one line in .htaccess and resaved permalinks.

   Before any larger change I took a full backup and restored it locally. The theme blocked updates from the dashboard, so I updated WPBakery by replacing its files over FTP. I tried PHP 8 with a core update and rolled it back when the old theme turned out incompatible. Then I gave the agency the upgrade order that works: the theme, its bundled plugins, core, then PHP.

   I split the content work into one task per section: company history, production, new careers pages with a menu item, new contact blocks. The German pages worked again and the site stayed on a stable core. The new content went live in both languages on every section the company supplied.

   Stack: WordPress, WPBakery, Polylang, PHP

2. 2026

   TYPO3 content build and QA

   I built the Bosnian content of the company’s new TYPO3 13 site and tested it, working in the backend beside the agency’s lead developer.

   I moved the company’s texts and images from the old site, filled the Bosnian pages and created a new careers page. The layouts came from the agency’s wireframe. I arranged the ready blocks so the pages read as one site and the card rows are always complete.

   I tested every content block and reported defects by block name. That way each could be fixed once in the template. Things that needed code went on a separate list for the lead developer. I did the client’s change round on the German and Bosnian pages together, so the two versions stayed in step. Headline hyphenation was broken, and I traced it to a CSS rule and passed on the fix.

   Most of the defects I reported were fixed in the template, and the hyphenation fix went in as I described it. The new site went live with its Bosnian version and the new careers page.

   Stack: TYPO3

3. 2026

   Domain and hosting migration to TYPO3

   I moved the company’s domain from the old WordPress server to the new TYPO3 site on a shared install, and kept the company mail running on the old server.

   First I did a read-only audit of the DNS zone, both hosts, the repository, the mail and the certificate, and backed up the zone. Before the switch I moved the mail onto its own DNS record, so undoing the whole move meant changing one record. I changed the site address in the repository, where the automatic deploy keeps it, and set the PHP version the project is built for.

   I wrote down every step in advance with its way back, plus an acceptance script and a 13-point checklist. I switched the website only when the major public resolvers showed the new mail record. The old test address now redirects to the new domain with paths kept. I set that in the hosting panel, away from the shared config.

   The same hosting serves other addresses too. I measured them before and after, and every change I found was one I expected.

   Mail delivery never stopped and all 13 acceptance checks passed. The new site runs on the company’s domain with a valid certificate, and the mailboxes work as before.

   Stack: TYPO3, DNS, Bash, Python