South Baden thinks across the border
Where three countries meet, several languages are rarely optional. Sites address Germany, Switzerland and France at once, and that raises requirements beyond a translation layer: different content per market, separate domains, clean language links.
TYPO3 brings that in its core. How it is set up decides whether maintaining it later is easy or laborious, though. So we settle the language and domain structure before building. There are details under TYPO3 SEO.
Universities, hospitals, mid-sized firms
The region combines a large university and its hospitals with a mid-sized economy that thinks in generations. Both lead to the same requirement for us: systems that can be handed over. Code in Git, configuration in files, documented processes, so that changing supplier is not a fresh start.
Where sites have grown over years, we begin with an inventory and the honest question: update or relaunch?
The distance, named honestly
Freiburg is the furthest point in the area we cover. We say that openly rather than glossing over it: for the daily work it makes no difference, for on-site meetings it does. So we plan those deliberately and combine several reasons into one trip: a kick-off and the editorial training on the same day, for instance.
Three markets, three expectations
Where three countries meet, translating a site is not enough. Germany, Switzerland and France partly expect different content, a different tone and sometimes a different offering.
TYPO3 can represent that when the structure is right: languages can run in directories or on separate domains, and it can be defined whether a missing translation is hidden or shown in the source language. Both have consequences for navigation and indexing; there is no universal answer, only a deliberate one. The decisions are set out in detail under multilingual sites.
The timing matters. Change the language structure afterwards and you change every address, and each one needs a redirect.
Public bodies: accessibility is mandatory
With the university, the hospitals and municipal institutions, BITV 2.0 applies to many sites in South Baden; in the commercial sector the BFSG has joined it since June 2025.
Technically both come down to the same basis. Work properly to WCAG at level AA and you meet the technical requirements of both; the differences sit in scope and in documentation duties.
What we take on: implementation in the sitepackage, an audit of what exists with tools and by hand, editorial training, and an accessibility statement that names known limitations. What we do not take on: the legal reading of whether and from when an obligation exists.