Kötter + Siefker

Since 1920, Kötter + Siefker from Lotte near Osnabrück has been a partner for tradespeople, builders, architects and planners. Its range runs from building elements and profile systems through automatic door technology and fire protection to metal construction – plus its own production, seminars and a shop. So the website has a lot to do: explain products, show the right contact for every department and win young people for an apprenticeship.

In early 2024 ks-info.com was running reliably – but on Joomla 3. That version has had no security updates since 17 August 2023. A quick update was no way out: old extensions even blocked the move to a current PHP version. Technically, the site was stuck.

Together we took a close look at the old site. Besides the outdated technology we found a whole list of problems that made life hard for visitors and search engines:

• page IDs in the addresses instead of readable URLs
• a trainee blog search engines could not find
• the same meta description almost everywhere
• many categories with no or only one article
• Google Analytics loaded even when visitors had declined it in the cookie banner

Each point could have been fixed on its own. Together they called for a clean fresh start.

A classic migration would have carried every problem along. So we set up ks-info.com afresh on Joomla 5 and took over only what visitors see: content, pictures and documents. We laid out menus, categories and articles the way the site really needs them – and many formatting errors of the old site simply disappeared on the way.

We also reworked the paths through the site: the main menu items can now be clicked themselves, and the overview pages lead straight to the articles. Visitors get where they want with fewer clicks – to a product, a seminar or the careers page.

The technology is deliberately lean: Joomla 5, YOOtheme Pro as page builder, RSForm Pro for the forms and the OSG Seminar Manager for the seminars. All other extensions are gone – and Google Analytics with them. Fewer extensions mean fewer updates, less that can go out of date and less to attack.

And you can see it when the home page loads:

Old home page (January 2024, from our offer) compared with today (October 2026). We compare our technology, not the pictures – the customer supplies those.

Anyone who knew ks-info.com finds their way around at once: the design stays true to the familiar site – with the typical yellow and black of Kötter + Siefker –, the typography is fresher and more modern.

“News” and “Contacts” have templates of their own. News always appears in the same layout, and the contact pages show the right people for every department with e-mail and phone.

A relaunch must not cost visitors. So every old address redirects to the new pages – bookmarks, links from other websites and search results still lead to the right place. We settled the privacy policy and legal notice together with the customer and eRecht24.

The new site went online in April 2024 – just over a month after the start in March.

The Kötter + Siefker team maintains its site itself – we trained them in YOOtheme Pro for that. We take care of the technical side under a maintenance contract: updates of Joomla and extensions, backups and security checks. And whenever a change is needed, we lend a hand.

Two and a half years after the go-live, the site has stayed lean:

In just over a month, a site that was technically stuck became a fast, secure website the team maintains itself – and one that can keep growing with Kötter + Siefker.