# Current Site Audit — hiking-adventure.ch / wander-erlebnis.ch

**Date:** 2026-08-03 · **Auditor:** studio (kickoff recon)

## Snapshot

| | |
|---|---|
| Owner / brand | Sebastian Epp — certified hiking & snowshoe guide (SBV/ASGM badge) |
| Domains | `hiking-adventure.ch` (EN) · `wander-erlebnis.ch` (DE) — one WP install, both respond 200, no redirect between them |
| CMS | WordPress **6.7.2** (outdated → site not updated for a long time) |
| Theme | `bb-theme` + `bb-theme-child` (Beaver Builder Theme) |
| Builder | Beaver Builder (`bb-plugin`) + PowerPack + `bb-conditional-elements` |
| Plugins seen | `advanced-iframe`, `instagram-feed`, `search-filter-pro` (+ BB bridge), `smart-post-show-pro`, `wp-statistics`, custom webfont kit (`Burnest`) |
| Server | Apache, decent security headers (HSTS, XFO, XCTO, CSP frame-ancestors) |

## Structure (EN nav)

Home · Tours offered (`/hikes-and-tours/` + tour detail pages) · Individual tours · About me · Impressions · Know-how · Wädi Wandert (local hike series) · Instagram · Contact · Imprint · Privacy · T&C (PDF on DE domain)

Tour data model (implicit): date(s), difficulty **T1–T4**, region (CH/IT/AT), description, photos.

## Problems found

1. **Design is dated** (~2012): lime-green background, grunge display font, topo-map header, flag icon language switch, boxy grid. Photos are good; presentation kills the emotion.
2. **Google Maps broken on the homepage** — "This page can't load Google Maps correctly" (API key / billing issue).
3. **"Upcoming tours" shows past tours** (2025 dates listed in Aug 2026) — no automatic upcoming/past logic or the content is stale.
4. **i18n done wrong for SEO:** two domains carry the two languages but there are **no hreflang pairs**; DE pages declare `lang="en-US"`. Canonicals are per-domain (OK), but search engines get no language/duplicate signals.
5. **Sitemap:** EN domain `sitemap.xml` → 404; DE domain redirects to `sitemap_index.xml`. Inconsistent.
6. `robots.txt` sets `Crawl-delay: 10` — throttles crawling for no reason.
7. **Plugin-zoo risk** — the exact pain the client named: builder + 6 third-party plugins, each an update/security surface; WP core itself is behind.
8. Cookie banner is a bare two-language text strip; Swiss nFADP/GDPR handling should be done properly in the rebuild.

## The two domains — recommendation: consolidate to one

Both names are the **same descriptive brand translated**, not a personal name: *Wander-Erlebnis* is German for "hiking experience" (*wandern* — to hike, *Erlebnis* — experience/adventure), and *Hiking-Adventure* is its English equivalent. The person behind them is Sebastian Epp, whose name appears only in the homepage signature and the terms PDF.

**Our recommendation is to consolidate onto one domain with `/de/` and `/en/` sections.**

Why:

- **Search authority is currently split in half.** Links, age and trust accumulate on two domains instead of compounding on one.
- **Maintenance doubles** for no return: two certificates, two DNS zones, two sitemaps, two sets of checks — permanently.
- **The brand has no single spoken name.** There is no one answer to "what's your website?"
- **The usual reason for keyword domains is largely gone.** An exact-match domain buys very little today.
- **As implemented, the split actively hurts.** With no hreflang, no `x-default`, and German pages declaring `lang="en-US"`, search engines see two near-duplicates with no language signal — worse than either domain alone.

Two domains would be justified if these were genuinely separate markets with separate marketing. They are not: one guide, one set of tours, two language versions of the same offer.

**Which one to keep:** on reasoning, the German one. The tours run around Zurich — Wädenswil, Horgen — in German-speaking Switzerland, which is the primary market; English serves visitors and is secondary. That points to `wander-erlebnis.ch` as primary with `hiking-adventure.ch` permanently redirected.

**But decide on data, not reasoning.** Before committing, pull Search Console and backlink data for both domains: which one actually earns traffic, and where the inbound links point. If the English domain turns out to carry the authority, the answer flips. Getting this wrong costs rankings, and it is cheap to check first — which is why Search Console access is a blocking item in the workflow plan.

Whichever way it goes, the redirect map from every old URL is mandatory, and it is the single most common way a redesign loses its rankings.

## What this means for the rebuild

- Tours become a **custom post type** with structured fields (dates, difficulty T1–T4, region, state) → upcoming/past sorts itself, difficulty/region filters need no `search-filter-pro`.
- Domain architecture: consolidate per the section above, pending Search Console data.
- Replace builder markup with a lean custom theme → semantic HTML, schema.org (`TouristTrip` / `Event`), clean Core Web Vitals, AI/AEO-friendly output.
- Fix or replace the map (static map / open mapping library / properly keyed Google Maps).
- Minimal plugin set; everything else lives in the theme under git.

## Proposed stack (pending approval)

Classic **WordPress + custom lightweight theme** (no page builder), with **Secure Custom Fields** (the official free WordPress.org package) for structured content editing and **Polylang** free tier for the two languages — the only two plugins. SEO output, structured data, tour filtering and the enquiry form are written in the theme rather than installed. **Vite** build; deploy via git to the client's hosting; staging plus managed updates.

Client constraints that shaped this: free plugins from the official directory only — no licences, no subscriptions — and the stack is piloted here to become the studio default, so it must stay universal and portable. Rationale: the client keeps the familiar WP admin, any WordPress developer can take the project over (no proprietary CMS, no builder lock-in), and the maintenance surface shrinks from ~10 plugins to 2. Full comparison of the alternatives is on the project's Stack Analysis page. Studio playbook: `oz/mod-manager/templates/FIGMA-TO-WORDPRESS-PLAYBOOK.md`.

## Milestones

1. **Prototype** — Verena's new structure as a wireframe sandbox *(active)*
2. **Design concept** — visual direction on 1–2 key screens
3. **Full design** — all pages, desktop-first, mobile fully covered
4. **Front-end** — semantic, adaptive, animations that amplify rather than distract
5. **Back-end** — WP theme + ACF, content migration, SEO/security hardening
6. **Launch** — hosting, redirects, hreflang, monitoring, handover

Cross-cutting: QA screenshot harness runs per stage, security & code review before launch, SEO/AEO checklist, cross-browser matrix.