Vacancy: WordPress Developer (one-time project + possible support)
Project: content site on WordPress, English-speaking, traffic — several million visits per month. Multilingual: 7 language versions with hreflang. The previous developer has left, and the project needs to be taken over and the accumulated technical debt addressed.
What is important to understand right away: the site is live and commercial. No "live" edits without a backup and prior verification will be made. The contractor will set up a test copy for debugging independently — I will provide the necessary access for making a copy.
Stack
- WordPress, custom (heavily modified) theme
- VPS + nginx, PHP version will be communicated to the selected candidate
- Plugins: SEO plugin, caching, multilingualism — specific set will be communicated after selection
- Access (admin panel, FTP/SSH) will be provided after agreeing on terms, not in correspondence
Tasks
1. Update WordPress to the latest version — without losing functionality
Currently: the core, theme, and plugins have not been updated for a long time. There is a suspicion that changes were made directly to the theme and/or plugin files, so updating breaks everything.
Needed:
- Set up a test copy, update the core, theme, plugins, PHP to supported versions
- Find all custom modifications in the theme/plugins and extract them correctly (child theme, separate plugin, hooks) — so that future updates do not overwrite them
- Check after the update: layout on the homepage and all types of pages, custom blocks in the editor, hreflang, cache, forms, ad inserts
- Deploy to production with a backup and rollback plan
Result: the site works 1:1 as it did before the update, and I can perform the next update myself without consequences. Plus a brief description in text form — what has changed and where the custom code is now located.
2. Fix the admin panel
Two bugs, both reproducible not for everyone — on some computers they exist, on others they do not:
- Custom blocks do not display in the editor (informational blocks that are inserted into articles)
- An error occurs when saving an article
Need to find the real cause (JS conflict, cache, server/WAF restrictions, outdated plugin — I don't know), not just "cleared the cache, seems to work." It may fix itself after task 1 — then we document this and close it.
Result: both bugs are not reproducible on any workstation, and there is a clear answer regarding the cause.
3. [PLACEHOLDER — DESCRIBE]
Example wording: "Set up a separate section on a subdomain — separate installation or multisite, its own theme, common header and menu with the main site, correct canonical and robots."
4. Ability to translate "Pages," not just posts
Currently, multilingualism works for posts. Static pages (type Pages) cannot be translated.
Needed: enable/improve translation for type Pages just like for posts — its own URL like /es/slug/, self-canonical to itself (not to the English original), correct hreflang between all language versions of the page, language switcher works.
Languages: ES, ID, PT-BR, RU, TH, TR, VI.
Conditions
- One-time project, evaluation for each task separately. Tasks are taken one at a time — starting with 1 and 2
- Test copy is mandatory, git is welcome
- After delivery, regular technical support may be possible on an ongoing basis
What to send in the response
- 2–3 examples of similar projects (updating legacy WP, multilingual sites, high-load projects)
- Experience with multilingualism on WP — which plugins were used
- Estimate (hours + money) for tasks 1, 2, 4. If it cannot be estimated based on the description — please write what data is missing
- How you usually roll back an unsuccessful update on a live project
Responses like "I will do everything, message me on Telegram" will not be considered.
