Drupal Website Support for Exide Group
Introduction
Exide Technologies, a global leader in industrial and automotive battery manufacturing, sought a strategic partner to support and improve their large-scale Drupal website, Exidegroup.com. The site is crucial for their EMEA market presence, with multiple languages, country-specific content, and numerous integrations.
Hire Web Creators stepped in as the white-label web development partner to provide ongoing website support, refactor legacy code, and ensure fast delivery of new features. Our goal was to stabilize the site, streamline operations, and integrate modern solutions to help Exide grow its digital presence.
Challenge
- The website was built on an early version of Drupal 8, using outdated code and modules, making updates and feature integrations slow and error-prone.
- Implementing new features and security patches took excessive time, and testing was inefficient.
- There was a lack of standard Drupal practices in place, making it difficult to maintain and scale the website effectively.
Our Approach
We began by conducting an in-depth onboarding and review of Exide’s existing Drupal website, identifying areas for improvement. The first step was to remove legacy code and refactor the website, migrating code alterations to proper hooks and preprocesses. We updated the Drupal modules and introduced Composer for better version management.
Additionally, we migrated Exide to a continuous integration workflow for smoother development and deployment. These improvements laid the foundation for a stable, scalable platform that allows for faster feature implementation while maintaining quality.
We also focused on SEO optimization, addressing broken links, redirects, and sitemap issues. Our team implemented a corporate identity update that aligned the website with Exide’s new branding. Finally, we helped migrate multiple country-specific websites to the Exidegroup platform, ensuring a seamless transition with proper URL redirects.
Outcomes
- Streamlined website updates and faster delivery of new features, thanks to the refactor and integration of modern Drupal practices.
- SEO improvements that resolved broken links, corrected redirects, and revived lost content, enhancing the site’s organic reach.
- Successful corporate identity update, aligning the website with Exide’s new branding guidelines.
- Migration of old country websites to the new Exide platform, improving content management and user experience.
