From Blog to News Hub: Unifying the TYPO3 Ecosystem

The TYPO3 ecosystem has never had a shortage of stories.

From the continuous development of the product, incorporating the latest technologies that ensure it remains the CMS of choice for thousands of organizations worldwide, from public sector agencies, to universities, businesses, and local associations, to the project’s global growth, and its wide array of events. TYPO3’s evolution has been the basis for countless articles.

Collecting those stories has not always been a straightforward process. Between the Association, TYPO3 Company, partner agencies, and external stakeholders, information has often been dispersed across a number of different platforms, making it difficult to tell a coherent and unified story.

For a long time, the TYPO3 Blog and Association news page were the home for many of these stories, but over the years, and with the continuous expansion of the project, it could no longer serve that purpose.

The solution wasn’t just to give the blog a redesign, but to rethink how content should be delivered and provide readers with an improved experience, easier access to content, and a central destination for all things TYPO3.

The result is the new TYPO3 News & Events Hub. One central location for news from across the TYPO3 ecosystem. Here’s the story of how we turned it into a reality.

The TYPO3 blog had served the company and project well for several years, but its interface, and content structure reflected the fact that ultimately it was a company blog that developed organically, without meeting the project’s current needs. 

Categories no longer matched the necessary content segmentation, there was no content hierarchy, social sharing options didn’t exist, and the main appearance looked more like a feed than an actual news source. 

Additionally, TYPO3 Company and TYPO3 Association content was separated to an extent that was no longer relevant. 

Readers needed easier access to the content they wanted to consume. It was time to develop a news source that matched TYPO3’s current state as well as its future outlook. 

The News Hub had one main objective: Make TYPO3 feel like one unified ecosystem.

Among the success criteria for the new site were the following: 

• Give readers one source for the latest TYPO3-related news 
• Bring together Association and Company content 
• Make the growing content archive easier to navigate
• Help readers discover relevant stories through improved categorization
• Deliver an improved UI for readers 
• Improve the visual identity of the News Hub, in line with the current TYPO3 brand
• Promote events more effectively
• Increased cross-promotion of other content channels such as newsletters 
• Improve social media sharing options so that content can reach new audiences
• Create a scalable platform that can grow with the project 

To set about making this vision a reality, we got to work setting the foundations for what was to come.

Step 1: Wireframes and Structure

One of the most important parts of the project was reimagining the News Hub homepage. The manner in which content would be organized, its hierarchy, and placement on the page would all be central to its success as an information hub. 

It was decided that a model with tiered content would be the best approach. This meant always delivering added visibility to recently published articles, which are immediately visible for anyone landing on the page, in chronological order, followed by content broken down by category underneath. 

This means easier navigation, a clear logic for how readers engage with the page, and overall increased engagement. 

Step 2: New Categories and Tags

It was essential for content to be organized in a way that reflected the current state of the TYPO3 project and its scope of activity. That necessitated a rethink of the existing categories present on the TYPO3 Blog. 

New categories and corresponding tags were decided upon, with the final version being:

• The Project: About TYPO3 
• Product Updates & Roadmap: Product related news
• Market & Sell: Commercial content 
• Best Practice & Learning: How to guides and informational content 
• Showcase & Success: Success stories from across the ecosystem
• Personal Stories & Opinions: Opinionated content from contributors 
• Developer & Technology: Code updates and developer topics 
• Security: New security release advisories  

Step 3: Category-based landing pages

Aside from the homepage, individual landing pages for each content category served as a means to create an archive for all content related to different topics and offer readers an easy way to access information most relevant to them.

Corresponding landing pages also exist for content tags. Tags group content together across categories, offering visitors another way to access relevant content as they navigate through the News Hub.

Step 4: Promotion of TYPO3 events and other information channels

As mentioned, one of the most important aspects of the News Hub was to create the feeling of representing an ecosystem. Part of that is incorporating content beyond news articles. Events are central to TYPO3. They serve as meeting points for our community, they’re where the latest trends and best practices are communicated, and they inspire the next generation of community members to contribute to the project.

The News Hub, officially known as the News & Events Hub, is also the central source of information for all events taking place across the ecosystem. From Association and Company related events, to camps, and conferences TYPO3 staff members will be attending.

Additionally, we also included several newsletter CTAs and teasers for TYPO3 Pulse and the TYPO3 Events newsletters. This keeps readers connected to News Hub content even when they aren’t exploring the page, ensuring that they don’t miss out on important news.

Step 5: Social Sharing

Getting the news out to the rest of our community as well as to audiences who are eager to learn about TYPO3 was also an essential part of the relaunch. That’s why we’ve included social sharing buttons on each article.

This makes every article a standalone asset with a clear title and visual identity. It also strengthens the connectivity between News Hub content and the wider community.

A story is only as good as the source that tells it. For TYPO3, stories were fragmented, told across different blogs, with various voices on platforms with different guidelines. One of the most important elements of this project was to create a single unified voice for all things TYPO3. 

Combining Association and TYPO3 Company news was essential to develop a singular brand platform, where both entities could co-exist. The distinction between Association and Company was not as relevant anymore, and the new structure of the News Hub allows both stories to be told, along with the valuable opinions of our community members. 

As the project continues to grow, it’s essential that internal organizational structures don’t dictate a reader’s content experience. 

With the News & Events Hub content is segmented via tags and categories, but still shares the same home. We are now a unified entity that delivers content through a single platform, informing our wide range of audiences and stakeholders, both internal and external. 

It didn’t take long for the impact of the change to become apparent. Since its launch, the News & Events Hub has become the third most visited page in the entire TYPO3 website, behind only the TYPO3 homepage and development roadmap page.

The increased content output, consolidation of news on one platform, and incorporation of teaser content for events and newsletter signups have led to increased traffic to both of the aforementioned pages, and most importantly, the traffic to the News Hub already significantly outweighs the corresponding traffic of the old blog.

The News Hub has also been a clear statement in the TYPO3 brand’s evolution into an increasingly visible, active, and dynamic authority in the content management space.

Here’s a rundown of the main changes: