Julien Cousin

Tech lead for a European media group managing a portfolio of 300+ WordPress sites, with individual sites ranging from 300,000 to over 2 million monthly visitors, and major traffic peaks during events like the World Cup.

The challenge was to maintain performance, SEO, and scalability across a large media portfolio with significant traffic spikes, while industrializing deployments and leading a team of developers.

Key contributions:
• Migrated the infrastructure to Docker and Bedrock for standardized deployments
• Developed custom SEO plugins (hreflang, rich snippets, schemas) for the SEO team
• Built custom Gutenberg blocks with ACF for editorial autonomy
• Continuously optimized Core Web Vitals (caching, CDN, lazy loading)
• Led a team of 4 developers

Results: 300+ sites stabilized and industrialized, Core Web Vitals in green across the portfolio, multi-million monthly traffic handled with stability.

Sites: Mundo Deportivo (US/LATAM), Football Whispers, Top Mercato, Afrik-Foot.

Full migration of a digital marketplace featuring 17,000+ products from X-Cart to WooCommerce, with the development of a custom multi-vendor management system.

The challenge was to migrate a large product catalog without SEO loss while building a custom billing engine and promotion system tailored to the requirements of a multi-vendor marketplace.

Key contributions:
• Full catalog migration from X-Cart to WooCommerce with SEO and URL preservation.
• Custom billing system for vendor commission management.
• Advanced promotion engine with rules by vendor, product, or category.
• Wishlist integration and comprehensive coupon management.
• Kadence theme customization and Core Web Vitals optimization on a large catalog.

Results: 17,000+ products successfully migrated without SEO regression, a fully functional multi-vendor marketplace with autonomous management by the client, and performance maintained despite high volume.

Rescue and full rebuild of a Swiss WooCommerce store left in a degraded state after the previous developer's departure — redundant plugins, outdated code, inconsistent design, and broken multilingual management.

The mission was to rebuild the site without starting from scratch: clean up the technical debt, redesign the interface, harmonize translations, and optimize SEO while maintaining business continuity.

Key contributions:
• Conducted a full technical audit and code cleanup, removing unnecessary plugins and performing refactoring.
• Executed a complete design overhaul to restore consistent brand identity.
• Achieved multilingual harmonization across French, English, and German with thorough translation restructuring.
• Implemented technical SEO optimization, including refining URLs, metadata, schema markup, and sitemaps.
• Enhanced performance through caching, image optimization, and improvement of Core Web Vitals.

Result: Clean, stable, maintainable site with fully restored multilingual consistency.

Deployed a learning management system for a US road safety training organization, featuring a complete user journey from enrollment to certification.

The primary challenge was to create a fully automated funnel encompassing enrollment, payment, training, and automatic certification, complete with progress tracking, quizzes, and certificate generation.

Key Contributions:
• Set up and customized Tutor LMS to align with specific business rules.
• Integrated the payment funnel with WooCommerce and established access management.
• Enabled learner progress tracking across modules, quizzes, and final scores.
• Implemented automatic certificate generation upon successful course completion.
• Designed the UX to ensure a seamless learning journey.

Results: Fully autonomous and scalable training platform, 100% automated purchase-to-certification funnel, and client fully autonomous on pedagogical content management.

Development of two premium institutional websites subcontracted for a Paris agency: Sofiprotéol (major agro-industrial group) and ISIT Paris (interpretation school).

The challenge was to integrate Adobe XD mockups while meeting strict requirements: WCAG AA accessibility compliance, eco-design principles, and full editorial autonomy through a custom Gutenberg blocks library.

Key contributions:
-Used Sage (Laravel) with Symphony for integrating Adobe XD mockups into modern, maintainable code.
• Built WordPress themes from scratch without page builders, based on Adobe XD designs.
• Developed a comprehensive library of custom Gutenberg blocks for autonomous editorial composition.
• Ensured full WCAG AA compliance and W3C validation.
• Adopted an eco-design approach, optimizing page weight and minimizing resources.

Results: Two institutional sites delivered with full WCAG and W3C compliance, editorial teams fully autonomous on content composition via Gutenberg, and exemplary performance and accessibility metrics.

Sanitary Fittings is a US B2B eCommerce platform serving the food processing, pharmaceutical, and chemical manufacturing industries. The catalog features 1,000+ stainless steel sanitary fittings, each with at least five variations, enabling highly tailored industrial solutions.

The challenge was to migrate the site to a more maintainable setup and empower the client to manage a complex product catalog autonomously, while preserving performance and scalability.

Key contributions:
• Migrated the full site to Divi and customized it to match the client's branding and functional requirements
• Designed scalable product templates for 1,000+ items with multiple variations each, ensuring a seamless browsing and purchasing experience
• Configured Divi tools and dynamic templates to give the client full autonomy over product management
• Provided ongoing maintenance, ensuring optimal performance and compatibility with WooCommerce and theme updates

Results: Client-autonomous B2B eCommerce handling 1,000+ products with variations, and stable long-term performance.

Dual project for a Swiss premium cigar distributor: high-end WooCommerce store combined with a custom internal inventory management app in Node.js and React.

The challenge was to build a premium eCommerce with zone-based shipping calculations, alongside an internal inventory tool replacing the team's manual Excel spreadsheets.

eCommerce work:
• WooCommerce customized for premium positioning
• Dynamic shipping cost calculation by customer location
• Real-time stock synchronization between storefront and back-office
• Secure payment integrations

Inventory app (Node.js/React):
• Full-stack inventory management tool
• Automated low-stock alerts and reorder notifications
• Simplified UI for non-technical daily use
• WooCommerce synchronization

Results: Premium eCommerce live and operational, internal tool replacing manual Excel workflows, and real-time stock visibility for the team.

Swiss e-commerce specialized in Apple products, requiring fine-grained variation management (color, capacity, generation) and a vacation handling system for the owner's absences.

The challenge was to build a smooth shopping experience on a complex variation catalog, and to handle owner absences without losing customers.

Key contributions:
• Developed an advanced WooCommerce variation selector with dynamic color filtering.
• Implemented multi-level e-commerce filters for enhanced catalog navigation.
• Created a custom "vacation mode" with automatic customer notifications about delivery delays.
• Optimized performance using WP Rocket and Cloudflare.
• Integrated payment and stock management systems.

Results: Smooth product experience on a complex catalog, reduced cart abandonment due to variation confusion, and business continuity ensured even during owner absences.

These websites represent three distinct organizations offering housing and rental services. Each site is a dedicated platform for showcasing their offerings and providing essential information to their respective audiences.

Initially managed as three separate websites, the project focused on consolidating them into a single WordPress multisite installation. This migration aimed to streamline maintenance and updates while ensuring consistent branding and user experience across all sites. The designs were kept simple and clean, leveraging custom Gutenberg blocks for easy content management.

MY ROLE
• Migrated three individual websites into a unified WordPress multisite setup, simplifying maintenance and reducing operational complexity.
• Designed and developed custom Gutenberg blocks to create flexible and editable layouts for each site.
• Ensured the seamless migration of content and functionality while maintaining consistency across the sites.
• Performed testing and optimization to guarantee responsiveness and usability across devices and browsers.

LawyerSorted is a UK-based marketplace connecting users with top law firms. Firms register via subscription, while users pay per contact (message, callback, or scheduled call). The platform runs on WordPress, WooCommerce, and WooCommerce Subscriptions.

The challenge was to modernize a heavy Elementor-based setup into a custom, maintainable theme while building a dual monetization model: recurring subscriptions for law firms and per-contact micro-payments for end users.

Key contributions:
• Replaced Elementor setup with a custom theme built from a Figma design, improving performance and maintainability
• Built WooCommerce payment workflows for law firm subscriptions and per-contact fees
• Developed a dynamic contact system with booking customizations and improved search filters
• Ensured full responsiveness and cross-browser compatibility
• Integrated Trustpilot and Google Reviews for law firm profiles
• Optimized performance with WP Rocket and Cloudflare, and handled SEO improvements
• Configured automated email notifications and enhanced user dashboards

Results: Modernized marketplace with custom design, reduced technical debt, and a scalable monetization system.

Built from scratch a complete insurance platform with quote simulator, online subscription funnel, and full back-office CRM for client management.

The challenge was to build a corporate website and a business tool in a single WordPress platform, without page builders, with complex insurance logic and automated workflows for claims and subscription management.

Key contributions:
• Developed a custom WordPress theme from scratch, bypassing the need for page builders.
• Designed a quote simulator with conditional logic and real-time premium calculation.
• Built a full back-office CRM for subscription management, client tracking, and secure document uploads.
• Implemented an automated claims workflow covering upload, validation, payment, and notifications.
• Established advanced lead and status management within the WordPress admin.

Results: Corporate site and business tool unified in one platform, full autonomy for the insurance team on case handling, and GDPR compliance with secure document management.