PHP Field Notes: Berater Consulting WP Theme

Here’s the job: make a consulting website that wins serious conversations—not with fireworks, but with clarity, receipts, and a next step. If you’re a PHP developer who’s tired of “demo sugar” and wants predictable patterns, Berater – Consulting WordPress Theme is a solid foundation. It’s lean where it should be, opinionated where it helps, and it doesn’t fight you when you bring your own stack. We’ll treat this post like a build log: how the pages map to buyer intent, which PHP hooks keep content tidy, and the small rules that protect speed, a11y, and editor sanity.

0) The brief we accept (in one paragraph)

• The site must earn a 20-minute scoping call in under eight seconds on mobile.
• Pages read like mini-proposals: Problem → Actions → Outcomes → Next step.
• Editors should ship changes without pinging engineering.
• The stack must be boring (in a good way): no surprise page builders, no risky plugin soup.

Berater gets us there by providing page patterns that are easy to enforce and hard to break.

1) Information architecture that mirrors a buyer’s headspace

Top-level nav (keep it to five):

• Problems We Fix (not “Services”)
• Work (case studies with numbers)
• Approach (how we engage; risks & mitigations)
• Team (who owns what)
• Contact (form + calendar)

Home page scaffold

1. Promise (one sentence) + CTA (book a call).
2. Proof row: three tiles—metric, context, timeframe.
3. Shortcuts: Problems / Work / Approach.
4. Single event (webinar, office hour) if it’s real.
5. Footer with policy links and no fireworks.

Berater’s blocks cover these out of the box; our job is to keep the copy honest.

2) PHP-first setup: child theme, clean assets, predictable hooks

Create a child theme so we can override safely:

// style.css
/*
 Theme Name:  berater-child
 Template:    berater
 Version:     1.0.0
*/

// functions.php
add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', function () {
    wp_enqueue_style('berater-child', get_stylesheet_uri(), ['parent-style'], '1.0.0');
}, 20);

add_action('after_setup_theme', function () {
    add_theme_support('title-tag');
    add_theme_support('post-thumbnails');
    register_nav_menus([
        'primary' => 'Primary Navigation',
        'footer'  => 'Footer Navigation',
    ]);
});

Asset hygiene

• One sans font, two weights.
• Preload primary font only; font-display: swap.
• Dequeue unused icon packs / sliders you didn’t ask for.

add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', function () {
    wp_dequeue_style('unused-slider-css');
    wp_dequeue_script('unused-slider-js');
}, 100);

3) Case studies with receipts: a tiny data model that works

Register a Case Study CPT and a taxonomy for sectors:

add_action('init', function () {
    register_post_type('case_study', [
        'label'  => 'Case Studies',
        'public' => true,
        'menu_icon' => 'dashicons-portfolio',
        'supports'   => ['title', 'editor', 'thumbnail', 'excerpt'],
        'has_archive'=> true,
        'rewrite'    => ['slug' => 'work'],
        'show_in_rest'=> true,
    ]);
    register_taxonomy('sector', 'case_study', [
        'label' => 'Sectors',
        'public'=> true,
        'rewrite'=> ['slug' => 'sector'],
        'show_in_rest'=> true,
    ]);
});

Store the numbers we’ll actually show:

• baseline_metric (string)
• after_metric (string)
• timeframe (string)
• ugly_truth (text) – one hiccup builds trust

You can add these with ACF or a small custom metabox. Rendering is straightforward:

// single-case_study.php (child theme)
get_header();
while (have_posts()): the_post(); ?>
  <article class="cs">
    <header class="cs__header">
      <h1><?php the_title(); ?></h1>
      <?php the_post_thumbnail('large', ['class'=>'cs__hero']); ?>
    </header>
    <section class="cs__context">
      <h2>Client & Context</h2>
      <p><?php echo esc_html(get_the_excerpt()); ?></p>
    </section>
    <section class="cs__before-after">
      <h2>Before</h2>
      <p><?php echo esc_html(get_post_meta(get_the_ID(),'baseline_metric',true)); ?></p>
      <h2>After (<?php echo esc_html(get_post_meta(get_the_ID(),'timeframe',true)); ?>)</h2>
      <p><?php echo esc_html(get_post_meta(get_the_ID(),'after_metric',true)); ?></p>
    </section>
    <?php if ($truth = get_post_meta(get_the_ID(),'ugly_truth',true)): ?>
    <aside class="cs__truth">
      <h3>One Ugly Truth</h3>
      <p><?php echo esc_html($truth); ?></p>
    </aside>
    <?php endif; ?>
    <footer class="cs__cta">
      <a class="btn" href="/contact/">Book a 20-minute scoping call</a>
    </footer>
  </article>
<?php endwhile; get_footer();

List page keeps cards uniform and skimmable:

// archive-case_study.php
$query = new WP_Query(['post_type'=>'case_study','posts_per_page'=>9]);

Berater’s grid utilities make this painless; you override markup, not the entire layout system.

4) “Problems We Fix”: services named like headaches, not capabilities

Create a page per problem (Claims backlog, Stalled CRM, Onboarding drift) with a consistent four-part template:

1) When this hurts (symptoms + baseline metric)
2) What we do (actions you’ll take)
3) What changes (range of outcomes with real numbers)
4) Week one (calendar of first seven days)

Use a lightweight pattern block; or if you want hard guarantees, render a template part:

// template-parts/problem-section.php
<section class="problem">
  <h2>When this hurts</h2>        <?php the_field('symptoms'); ?>
  <h2>What we do</h2>             <?php the_field('actions'); ?>
  <h2>What changes</h2>           <?php the_field('outcomes'); ?>
  <h2>Week one</h2>               <?php the_field('week_one'); ?>
</section>

Editors fill fields; you control structure.

5) Contact that respects time (four fields, one calendar)

• Form: Name, work email, company, topic.
• After submit: show what happens next (we read, we check fit, we reply in one business day).
• Calendar embed: a 20-minute slot picker; default to quiet hours.

Track begin_submit and submit_success with a tiny, dependency-free snippet; keep third-party scripts scarce.

6) Performance budgets that stick (and why Berater helps)

Targets on mobile:

• LCP < 2.5s, INP < 200ms, CLS ≈ 0.00.
• Hero ≤ 2000px desktop, 1280px mobile; WebP; explicit width/height or aspect-ratio.
• Two font weights, self-hosted; preload one.

Lazy-init non-critical JS:

// in footer
?>
<script>
(function(){const s=document.querySelector('[data-defer="true"]');
if(!s) return;
const io=new IntersectionObserver(es=>{es.forEach(e=>{
 if(e.isIntersecting){e.target.dispatchEvent(new CustomEvent('init.defer')); io.disconnect();}
});}); io.observe(s);})();
</script>
<?php

Attach listeners to sliders/maps only when visible. Berater won’t sneak in heavy effects unless you ask.

7) Accessibility: five non-negotiables

• Visible focus styles (not just outlines on buttons).
• Header/nav keyboardable; Escape closes menus.
• Form errors announced; labels tied to inputs.
• Motion respects prefers-reduced-motion.
• Alt text describes purpose; decorative images get empty alt.

These are small CSS/HTML choices; Berater’s templates are clean enough to honor them.

8) SEO without theatrics (structure > slogans)

• One H1 per page.
• Titles that read like answers: “Reduce underwriting cycle time — playbook, pitfalls, outcomes.”
• Case studies: schema where it fits (Article / CaseStudy), not schema soup.
• Internal links: Problems → Work → Contact; keep loops tight.
• Avoid “thin” tag archives; noindex them if you must keep them.

Your best SEO win will be clarity and consistency.

9) Editor operations: ship small, on schedule

• Saved sections: hero, proof row, FAQ compact.
• Style tokens: type scale, spacing, color roles—document them in /docs/style.md.
• Runbook: “Where things live” page with links to editable blocks.
• Cadence: Tuesday 30-min (swap hero, rotate proof tile), Friday 30-min (audit five pages).

Boring habits beat sporadic overhauls.

10) Deployment that doesn’t bite

• Git repo with web/ root; Composer for must-use utilities if you prefer.
• .distignore or rsync --exclude for node_modules and junk.
• WP-CLI tasks: cache flush, regen thumbnails, search-replace for staging ↔ prod.
• OPcache enabled; object cache (Redis) if available.

You don’t need a platform migration to keep this calm—just discipline.

11) Microcopy that keeps readers moving

• Home CTA: “Talk to an engagement lead”
• Subline: “No sales deck. A quick brief, then a plan.”
• Service header: “When this hurts”
• Risk ledger: “What goes wrong, how we prevent it”
• Case aside: “What failed in pilot (and why it didn’t sink the project)”
• Footer: “We won’t add you to a newsletter because you asked a question.”

Short, specific lines beat clever ones.

12) Troubleshooting (symptom → likely cause → first fix)

Most “design” issues are structure and copy issues.

13) Two-week plan you can actually finish

Day 1 — Lock tokens (type, spacing, color) and IA.
Day 2 — Write home promise, proof tiles, and three “Problems.”
Day 3 — Build home from real copy.
Day 4 — Implement Case Study CPT + template.
Day 5 — Publish first case (with numbers).
Day 6 — Wire contact form; embed calendar.
Day 7 — Draft Approach page (phases + risks).
Day 8 — Performance pass (images, fonts, defers).
Day 9 — A11y pass (focus, labels, motion).
Day 10 — Add two more cases; unify template.
Day 11 — Write one useful diagram post.
Day 12 — Legal/privacy pass in plain English.
Day 13 — Soft launch to 10 friendlies; fix top 5 issues.
Day 14 — Go live; set Tuesday/Friday ops slots.

No drama, just shipping.

14) Why I mention sourcing at all

Keeping staging and production in lockstep—same theme, same versions—makes Tuesday edits boring (which is the goal). A curated catalog like gplpal keeps updates predictable so you spend time on copy, cases, and speed—not chasing mismatched plugins.

15) Final word

Consulting buyers are busy. They’ll reward a site that speaks plainly, shows receipts, and makes the next step obvious. Berater – Consulting WordPress Theme doesn’t write your story; it keeps the scaffolding steady while you write it. Treat pages like proposals, name services like problems, show outcomes with numbers, and respect the calendar. Do that, and the inbox starts to change character—from “Got a minute?” to “Can we talk next Tuesday?”

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