Problem: The client's website has pages translated into Chinese, but untranslated pages are incorrectly showing a URL with the Chinese language code (e.g., domain.com/zh-hant/postname) instead of remaining in the default English URL (e.g., domain.com/postname). This issue is believed to be harming SEO. Solution: If you're experiencing this issue, we recommend checking your WPML settings. You might have selected the Translatable - use translation if available or fallback to default language option for Posts and Pages in WPML>>Settings>>Post Types Translation. To resolve this, switch to the Translatable - only show translated items option after performing a site backup. This change should ensure that untranslated pages retain the default language URL. For more detailed guidance, please refer to our documentation on displaying untranslated content: Displaying Untranslated Content on Pages in Secondary Languages.
If this solution does not apply to your case, or if it seems outdated, we highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix, and confirming that you have installed the latest versions of themes and plugins. Should you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to open a new support ticket at WPML support forum.
Problem: The client needs help translating and syncing menus from English to Chinese, where the menus in Chinese are different from the default English language but still need to sync with their respective pages/posts. Solution: We recommend translating the menu manually since automatic syncing only replicates the exact same items across different languages. If you need distinct items in the Chinese menu, manual translation is necessary. You can follow the steps outlined in our documentation on fully custom menu creation.
If this solution does not apply to your case, or if it seems outdated, please check the related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verify the version of the permanent fix, and confirm that you have installed the latest versions of themes and plugins. We highly recommend opening a new support ticket if further assistance is needed. You can do so at WPML support forum.
Problem: The client needed to change the language code for Chinese(Simplified) from "Zh-hans" to "zh", noting that there were no translated pages or posts in Chinese(Simplified). Solution: We informed the client that it is not possible to edit the language code of default languages. Instead, we recommended adding a new custom language for Chinese(Simplified) with the desired custom language code "zh". Since the client mentioned there was no content in Chinese(Simplified), they could duplicate the existing "Zh-hans" content to the new custom language "zh". We provided a link to our documentation for further guidance on how to assign or change language codes to existing content: https://wpml.org/faq/how-can-i-assign-or-change-language-code-to-existing-content/
Please note that this solution might be irrelevant if it's outdated or not applicable to your case. If you find that this solution does not solve your issue, we highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix, and confirming that you have installed the latest versions of themes and plugins. If you still need assistance, please do not hesitate to open a new support ticket with us.
