Background of the issue:
I am trying to add more languages to my WordPress site using WPML. The first translation from English to German worked fine, but the second translation to Italian caused issues. You can see the problem on this page: hidden link
Symptoms:
The Italian translation created more than 200 404 internal links. The link to the Bukhara page is incorrect, and in the Italian version of the link to /Uzbekistan/ seems to be missing.
Questions:
Why did the Italian translation create 404 internal links?
How can I fix the incorrect link to the Bukhara page in Italian and all the other erroneus links in Italian translations?
Sorry, I'm still not getting this. I'm on this page hidden link and I scrolled to "Attrazioni dell'Uzbekistan central" section and clicked on "Bukhara". Then, I'm being forwarded to hidden link . It looks correct to me and there are no broken links.
Could you please record a short screen recording regarding the issue using this free tool hidden link ? Then, share the video link with me here.
the link to bukhara page is missing /uzbekistan/ after central-asia.guide/it/. This is just an example of the few hundred cases that ahrefs is pointing out to me.
Thanks for your reply. I get what you mean now. However, the link is still being redirected to the correct translated page hidden link when I click on it and it's not leading to 404.
Are you saying that you want to adjust these links manually so that they point to the correct URL without redirection?
The links were built wrong by WPML translation so I am asking if there is an automated way to fix them. What we want to avoid is to manually fix them as there are hundreds of errors.
We cannot leave them as they are either, even with the browser redirection, as it is bad for our website search engine optimization and it is better for us to remove the Italian translation (that we paid several hundreds of euros for) than to leave it like this.
Are you saying that the links show up wrong after you've translated the page to Italian?
There is a way to correct this automatically, but this option only works if these internal links are not custom/external links. Kindly navigate to WPML > Settings > Translate Link Targets > Click "Scan now and adjust links".
It will take some time for it to run completely. When it's done, please try clearing the browser/website cache and recheck.
Yes, as the links in the original English version are correct. The links are not custom/external even though I am not fully sure what custom means here.
I ran the tool and it adjusted about 5000 strings but the example error seems to remain. I also flushed the caches to make sure they are not affecting the result.
I will need to closely examine your website. Therefore, I will require temporary access (WP-Admin and FTP) to a test site where the problem has been replicated, if possible. This will enable me to provide better assistance and determine if any configurations need to be modified.
Please note that it is important to have a backup for security purposes and to prevent any potential data loss. You can use the UpdraftPlus plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/updraftplus/) to fulfill your backup requirements.
Your upcoming reply will be treated with confidentiality and will only be visible to you and me.
✙ To resolve the issue, I may need your consent to deactivate and reactivate plugins and the theme, as well as make configuration changes on the site if necessary. This emphasizes the significance of having a backup.
Ok, so the solution is to manually save / update each of the few hundred pages that have this error. I assume there is no automated way from WPML plugin side to do this as this is not in any way optimal from time consumption point of view?
We are still planning to translate from English to couple more languages. Should we wait for your Tier 2 fixes before that to avoid additional problems with the links?
I don't think there is another way to fix this besides resaving the primary page. But you can try resending it for automatic translation using translation management. You won't be charged and it should resync it. Could you try?
Yes, sending for translation through the WPML also works but is it any different from saving from the site front end? I assumed it is correct to select to overwrite previous translation.
You ignored this question in your previous reply: "We are still planning to translate from English to couple more languages. Should we wait for your Tier 2 fixes before that to avoid additional problems with the links?"
The topic ‘[Closed] Italian translation created a lot of 404 internal links’ is closed to new replies.
