[Resolved] Optimize SEO for German Formal language

Problem:

The client installed WordPress in German (Sie) and then WPML, which switched to German (Du). In the meta tags, 'german-formal' appears, which the client believes is not good for SEO. They need to tag the website as being in German while using formal German with WPML.

Solution:

We recommend adding a function to the theme's child functions.php file to modify the HTML language attribute for German. Here is the code you should use:

add_filter('language_attributes', 'modify_language_attributes_for_german');

function modify_language_attributes_for_german($lang) {
    // Check if the current language is German
    $my_current_lang = apply_filters( 'wpml_current_language', NULL );
    if ($my_current_lang === 'de') {
        // Replace the language code for German
        return 'lang="de-DE"';
    }
    return $lang; // Keep default language attributes for other languages
}

If this solution does not resolve your issue, or if it seems outdated or irrelevant to your case, we highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix,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 further assistance is needed, please open a new support ticket at WPML support forum.