[Resolved] Product archive slug translation problem
This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.
Problem: When using SEOPress plugin with WPML, the product archive slugs are not correctly translated in the XML sitemaps generated by SEOPress.
Solution: We have acknowledged the issue with SEO Press not correctly handling translated slugs in sitemaps. We recommend checking the following errata for a workaround and subscribing to the comments on our errata page for this specific issue to stay updated on future fixes: https://wpml.org/errata/seopress-product-archive-slug-not-translated-in-sitemaps/.
If this solution does not resolve your issue or seems outdated, we highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix, and confirming that you have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. If the problem persists, please open a new support ticket with us for further assistance.
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Background of the issue:
We have created a custom shop page using Elementor Pro templates for our main language at hidden link. Language versions are respectively at /en/shop, /el/katastima, and /ro/magazin. The shop page template has been created following your instructions - created in Elementor Pro, theme constructor, then copied and marked each version as translation of the bg page.
We also use SEO Press to generate and handle sitemaps. It has a Titles and Meta data setting for the product archive page. The archive slugs there are not the translated ones but all are /language prefix/magazin. They are included in the product-sitemap. In the page-sitemap, the actual translated custom pages appear correctly. If I set the archive as noindex in SEO Press to exclude the wrong urls from the sitemap, then the setting overrides the ones of each page and Google search console detects the bg and ro shop pages as noindex, probably because their urls match. The non-matching /en/magazin and /el/magazin return 404s. I have the following slugs translated in WPML: BG- magazin, RO - magazin, EN- shop, EL - katastima. In Woocommerce the shop page is set to the custom page we created with the slug magazin. Then in WCML the endpoint is again translated as above BG(default) is magazin, then EN - shop, EL - katastima, RO - magazin.
Symptoms:
Product archive page slugs are not correct in the SEOpress Title and Meta data settings although translated in the string translations. Google search console detects the bg and ro shop pages as noindex. /en/magazin and /el/magazin return 404s. Our Ads account is suspended, and we believe this might be the reason.
Questions:
How can I fix the issue with the product archive slug translation?
Could the changes to the shop page be the reason for our Ads account suspension?
The site is up and running again. I have tried what you said - changed the theme, changed the page and translated again. Unfortunately, nothing happened. Still those wrong urls.
I need to take a closer look at your site. So I request temporary access (WP-Admin and FTP), preferably to a test site where the problem has been replicated.
Your next answer will be private, to share this information safely.
Also provide detailed steps to reproduce the issue and links to pages in the admin and on the frontend.
IMPORTANT: Please take a complete backup of the site to avoid data loss. I may need to activate/deactivate plugins also.
I see some discrepancies in your site, as following:
1) In permalinks, I noticed that the slash after the main domain name .eu is missing, which should separate or define further/next part of the URL (see attached). For example, in Permalinks it is showing as hidden link, notice there's no / between .eu and shop.
2) In WPML -> Support -> Advanced Translation Editor Error Logs, I see a very frequent error about "cURL error 7: Failed to connect to ate.wpml.org port 443: Connection timed out". This happens when WPML is blocked by a firewall. Please see how to fix this at https://wpml.org/faq/wpml-plugin-cannot-connect-to-wpml-org/.
3) Some plugins are outdated. While, theme looks like a customized one.
4) Strangely, there are no hreflang and canonical tags in page sources. I checked hidden link and hidden link. This shouldn't happen when using WPML and specially when you're using an SEO plugin. See attached!
5) I tried to visit Greek version hidden link which loads but without any content (looks like broken) and language switcher also doesn't show any variations in other languages for this. In the backend, I see + sign, for Greek when editing Магазин page. See attached!
Since it is a live site and I need to investigate in more detail, by deactivating plugins and switching to a standard theme. I'm afraid this 'll take some time and your live site may face unexpected results or loss of data. On the other hand, we're not allowed to do such holistic investigation for longer periods on a live site.
I'll recommend preparing a staging/dev site by copying your current site. So I can check without risking the live site.
I've enabled your next reply as private to provide access to the staging site.
We have restored a backup and created a new staging website, where to test and explore. hreflangs are present (they were only ,issing on the shop pages, very strange.), the Greek shop is working again, the translation of the shop page is present in all languages. As for the permalinks, a believe this is just an error in the admin interfase, in the description text, the real permalink was and is working. We have a prefix set for the products, translated in all languages.
I'm trying to observe and understand the problem. For this I've deactivated all plugins except WPML, String Translation, WooCommerce, WCML, Elementor and SEO Press.
Then I changed English shop page slug to magazin, just like it is for default language. So these both work fine.
However, in products sitemap (hidden link), I see that all shop URLs are ending with /magazin, for all languages.
When I click, for example, hidden link (Greek shop page URL), it redirects to hidden link, which is correct because this is the slug which is set for Greek shop page.
I checked this redirection for any issue at hidden link and it seems to be fine also:
Result
CONGRATULATION. Everything seems to be fine.
hidden link
301 Moved Permanently hidden link
200 OK
But to understand that what's the actual issue, I'm assuming that you're expecting the product archive (or shop page) URLs at hidden link, to be the same as they were translated in the WCML -> Store URLs:
- Default lang -> hidden link
- English -> hidden link (/shop originally as you translated, but I changed for testing)
- Greek -> hidden link
- Romanian -> hidden link
Is this correct?
Please let me know and I'll try my best to dig-in further into the issue.
Yes, the original issue is that I want the product archive urls to be the same as translated in WCML ->Store urls to avoid redirects and also, because on the real site, two of them return 404. There is no redirect form /en/magazin to /en/shop and el/magazin to el/katastima. you can check this at hidden link
Thank you for the clarification. I'll try to reproduce the issue in a fresh test site to assess if it is only happening in your site or can be reproduced. And 'll proceed accordingly.
For those 404 on your live site, I guess those are due to a conflict, coming from another plugin or theme. Because on staging this isn't reproducible with only WPML, String Translation, WooCommerce, WCML, Elementor and SEO Press active and using 2024 theme. You can, meanwhile, continue to activate other plugins one-by-one in the staging site and check when this starts happening.
I'll update you about the sitemap issue after checking in my test site.
