PageSpeed Insights Best Practices error on Charset

This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.

Problem:
The client is experiencing an issue with Google's tools marking their website with an exclamation mark under "best practices" when the WPML option "Redirect visitors based on browser language only if translations exist" is enabled. The client suspects it's a bug with WPML and is concerned about potential Google penalties.

Solution:
We have investigated the issue and determined that it is not related to WPML. It might be due to a missing charset declaration in the website's HTML or HTTP header. We recommend ensuring that the site's encoding is set to UTF-8. For detailed instructions, please check the following documentation:

Additionally, consider this WPML documentation on how browser language redirects can affect Google indexing:
WPML Documentation on Browser Language Redirects and Google Indexing

In some cases, depending on how the website is built, the redirect option may not work properly. If this is the case, we suggest disabling this option.

If this solution doesn't look relevant, please open a new support ticket.

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Tagged: Not WPML issue

This topic contains 1 reply, has 2 voices.

Last updated by Bruno Kos 1 year, 4 months ago.

Assisted by: Bruno Kos.

Author	Posts
December 15, 2023 at 11:56 am #15071857
paoloB-21	Hello, i have the same problem as this ticket https://wpml.org/forums/topic/best-practice-error/ Unfortunately the urls linked there are not visibile. Anyway i found out that the "Redirect visitors based on browser language only if translations exist" is the cause of the bad error given by Google's tools (exclamation mark on "best practices" when option id on). My wp-config defines correctly the charset, also my html has the correct <meta> value, the only thing breaking the test is the wpml option mentioned. So in my opinion it's a bug you need to solve otherwise the option may lead to google penalties to website using it.. I can provide a dev site ( hidden link ) to check by yourself if you need..
December 18, 2023 at 7:09 pm #15087143
Bruno Kos WPML Supporter since 12/2018 Languages: English (English ) German (Deutsch ) French (Français ) Timezone: Europe/Zagreb (GMT+02:00)	Hi, Thank you for contacting WPML support! I've reviewed that issue and the problem is unrelated to WPML and might be due to a missing charset declaration in your website's HTML or HTTP header. To address this, ensure your site's encoding is set to UTF-8. For detailed instructions, please check these links (as they appear in that thread): hidden link hidden link hidden link Also note this: https://wpml.org/documentation/getting-started-guide/language-setup/automatic-redirect-based-on-browser-language/how-browser-language-redirect-affects-google-indexing/#q-what-is-the-damage-of-google-incorrectly-interpreting-the-browser-language-redirects In some cases, given how the website is built, it may not work properly so we suggest to disable this option. Regards, Bruno Kos