Split: SEO issue

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

Problem:
The client is experiencing SEO issues with their multilingual WordPress site using WPML. Over 530 URLs are being indexed as 'Pages with redirect' due to WPML-generated multilingual slugs, which either redirect (301) or are empty, yet are included in sitemaps and crawled by search engines. The client is concerned as these URLs are from untranslated or fallback language pages and wants to prevent them from being indexed.

Solution:
We clarified that WPML does not generate URLs for untranslated content. It's likely that these URLs are being auto-generated by WordPress itself. We recommended checking the database to see if such pages exist. If they do not, it might be WordPress generating these URLs. We suggested looking into the WordPress function wp_guess_url and considering disabling it to see if this resolves the issue.

We also confirmed that WPML never had an SEO option to 'Hide content that is not translated in search results.' The issue of URLs like /ar/联系我们/ appearing is not from WPML, especially since the default language is English. It's likely that these 'fake' URLs are coming from WordPress's URL auto-guessing feature.

If this solution does not resolve your issue or seems irrelevant due to being outdated or not applicable to your case, we highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent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 problems persist, please open a new support ticket.

This is the technical support forum for WPML - the multilingual WordPress plugin.

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This topic is split from https://wpml.org/forums/topic/critical-ttfb-degradation/

Tagged: Exception

This topic contains 3 replies, has 0 voices.

Last updated by Laura 2 weeks, 3 days ago.

Assisted by: Laura.

Author	Posts
July 21, 2025 at 1:48 pm #17256023
sidriD	Hi Dražen, thanks again. We followed your suggestions regarding performance and we're preparing the staging environment as advised. In the meantime, we've identified a critical SEO issue caused by WPML on the same site: Over 530 URLs are being indexed by Google as "Pages with redirect", due to WPML-generated multilingual slugs (e.g. /fr/联系我们/, /ar/kamers/, /pt-pt/contatti/) These URLs either redirect (301) or are completely empty, yet they are being included in sitemaps and crawled by search engines The sitemap is now completely empty after cleanup, but Google Search Console still reports all those faulty URLs Disabling unused languages is not an option, as the site is actively being translated into all available languages We also have too many pages to manually exclude each from Rank Math or WordPress Can WPML: Prevent automatically generating pages for non-translated content? Hide these URLs from sitemaps and search engines until real content is added? Offer a way to globally apply noindex to untranslated or fallback language pages? This is now both a performance and SEO issue for us. Thanks!
July 23, 2025 at 2:25 pm #17264412
Laura WPML Supporter since 05/2018 Languages: English (English ) Italian (Italiano ) Timezone: Europe/Rome (GMT+02:00)	Hi, Thanks for contacting us. WPML doesn't generate URLs for untranslated content. You can check in the database if such pages actually exist. If not, it's likely WordPress generating such URLs. Please check this function wp_guess_url and see if disabling helps.
July 23, 2025 at 4:55 pm #17265010
sidriD	Hello again, following up on our previous message regarding the SEO issue caused by fallback or untranslated pages being indexed and flagged as "Pages with redirect" in Google Search Console. We have now confirmed that: The WPML SEO plugin is installed and active All core WPML components (Multilingual CMS, String Translation) are up to date We are using Rank Math SEO The sitemap has been cleaned manually, but over 500 URLs remain flagged in GSC However, the critical SEO option “Hide content that is not translated in search results” does not appear anywhere in WPML > Settings This prevents us from programmatically avoiding the indexing of fallback or untranslated pages such as: /fr/kamers/ /ar/联系我们/ /pt-pt/contatti/ and others. We’ve also tested enabling/disabling language fallback, switching themes, and clearing WPML cache – no change. Could you please: Confirm if this SEO option has been deprecated, moved, or requires additional configuration? Advise how we can globally prevent untranslated/fallback pages from being included in the sitemap and indexed by Google? Provide a workaround if this is a known issue in the current release? This is now both a performance and SEO blocker for our multilingual setup. Thank you for your continued support, —Team caalvise.com
July 24, 2025 at 6:00 pm #17268948
Laura WPML Supporter since 05/2018 Languages: English (English ) Italian (Italiano ) Timezone: Europe/Rome (GMT+02:00)	WPML never had this SEO option. Pages with URLs like the ones you described are not coming from WPML. The only way WPML "creates" untranslated content is using the option "fallback in the default language" (which you're not using) but it could never create URLs like /ar/联系我们/ if the default language is English as I can see from your debug information. Also, with fallback in the default language, you can never get 404. It's likely the "fake" URLs are coming from WP autoguessing I was explaining in my previous post.