Yoast SEO - Redirection RegEx Rules Differ Across Languages with WPML

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Reported for: WPML SEO 2.1.0

Overview of the issue

When using the Yoast SEO Pro plugin, RegEx redirect rules do not work in the same way across different languages. There is a different behavior for the default language and the second language.

For example, if you create a redirection rule like ^/en/faq/(.+)$ to /en/support/$1, it might not work as expected when trying to access it through http://example.com/en/faq/test/.

Workaround

Option 1

As a quick workaround you can create different rules.
Following the initial example:

^/faq/(.+)$ redirects to /support/$1
^faq/(.+)$ redirects to /en/support/$1

Option 2

Please, make sure of having a full backup of your site before proceeding.

Open …/wp-content/plugins/wp-seo-multilingual/classes/class-wpml-wpseo-redirection.php file.
Look for the line 34.

Replace this code:

foreach ( $redirections as $redirection ) {
    if ( $redirection['origin'] === $url || '/' . $redirection['origin'] === $url ) {
        return true;
    }
}

With:

foreach ( $redirections as $redirection ) {
				if($redirection['format'] == 'regex'){
					// Ensure $url starts with /, if regex would need to check if string starts with this is needed.
					if(strpos($url, '/', 0) !== 0){
						$url = '/' . $url;
					}
					// Lets use ~ as a regex delimiter instead of /, as we are matching a URL.
					preg_match('~' . $redirection['origin'] . '~', $url, $matches); 
					if(count($matches) > 0){
						return true;
					}
				} else if($redirection['origin'] === $url || '/' . $redirection['origin'] === $url){
					return true;
				}
}

9件の返信に対して “Yoast SEO - Redirection RegEx Rules Differ Across Languages with WPML”

Raffaela さんの発言:

2024年1月13日 at 6:09 PM

I have problem with the Hreflang of this web and i cannot create the redirecctions 301 in spanish 🙁

返信
- Andrés さんの発言:
  
  2024年1月15日 at 7:01 AM
  
  Hello Raffaela,
  I’m not sure that it is the same issue reported here. Have you tried any of the workarounds provided?
  If that’s the case and the problem persists, please open a chat in our assistance channel. We have there all the required tools to help you better.
  Regards
  
  返信
Den さんの発言:

2024年2月22日 at 4:41 PM

Is it possible to add this code to the official plugin release from your side? It will be problematic to add code fix to every my website after your plugin release.

返信
- Andrés さんの発言:
  
  2024年2月23日 at 6:44 AM
  
  This issue in in our devs roadmap. We will update this page once a fix is released.
  Thank you for your understanding.
  
  返信
  - Den さんの発言:
    
    2024年2月23日 at 11:23 AM
    
    Very hope that this will be fixed in nearest realease. Will wait.
    
    Thank you!
    
    返信
Bet さんの発言:

2026年6月25日 at 10:53 AM

Hi, recently, the issue with Yoast Seo redirects occurs on one of my sites, only with urls in language folders, for example /ES/ and /DE/.

What can I do about this? Is the solution under option 2 still advised?

Thank you in advance for your help!

返信
- Nicolas V. さんの発言:
  
  2026年7月3日 at 3:02 PM
  
  Hello,
  
  I would recommend the option 1 (create different rules per language) instead of modifying the plugin’s code. Did you try that already? If it doesn’t work, please open a new chat on our support forum, our supporters are here to help you out.
  
  返信
  - Bet さんの発言:
    
    2026年7月4日 at 6:42 AM
    
    The issue is resolved now. The redirects in language folders weren’t working as expected because WordPress redirected them before the Yoast SEO Premium redirection could take effect.
    
    WordPress has a redirect rule that redirects a 404 to a related page on the website. To prevent this guess redirect behavior from WordPress, I have added this filter to functions.php:
    
    add_filter(‘do_redirect_guess_404_permalink’, ‘__return_false’);
    
    What seems essential is that after adding the filter, I resaved the WordPress permalinks and cleared all caches. (Otherwise, every redirect returns a 404)
    
    返信
    - Nicolas V. さんの発言:
      
      2026年7月7日 at 2:04 PM
      
      Hi,
      
      I’m glad to hear the issue is resolved now! Thanks for pointing out the resaving the permalinks and clearing the cache steps.
      
      返信