Background of the issue:
Our database is filling up with WPML translations. These are translations provided with product filters/queries after the product path /. We have approximately 800 product translations to French. More than 400,000 pages have been created in our database. This is reflected in Google Search Console. As a result, we are experiencing database issues and spam.
Symptoms:
Database issues and spam due to excessive WPML query translations.
Questions:
How can we stop WPML from creating excessive query translations?
How can I clean up the database to remove existing query translations?
For example:
website address and category /?filter_snr-waarde=26-db%2C30-db&query_type_snr-waarde=or&filter_kleur=rouge&query_type_kleur=or&filter_maat=25cm-fr%2C60cm-fr%2C400mm-fr%2C15-millimetres%2C205mm-fr%2C270mm-fr%2C70mm-fr%2C4-2mm-fr&query_type_maat=or
I don't have an icl_string_pages table, but I do have some others. See the screenshots for the number of tables and size. Does this also affect the number of pages with /?filter (as I suspected)?
I am not 100% sure about the /?filter pages, especially the fact that they are being picked up in Google Search Console as these seem to be due to a filter parameter.
There are a few troubleshooting actions we can run that would possibly help here regarding the performance.
I would like to request temporary access (wp-admin and FTP) to your site to test the issue.
(preferably to a test site where the problem has been replicated if possible)
**Before we proceed It is necessary to take FULL BACKUP of your database and your website. Providing us with access, you agree that a backup has been taken **
I often use the Duplicator plugin for this purpose: http://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicator/
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NOTE: If access to the live site is not possible and the staging site does not exist please provide me with a duplicator package created with the duplicator plugin.
I have run the WPML troubleshooting actions in WPML->Support->Troubleshooting which should help to optimize the database and make any WPML-related tables smaller in size where possible.
There are 8480 products & 730 categories total in both languages, however,
when reviewing the website sitemap I found nothing logged in with ?filter in the URL.
I have thoroughly examined our database. The number of rows filled with meta is correct. Due to the number of plugins and the duplication from WPML, a large number of rows are being created. I have streamlined it to essentials through a major cleanup.
I initially thought the /?filter originated from WPML because it related to the French-translated products. However, I have now discovered that it's not caused by WPML but possibly by a robot affecting our product filters. The no-index isn't straightforward either. It's also not present in our sitemap XML. Using a disallow on the tag seems to be effective. Search Console detects them, but they are being blocked.
I have only deactivated and reactivated WPML. As a result, not all properties are set correctly anymore. Both the original language and the translation are visible under both languages.
