Problem: You are using WPML with WooCommerce Multilingual and have noticed that translated WooCommerce product category slugs are redirected with a 302 status code instead of a 301 on separate domains per language/country. You are concerned about the SEO implications and whether it is safe to change these redirects to 301. Solution: We have confirmed that changing these specific WooCommerce product category redirects from 302 to 301 will not affect WPML's language negotiation, hreflang tags, canonical URLs, language switchers, or WooCommerce Multilingual functionality. It is safe to use a 301 (permanent) redirect for permanently changed category URLs to help search engines recognize them as such. Currently, there is no setting in WPML to automatically change these redirects to 301, but you can implement a custom solution using a PHP snippet. If you have an alternative PHP snippet that uses the
wp_redirect_status
filter, feel free to share it with us for review.
Please note that this solution might be irrelevant if it's outdated or not applicable to your specific case.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 this does not resolve your issue, please open a new support ticket at WPML support forum.
Problem: The client experienced a significant ranking drop and issues with Google Images visibility after migrating their site to a new server, which resulted in the disappearance of canonicals and hreflang tags. They made several technical SEO improvements to address these issues, including adjustments to hreflang output and canonicals. Solution: We reviewed the client's recent SEO improvements and found them technically correct and aligned with best practices for multilingual sites. The disappearance of canonical and hreflang tags due to the server migration likely contributed to the ranking volatility and indexing instability. The incorrect hreflang output in XML sitemaps might have sent conflicting signals to Google, even though the HTML hreflang implementation was correct. The client's recent improvements should help Google better understand the site structure over time. We recommend focusing on Google indexing behavior, canonical selection, image indexing, crawl stability, redirects, and possible migration-related SEO side effects for further investigation.
If these suggestions do not resolve the issue or if the solution seems outdated or irrelevant 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 further assistance is needed, please open a new support ticket at WPML support forum.
Problem: On translated product category archive pages, Yoast outputs the wrong language SEO title and meta description. Although the backend shows correct localized Yoast SEO fields for each category, the frontend displays incorrect language data. Solution: 1. If you're experiencing this issue, it's important to note that from WPML SEO 2.2.0 onwards, term meta such as SEO titles and meta descriptions for categories can be translated via WPML → Translation Dashboard as String Packages. This integration allows for automatic translation along with the rest of the site. 2. However, if you have manually added translations in the category editing screen, these may not appear on the frontend with versions starting from WPML SEO 2.2.5. WPML now requires these fields to be translated via the Translation Dashboard. Available options: - Roll back to WPML SEO 2.2.4 to continue using manual translations. - Use the WPML Translation Dashboard (String Packages) for translations, which is the recommended method moving forward.
Please note that this solution might be outdated or not applicable to your specific case. If these steps do not resolve your issue, 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 at WPML support forum for further assistance.
Problem: The client is experiencing issues with hreflang and canonical tags across their multilingual sites. Specifically, hreflang tags are not appearing correctly, and the canonical tags are incorrect on certain sites. Additionally, the client is concerned about the absence of an x-default hreflang tag and the visibility of hreflang tags on a non-webshop site. Solution: We recommend enabling the option "Adjust IDs for multilingual functionality" in WPML > Languages to correct the hreflang and canonical tag issues. This setting helps ensure that each language version of the site uses the correct URLs in hreflang and canonical tags. Regarding the x-default hreflang tag, it's beneficial to include it as it serves as a fallback for users whose languages are not covered by your specified hreflang tags. If your default site language is Dutch, you can still use the Dutch domain as the x-default. For the non-webshop site, ensure that hreflang tags are not implemented if they do not share the same content as the other sites.
If these steps do not resolve your issues or if the information 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 problems persist, please open a new support ticket.
Problem: After migrating to a new server, you might find that your multilingual domain setup with WPML's 'Different domain per language' option is not working correctly for bare domains (without www). For instance, accessing https://heatperformance.no redirects to https://www.heatperformance.nl instead of loading the correct language site. Solution: This behavior is expected because WPML relies on the WordPress Home/Site-URL settings, which are configured to include 'www'. Therefore, any redirection for bare domains needs to be manually set up in your .htaccess file. For more detailed guidance on configuring these redirects, please visit WPML forum topic on domain redirection.
If this solution does not resolve your issue or seems outdated, we recommend opening a new support ticket. Additionally, it's advisable to check related known issues at WPML Known Issues, verify the version of the permanent fix, and confirm that you have installed the latest versions of themes and plugins. For further assistance, please visit WPML Support Forum.
Problem: The client was facing an issue where the sale percentage displayed on the product pages was not updating correctly across all translated versions of their website. The main site showed a 7% discount correctly, but the translated versions continued to display a 20% discount, despite the client having updated the sale percentage. Solution: We identified that the issue was related to how the theme was handling the sale badge, which was automatically generated when a sale price was entered. The client resolved the issue by navigating to WooCommerce > Appearance > Product Page and selecting the option to not display the percentage in the sale badge. This change resulted in the badge displaying only the word 'SALE' across all versions of the site, thus maintaining consistency and avoiding incorrect discount displays. If this solution does not resolve your issue, or if it seems outdated or irrelevant to your case, we recommend opening a new support ticket. Additionally, 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. For further assistance, please visit our support forum at https://wpml.org/forums/forum/english-support/.
