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Troubleshooting Yoast SEO Language and Translation Issues with WPML and Polylang

23 threads Sep 7, 2025 Plugin → Yoast seo

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Many WordPress users rely on multilingual plugins like WPML and Polylang to manage their sites. However, integrating these with the Yoast SEO plugin can sometimes lead to confusing language and translation issues. This guide covers the most common problems and their solutions, based on community reports.

Common Multilingual SEO Issues

Users frequently encounter the following problems when using Yoast SEO with translation plugins:

  • The Yoast SEO interface itself appears in the wrong language.
  • SEO meta titles and descriptions for translated pages display the wrong language.
  • The transition words analysis only works for the site's default language, not for translated content.
  • Sitemaps include all languages in a single file, or translated URLs have incorrect formatting (like trailing slashes).
  • Category slugs or permalinks behave differently for translated content.

Why Do These Issues Happen?

These problems usually stem from how the different plugins interact. Yoast SEO is designed to work with WordPress's core language settings. Multilingual plugins create additional layers of complexity by managing separate versions of content. Inconsistencies can occur in data storage, language file loading, or how rewrite rules are handled.

How to Troubleshoot Language and Translation Problems

1. Check for Required Add-ons

For WPML users, the WPML SEO add-on is strongly recommended and often required for proper functionality. This add-on helps synchronize SEO data across different language versions. Ensure it is installed and activated from your WPML account dashboard.

2. Verify Language File Installation

If the Yoast SEO admin interface is in the wrong language, it may be due to missing translation files (.mo and .po).

  • Navigate to wp-content/languages/plugins on your server.
  • Check for the appropriate language files (e.g., wordpress-seo-fr_FR.mo for French).
  • If they are missing, you may need to reinstall the language files. Sometimes, simply updating WordPress or Yoast SEO can trigger a re-download of these files.
  • You can also contribute to or download community translations from the WordPress.org translation platform.

3. Understand Sitemap Behavior

The Yoast SEO plugin generates a single sitemap that includes URLs for all languages. This is by design. Google does not require separate sitemaps per language, and the plugin relies on the multilingual plugin to add the correct hreflang attributes to the page's HTML header. As long as the hreflang tags are present, mixing languages in one sitemap will not harm SEO.

4. Investigate Transition Words and Analysis

The readability analysis, including the transition words check, is based on the site's primary language set in Settings > General > Site Language. If you create content in a secondary language, the analysis will still run against the rules for the primary language, which can cause inaccurate feedback. There is no built-in setting to disable this check or change the analysis language per post. This is a known limitation of the plugin's analysis system.

5. Clear Caches and Reset Indexables

If SEO meta data appears correct in WordPress admin but wrong on the frontend, a cache or data corruption issue might be the cause.

  • Clear any site, server, or CDN caches you have running.
  • Use the Yoast Test Helper plugin to reset the indexables tables and prompts. This can often resolve discrepancies between stored data and what is displayed.

6. Review Permalink and Slug Configuration

If category bases or slugs are appearing for translated content but not the default language, double-check the settings in both Yoast SEO and your multilingual plugin. Sometimes, saving the permalink settings again (by visiting Settings > Permalinks and clicking 'Save Changes') can flush the rewrite rules and resolve the issue.

When to Seek Further Help

If you have followed these steps and the issue persists, the problem may be specific to your theme or a combination of plugins. The next step is to perform a conflict check:

  1. Temporarily switch to a default WordPress theme like Twenty Twenty-Four.
  2. Deactivate all plugins except Yoast SEO and your multilingual plugin (WPML or Polylang).
  3. If the issue is resolved, reactivate your plugins one by one to identify which one is causing the conflict.

For complex multisite setups or issues that appear to be bugs, checking the official Yoast SEO documentation or WordPress.org support forums for similar reports can provide additional insight.

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