Website Translation & Underwater Stones – What They Don’t Advertise!
I thought translating my website would be easy—just like they advertise. I used TranslatePress, the plugin recommended by Astra Theme, expecting a smooth experience.
But a few days later, I ran my website hirudo.clinic through Google PageSpeed Insights, and… I hit an underwater stone! 🪨🌊
🔴 The Hidden Problem They Don’t Tell You About
- TranslatePress silently messed up my
robots.txtfile, redirecting it to/en/robots.txt/(which doesn’t even exist!). - No warning. No notification. Just SEO problems lurking beneath the surface.
- Google couldn’t read my
robots.txt, meaning my site might not get indexed properly!
❌ They Advertise a Smooth Ride – But Don’t Mention the Traps
robots.txtis a core system file—it should never be translated or redirected.- But TranslatePress overrode my SEO settings without telling me, leading to hidden issues I only discovered by chance.
- It’s like navigating clear waters, only to hit a stone they never told you was there!
🚀 What I’m Doing Now
✅ Manually fixing robots.txt to stop translation rules from breaking it.
✅ Editing .htaccess to prevent automatic redirections.
✅ Clearing cache & running SEO checks to undo the damage.
💡 If you’re using TranslatePress with Astra Theme—check your site NOW!
You might be losing SEO visibility without realizing it.
Has anyone else encountered hidden problems like this? Let’s talk!
#WordPress #TranslatePress #SEO #WebsiteTranslation #WebDevelopment #HiddenIssues #AstraTheme #UnderwaterStones
🔥 This LinkedIn post connects the issue with the metaphor of hidden underwater stones (unexpected problems). It grabs attention while staying professional and engaging! 🚀 Let me know if you want tweaks. 🔥
Which TranslatePress Advanced Settings Should You Enable?
You’re looking at Advanced Troubleshooting Settings in TranslatePress. These affect how dynamic content and translations behave. Below is what each setting does and whether you should enable them:
🚀 Recommended Settings for Fixing robots.txt Issue
| Setting | Enable? (Yes/No) | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Fix missing dynamic content | ✅ Yes | Helps fix issues where JavaScript-inserted content isn’t translating properly. (Does NOT affect robots.txt) |
| Disable dynamic translation | ❌ No | If enabled, it may break AJAX-loaded translations. Keep it disabled unless you experience issues. |
| Filter Gettext wrapping from post content and title | ✅ Yes | Fixes weird text artifacts like #!trpst#trp-gettext. Safe to enable. |
| Filter Gettext wrapping from post meta | ✅ Yes | Similar to the previous setting but applies to meta fields (like custom fields, SEO metadata). Safe to enable. |
💡 What You Should Do
✅ Enable These Settings:
- Fix missing dynamic content
- Filter Gettext wrapping from post content and title
- Filter Gettext wrapping from post meta
❌ Do NOT Enable This Setting:
- Disable dynamic translation (Keep it off, unless you have issues with AJAX translations not working.)
Use a subdirectory for the default language
| Use a subdirectory for the default language | No Yes Select Yes if you want to add the subdirectory in the URL for the default language. By selecting Yes, the default language seen by website visitors will become the first one in the “All Languages” list. |
|---|