Subject: Critical Conflict: TranslatePress with Rank Math – Persistent Hreflang/Duplication Errors (Noindex & 301s Ignored)
“Hello TranslatePress Support Team,
I am experiencing a persistent, high-priority SEO conflict with the free versions of Rank Math SEO and the Redirection plugin that I have conclusively narrowed down to TranslatePress being active.
The issue is: When TranslatePress is active, it ignores noindex directives and 301 redirects, causing severe Hreflang and Duplicate Content errors.
I have performed extensive troubleshooting, proving the issue is a deep-seated plugin interaction:
- The SEO Directives Are Correct:
Archives are set to noindex: Rank Math is correctly configured to noindex all Category and Tag Archives to prevent duplication.
Author Archives are 301 Redirected: The Redirection plugin correctly redirects all Author Archives (e.g., /author/admin/) to the homepage or a safe URL.
- Definitive Proof of Conflict (Crawl Data):
I ran two Screaming Frog crawls for comparison:
Scenario Hreflang: Noindex Return Links Page Titles: Duplicate (Archives) Conclusion
A. TranslatePress ACTIVE 12 URLs (High) 44 URLs (Medium) Errors are Present
B. TranslatePress DEACTIVATED 0 URLs (CLEARED) 0 URLs (CLEARED) Errors VANISH
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This proves the issue is purely the result of TranslatePress’s code interfering with the standard WordPress hooks used by Rank Math and Redirection.
- Failed Fixes:
I have already attempted:
Clearing all caching (WP Optimize).
Running the TranslatePress Database Optimization tool, checking the ‘Replace gettext strings…’ option.
Request: Could a developer please investigate why TranslatePress continues to generate translated versions and hreflang tags for URLs that have been explicitly set to noindex or 301 redirect via standard SEO methods?
Thank you for your assistance.”
