Issue With Homepage Blocks Translations

[Number3]

Hello,

I am quite new to WordPress and started a blog recently. I have two languages which I manage using Polylang and I use the free Newsmag Theme.

The issue I am encountering is with the homepage. You get the option to display various columns based on the different categories on the site.

The issue is that whenever I customize for "all languages" it does not seem to recognize translations on the language which is not the default one. I end up with all columns displaying the same articles they consider to be uncategorized in that language.

If I select one language, then the whole homepage on the other disappears.

Do you have any insights on how to fix this problem?

[not2easy]

Hi Number3 and welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

First, what have you tried to isolate/identify the cause? The prime cause of a plugin malfunction is another plugin. The phrase "Homepage Blocks" makes me think you are using the Gutenberg blocks for design. A common plugin used with blocks is Elementor and it has been known to interfere with other plugins.

Try disabling plugins one at a time to determine which is the likely problem. see whether they offer fixes or workarounds at their support center. Be sure to clear your cache between checking to see whether it makes a difference.

[Number3]

Hello,

Thanks for your answer.

I tried to keep the plug ins as clean as possible. These are the ones I have:
Header, Footer and Post Injections,
Insert Headers and Footers
No Category Base (WPML)
Polylang
Really Simple SSL
Widget Importer & Exporter
WordPress Importer
Yoast SEO

Although I did install Elementor early on, I found the limitations of the free version too great and uninstalled it.

These blocks are built into the theme.

I'll try and look around see if disabling plug ins changes anything. The only issue being that I only installed ones I thought I needed. Otherwise I am afraid making my homepage a massive recent posts block may be a temporary fix.

[TorontoBoy]

WP has no inherent multi-language capability. I usually write a site and content in English and then use a Google translate button that does on-the-fly translation in multiple languages. This works quite well.

Also I have no clue how Google would index your multi-language web pages.

[Number3]

@TorontoBoy

The main point of going multilingual rather than translation is to maximize chances of ranking twice rather than user experience. I am not trying to build a brand, rather attract one-off medium/high volume organic traffic on specific landing pages. Which also happen to be language specific.

My translated URLs won't ever rank for anything in my secondary language, unless I make up the keywords myself.

It's basically two websites in one, they share topics and articles, but also have independent articles. I don't see any obvious issues when it comes to the indexing so far.

[not2easy]

If the translated pages/content are the same in both languages, you should not think you will "rank twice". More like your two languages are competing with one another.

Read about hreflang: [moz.com...] and you can learn about how and why.

[Number3]

Maybe I did not express myself correctly, or I am indeed missing something, I am not sure.

I don't think I ever seen a translated page rank for anything in the top 10, for several reasons. Keywords are different, translations are inaccurate and if there is any native competition, a straight up translation has no chance.

What I meant was, rather than being pure translations, they answer different search intent depending on the language/location.

Let's say I write about cement. Maybe in country °1 there is a dominating brand and everybody uses their name to speak about it. I might decide to focus on this keyword, as well as retailers providing this brand.
Now, if country °2 does not have the same brands, or needs, I'll tailor the article to their search intent and keywords. If nobody cares, I won't write about it at all.

I don't actually care too much about the article being translatable as much as I care about having two versions of my site co-existing. They could exist separately, but for the purpose I have for this site, it is best for me to have both languages.

[phranque]

... rather than being pure translations, they answer different search intent depending on the language/location.

I care about having two versions of my site co-existing.

this looks like the correct usage case for the link rel hreflang element.
note that with this technique you can (for example) specify a default (fallback for unmatched preferred languages) page, a default english (en) page, english pages for specific regions (en-US, en-GB, en-CA, etc), etc.

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Working with multi-regional websites:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/03/working-with-multi-regional-websites.html [googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com]

Multi-regional and multilingual sites - Webmaster Tools Help:
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=182192 [support.google.com]

rel="alternate" hreflang="x" - Webmaster Tools Help:
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=189077 [support.google.com]

[Number3]

Thanks for your help, I thought the plug in would do the trick.