TranslattePress is a plugin I've had installed on my site since 2022. It allows me to translate the site into +15 different languages.
The first 6 months we think the plugin is really great, and it is, it's really good, but the more the site ages with this plugin, the more it becomes almost catastrophic, I'm going to explain the bad points of translattePress and why I can't recommend it at the moment.
Information :
I decided to write this article after sending dozens if not hundreds of feedback e-mails to Translattepress support, some of which date back to last year.
The big problem with TranslattePress:
It translates everything, but when I say everything, I mean that if you make articles about games such as SUTOM, a game in French, the word of the day = PATATE, the plugin will translate it into the 15 languages and so it will cost you a few euros. Of course, the articles won't make any visits in the other languages, and if someone in another language wants to test the game, they won't be able to answer PATATE because they'll see POTATO. (With more complex words
I've calculated that I've had to spend over €2,000 on translating articles that were only useful in French. You're going to say to me, the plugin must surely have a button to deactivate the translation when the article is created. And unfortunately NO, that's the modification I asked them for at the end of 2022, a button to deactivate the translation of this particular article or page, but still nothing...
The only thing that's been available since the beginning = "Do not translate certain paths" but this means that the site has to have categories in the URLS, but in SEO terms this isn't advisable. And this means that on an existing site, if you add this modification and make 301s, all the site's URLS will change.
It creates hundreds of thousands of 404s:
Now imagine you have lots of articles that have been translated and are useless. You spring clean your site and delete all the articles that were useful on June 10, 2022 for its daily games. You make your 301 redirect so that it doesn't fall into 404. Except that the 15 urls that remain behind them fall into 404 because the plugin doesn't tell you whether the original article = 301 or 410. So you have to copy the code. So every time you delete an article, you get a 404. During spring cleaning I currently have +150,000 404s. I contacted support to find out what was going to be put in place and the only thing that was put in place = nothing.
The answer is to manually create 301 or 410 translated URLs. But you need to know that you have translated URLs NUL PART, so before deleting you need to go and find the translated URL.
Change Google Translatte -> Deepl :
If you want to switch from Google Translatte to Deepl to improve your translations, your content will remain on Google Translatte, so you'll have to delete the entire translated database to be able to switch to Deepl translation.
I've tried deleting the article and putting it back, but it doesn't work, so if you change the translation mode, the new articles will have the translation you want.
For me the tool could be excellent but in order it should have this set up:
- Button to disable translation of article or page
- List of urls translated when article is modified
- Manage 404s (or at least set something up)
If you see other things blocking you on TranslattePress don't hesitate!
