Polylang Pages Disappeared After SEO Plugin Conflict and the Resolution Steps That Preserved Hreflang and URLs

Multilingual websites powered by WordPress often rely on plugins like Polylang to manage translations and language-specific content. These systems are complex and require precision when integrating with other tools, especially SEO plugins. A misconfiguration or conflict can lead to significant issues, such as entire pages disappearing across different languages. This recently happened to a client website during a routine plugin update, when an SEO plugin conflicted with Polylang and caused several translated pages to vanish from the front end. The implications touched not only user experience but also search engine optimization, particularly the site’s carefully structured hreflang attributes and permalink architecture.

TL;DR

A conflict between a popular SEO plugin and the Polylang multilingual management plugin caused translated pages to disappear in a WordPress installation. Initial investigation suggested issues with database language mapping and redirections. This article outlines the step-by-step resolution process that restored the missing pages without affecting URLs or SEO-critical hreflang tags. The site is now functioning correctly with all translations preserved and search engine indexing resumed safely.

The Incident: What Went Wrong

The site had been running smoothly with Polylang handling translations for over two years. An update to the SEO plugin (in this case, Rank Math) introduced a new automated redirect feature meant to detect and fix broken URLs. Unfortunately, this feature misinterpreted Polylang’s language-specific slugs as broken paths in non-default languages. Here’s what transpired:

• Rank Math’s redirect module began issuing 301 redirects from localized pages to the default language version.
• Polylang’s language filter could no longer map content correctly via query parameters or slug rewrites.
• Translated pages (e.g., /fr/about or /de/contact) seemingly vanished from the front end.
• Search Console began flagging hreflang inconsistencies and indexing issues within 48 hours.

This created a cascade of SEO issues just days before a major international product launch—a worst-case scenario for any digital team.

Initial Investigation Steps

Before taking corrective action, the development team initiated a thorough diagnostic process to understand what exactly caused the content disappearance. This was handled in five structured steps:

1. Review Error Logs: Server logs and browser console showed a series of redirect chains, primarily affecting URLs with language prefixes.
2. Plugin Conflict Check: Deactivating the SEO plugin instantly restored the visibility of missing pages. This isolated the issue to one plugin.
3. Identify Affected Slugs: Pages using custom permalinks were most at risk. Pages like /fr/accueil and /de/impressum were triggering 301s to the homepage.
4. Hreflang Verification: Tools like Screaming Frog and Search Console were used to cross-check the integrity of meta hreflang tags. Many incorrect canonical hrefs had been inserted.
5. Database Inspection: SQL queries revealed that language term relationships were intact, indicating no data loss—just a display and routing issue.

The Root Cause: Redirect Logic and URL Interpretation

The root of the conflict stemmed from the SEO plugin’s attempt to “clean up” what it viewed as broken or duplicate URLs. Rank Math was pushing automatic redirects that did not respect Polylang’s delicate handling of translated slugs. Furthermore, the plugin’s auto-canonicalization rewrote translated page canonical tags to point to their English equivalents, severely damaging multilingual SEO.

Polylang requires that each language version maintain a consistent URL structure linked to a specific page ID and language taxonomy. Interfering with that structure—even by a seemingly benign automatic redirect—can break navigation and visibility.

Resolution Strategy

The development team focused on preserving:

• Original translated URLs (no changes to page slugs)
• Proper hreflang annotation
• Canonical integrity for each language version

Here are the exact steps taken to resolve the conflict without further damaging the site’s SEO:

1. Disabled Auto Redirects in SEO Plugin: In the Rank Math dashboard, the Redirection module was disabled entirely. A safer, manual approach was adopted.
2. Manually Cleared Redirect Rules: All redirection records added during the problematic plugin update were purged from the WordPress database, specifically the wp_redirection_items table.
3. Rebuilt Permalink Structure: WordPress permalinks were flushed using the “Save Changes” button in Settings → Permalinks without changing configuration. This realigned internal rewrite rules.
4. Validated Language Associations: Polylang settings were manually audited to confirm that translated page IDs were mapped properly to their parent language groups.
5. Restored Canonical Metadata: In the SEO plugin settings, canonical URL generation was set to “Custom” and edited manually for each language version to reflect correct language-specific slugs.
6. Tested Hreflang Deployment: A sample of affected pages were retested with hreflang validation tools, confirming that alternate tags now correctly reflected all published translations.

Best Practices Implemented Post-Fix

Once the immediate issue was resolved, and the pages were back online with correct metadata, the team established a maintenance plan to prevent similar issues in the future:

• Staging Environment Testing: All plugin updates are now vetted on a staging copy before being pushed to production.
• Disable Auto-Modifications from SEO Plugins: Features like automated redirects, canonical adjustments, or schema auto-insertion must be manually reviewed before activation.
• Weekly Hreflang Validation: Using Google Search Console International Targeting reports and third-party crawlers to monitor alternate tag consistency.
• Database Backup Before Updates: Scheduled full-site backups including content, settings, and database snapshots with rollback capability.

In addition, documentation was created for internal staff to understand the interactions between Polylang and SEO configurations, reducing the reliance on external developers for future maintenance.

Impact on Traffic and Recovery

The affected language segments saw a sharp 37% drop in organic traffic within the first five days of the issue due to deindexing and redirect loops. However, recovery began shortly after the fix. Insights included:

• Search Console: Disappearance warnings gradually reverted to “Indexed” status over two weeks.
• Hreflang Warnings: Cleared fully within 10 days.
• Traffic: Returned to 92% of baseline by Week 3 and exceeded pre-incident levels by Week 5 thanks to more accurate indexing.

Rankings for region-specific keywords made a full recovery, largely because the original content and URLs were never deleted—only temporarily hidden due to logic conflicts.

Conclusion

This situation underscores the fragility and interdependencies in multilingual WordPress setups. SEO plugins may unintentionally “optimize” configurations in a way that breaks multilingual routing logic, especially when tools like Polylang are in use. Fortunately, proper diagnosis and careful resolution steps can fully recover lost pages and preserve search engine optimization integrity.

Anyone managing a multilingual site should vigilantly control SEO plugin behavior and regularly audit hreflang deployment, canonical structure, and redirection logic. When in doubt, err on the side of manual configuration where translations and language-specific URLs are concerned.

The lessons from this incident offer an important reminder: in the pursuit of automation and optimization, safeguarding content structure must remain the top priority.