Problem Summary
Your TranslatePress plugin with DeepL API integration isn’t automatically translating content or the translations aren’t appearing in search results. This means your multilingual WordPress site is losing valuable international traffic and potential customers who can’t find your content in their language.
Step-by-Step Fixes
Step 1: Verify Your DeepL API Key
First, let’s make sure your DeepL connection is working properly. Navigate to Settings → TranslatePress → Automatic Translation in your WordPress dashboard. Look for the DeepL API section and check if your API key is entered correctly.
Click the “Test API Key” button. You should see a green success message. If you see a red error, double-check your key by logging into your DeepL account at deepl.com/pro-api and copying the authentication key again. Make sure you’re not accidentally including extra spaces when pasting.
Step 2: Check Your Translation Credits
Even with a valid API key, translations won’t work if you’ve exhausted your DeepL character limit. In your DeepL dashboard, check your usage statistics. Free accounts get 500,000 characters per month, while Pro accounts vary based on your plan.
If you’re out of credits, you’ll need to wait until the next billing cycle or upgrade your plan. As a temporary fix, you can manually translate critical pages using TranslatePress’s visual editor while waiting for credits to refresh.
Step 3: Enable Automatic Translation Settings
Go back to Settings → TranslatePress → Automatic Translation. Make sure these options are configured:
- Toggle “Enable Automatic Translation” to ON
- Select DeepL as your translation engine
- Choose which content types to translate automatically (posts, pages, products)
- Set the character limit per batch (ideal for managing API usage)
Save your settings and try translating a test page to confirm everything works.
Step 4: Configure SEO-Friendly URL Structure
Your translated content needs proper URLs to rank in search engines. Navigate to Settings → TranslatePress → General and look for “Language URL format”.
Select “Different language subdirectory” (example.com/es/) as this is best used in most SEO scenarios. Avoid using parameters like ?lang=es as search engines treat these less favorably. This subdirectory structure tells Google each language version is a distinct, indexable page.
Step 5: Set Up Hreflang Tags
TranslatePress should automatically add hreflang tags, but let’s verify. View your site’s source code (right-click → View Page Source) and search for “hreflang”. You should see tags like:
“`html
“`
If these are missing, go to Settings → TranslatePress → Advanced and ensure “Add hreflang tags” is enabled.
Step 6: Submit Translated Sitemaps to Search Console
TranslatePress generates separate sitemaps for each language. Find them at:
- yoursite.com/sitemap.xml (default language)
- yoursite.com/es/sitemap.xml (Spanish)
- yoursite.com/fr/sitemap.xml (French)
Submit each language-specific sitemap to Google Search Console. This speeds up indexing and helps Google understand your site structure. In Search Console, use the “Add a new sitemap” feature for each language version.
Likely Causes
Cause #1: JavaScript Rendering Issues
DeepL translations sometimes fail on content loaded dynamically with JavaScript. This is not recommended when your site heavily uses page builders like Elementor or Divi with complex animations.
To check: Open your browser’s developer console (F12) and look for JavaScript errors when loading translated pages. Red error messages indicate conflicts.
To fix: In Settings → TranslatePress → Advanced, try enabling “Fix missing dynamic content” and “Translate DOM changes”. These options help TranslatePress catch content that loads after the initial page render.
Cause #2: Caching Plugin Conflicts
Popular caching plugins like WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, or LiteSpeed Cache can serve the wrong language version to visitors. This happens because they store one cached version without recognizing language variations.
To check: Temporarily deactivate your caching plugin and test if translations work correctly.
To fix: Add TranslatePress’s language cookie (trp_language) to your cache plugin’s exclusion list. Most caching plugins have a “Never cache cookies” or “Cache varies by cookie” setting. Also exclude URLs containing language subdirectories from caching rules.
Cause #3: SEO Plugin Language Detection
Yoast SEO, Rank Math, or All in One SEO sometimes conflict with TranslatePress’s hreflang implementation, causing duplicate tags or missing translations in search results.
To check: Install the “Hreflang Tags Checker” Chrome extension and scan your pages for duplicate or conflicting hreflang tags.
To fix: In your SEO plugin settings, disable any multilingual or hreflang features. Let TranslatePress handle all translation-related SEO tasks. For Yoast specifically, this is ideal for avoiding conflicts: go to SEO → Search Appearance → Content Types and ensure language settings are neutral.
When to Call Expert Help
Contact a WordPress developer experienced with multilingual sites if you encounter these situations:
- Your site shows 500 errors after enabling translations
- Search Console reports widespread crawling errors on translated pages
- You need custom code to translate dynamic content from specific plugins
- Your hosting provider blocks API calls to DeepL (rare but happens with strict firewalls)
Professional help is worth it when translation issues affect your entire site’s functionality or when you’re losing significant international traffic. A specialist can diagnose server-level problems and write custom integration code that DIY solutions can’t address.
Copy-Paste Prompt for AI Help
Use this prompt when seeking additional troubleshooting assistance:
“I’m using WordPress with TranslatePress plugin and DeepL API for automatic translations in 2025. My site URL structure uses subdirectories for languages. The issue I’m experiencing is: [describe your specific problem]. My setup includes: WordPress version [X], TranslatePress version [X], and these other plugins: [list active plugins]. I’ve already tried: [list what you’ve attempted]. Please provide specific troubleshooting steps for TranslatePress DeepL integration with focus on SEO compatibility.”
Remember to replace the bracketed sections with your actual information before using the prompt.