Why Your Post Counts Are Wrong on Multilingual Sites (And How to Fix It)

Managing a multilingual website can be a complex endeavor, and one common issue that often goes unnoticed until it impacts user experience or SEO is incorrect post counts. This problem typically arises because of how content is duplicated or translated, and how platforms or plugins interpret these different versions.

Common Reasons for Incorrect Post Counts

1. Content Duplication for Translations: Many multilingual plugins or methods involve creating separate “posts” or “pages” for each language. For example, if you have an English article and translate it into Spanish, you might end up with two distinct database entries, each with its own ID.
   • The Problem: If your post count mechanism simply queries the total number of posts in the database, it will count both the English and Spanish versions as separate posts, inflating the actual number of unique articles.
2. Post Type and Status Filtering: Sometimes, translation plugins create custom post types or use specific post statuses to manage translations (e.g., a “translation” post type, or a “pending translation” status).
   • The Problem: If your post count query doesn’t explicitly exclude these custom post types or statuses, they will be included in the total, leading to an inaccurate count of primary content.
3. Language-Specific Taxonomies: In some setups, different languages might have their own categories, tags, or other taxonomies. While this can be useful for organization, it can complicate counting.
   • The Problem: If you’re trying to count posts within a specific category, and that category exists in multiple languages, a simple query might count the same underlying content multiple times if not properly filtered by language.
4. Inconsistent Content Relationships: Not all multilingual solutions maintain a clear, consistent link between the original content and its translations. Some might rely on meta fields, others on a parent-child relationship, and some might treat them as entirely separate entities.
   • The Problem: Without a robust way to identify all versions of a single piece of content, it’s difficult to accurately group and count them as one.
5. Caching Issues: If your website uses aggressive caching, especially for dynamic content like post counts, it might serve outdated or incorrect numbers if the cache isn’t properly invalidated when new translations are added or updated.

How to Fix It

The key to accurate post counts on multilingual sites lies in understanding how your specific multilingual solution handles translations and then adjusting your counting logic accordingly.

1. Identify the Primary Content: The most crucial step is to define what constitutes a “unique post” for your count. Is it the original language version? Or any one version of a translated group?
2. Leverage Your Multilingual Plugin’s API/Functions: Most robust multilingual plugins (like WPML, Polylang, TranslatePress for WordPress, or similar solutions in other CMSs) provide functions or APIs to:
   • Get the original post ID: Find the ID of the primary language version for any given translated post.
   • Get all translations of a post: Retrieve all language versions linked to a single original post.
   • Filter queries by language: Restrict queries to only the default language or a specific language.

   Example (Conceptual – WordPress with a common plugin approach): Instead of SELECT COUNT(*) FROM wp_posts WHERE post_type = 'post' AND post_status = 'publish', you would use something like:

   // Using a hypothetical plugin function to get unique translatable posts
   $unique_posts = my_multilingual_plugin_get_unique_posts();
   $post_count = count($unique_posts);
   
   // Or, if counting only primary language posts:
   $args = array(
       'post_type'      => 'post',
       'post_status'    => 'publish',
       'posts_per_page' => -1, // Get all posts
       'lang'           => 'en', // Filter by primary language (e.g., English)
   );
   $query = new WP_Query($args);
   $post_count = $query->found_posts;
   

   Note: The exact functions will vary significantly based on your CMS and multilingual plugin.

3. Use Database Queries with Careful Filtering: If you’re directly querying the database, you’ll need to add specific WHERE clauses to filter out duplicates. This often involves:
   • Joining with a translation table: If your plugin uses a separate table to link translations.
   • Checking meta fields: If translation relationships are stored in post meta.
   • Filtering by a specific “master” flag: Some systems might mark the original post.

   Example (Conceptual – assuming a translations table):

   SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT original_post_id)
   FROM posts p
   JOIN translations t ON p.post_id = t.translated_post_id
   WHERE p.post_type = 'post' AND p.post_status = 'publish';
   

4. Implement a Custom Counting Mechanism: For more complex scenarios, you might need to build a custom function that:
   • Fetches all posts.
   • Iterates through them.
   • Uses the multilingual solution’s API to determine the “original” post for each translation.
   • Stores unique original post IDs in a set/array to avoid duplicates.
   • Counts the size of the set/array.
5. Clear Caches Regularly: Ensure your caching solution is configured to clear the cache for post counts whenever new content or translations are published. This might involve setting specific cache invalidation rules.
6. Consider a “Canonical” Approach: If your multilingual setup supports it, ensure that each translated page has a rel="canonical" tag pointing back to the original language version. While this is primarily for SEO, it reinforces the idea of a single, primary piece of content, which can guide your counting logic.

Conclusion

Incorrect post counts on multilingual sites stem from the fundamental challenge of representing a single piece of content across multiple languages. By understanding how your specific multilingual solution handles these relationships and by leveraging its provided APIs or carefully crafted database queries, you can implement an accurate and reliable counting mechanism that reflects the true number of unique articles on your site. Always test your counting logic thoroughly across different language versions and content types to ensure its accuracy.