Translate SEO titles and meta descriptions
SEO titles and descriptions are post metadata, not the same values as the visible post title and excerpt. POM Translate can extract and render metadata keys configured as translatable.
Built-in Yoast fields
For posts and pages, POM Translate includes these Yoast metadata keys by default:
_yoast_wpseo_title;_yoast_wpseo_metadesc.
After saving the source values:
- Go to Translations → Translate contents.
- Choose the target locale.
- Find the post or page.
- Translate the extracted SEO title and meta description fields.
- Preserve supported template variables or protected markers.
- Save the translation.
- Inspect the final title and description produced by Yoast on the localized route.
If no translated metadata exists, the source value can be returned as a fallback.
Built-in Rank Math fields
POM Translate includes these fields for every enabled post type with Meta enabled, including posts, pages, products, and custom post types:
| Field | Metadata key |
|---|---|
| SEO title | rank_math_title |
| Meta description | rank_math_description |
| Facebook title | rank_math_facebook_title |
| Facebook description | rank_math_facebook_description |
| Twitter/X title | rank_math_twitter_title |
| Twitter/X description | rank_math_twitter_description |
| Breadcrumb title | rank_math_breadcrumb_title |
| Focus keywords | rank_math_focus_keyword |
Focus keywords can supply text through Rank Math variables such as %focuskw%. Preserve the comma-separated list and keyword order. Translating this field does not create a separate Rank Math SEO analysis or score for each language; the source editor retains its original keywords.
Translate existing or new content
- Open Settings → POM Translate → Content types and enable the post type and its Meta control.
- Enter and save the source text in the Rank Math panel. Only explicitly stored, non-empty text is collected; a preview generated from a global template is not a stored post field.
- For existing content, save the source post again or select Process all under Translations → Generate pending translations. Translate pending only does not discover previously unregistered fields. Turn off automatic translation first if you only want to discover source strings for manual editing.
- Open Translations → Translate contents, choose the language, locate the object, and translate its metadata rows.
- Preserve complete variables, including their arguments:
%title%,%sep%,%sitename%,%customfield(field_name)%, or%date(F j, Y)%. Variables are protected during machine translation, and translation saves reject changed or missing variables. - Save and inspect the localized page's HTML source and breadcrumb output.
Metadata additions, changes, and deletions are collected after Rank Math stores them, including editor saves made through a separate REST request. Removing a stored field also removes its extracted translation, allowing Rank Math's usual fallback to take effect. The original WordPress metadata remains in the source language.
Rank Math still controls social fallbacks. If Twitter/X is configured to reuse Facebook data, it uses those fields; a separate Twitter/X translation is used only when Rank Math reads the separate field. An empty social field continues to use Rank Math's normal SEO or content fallback.
Scope and limits
The integration also localizes canonical, sitemap, and Open Graph locale output. The text-field support above covers post metadata; it does not register taxonomy/user metadata, global title templates, or nested rank_math_schema_* data.
Canonical URLs, social image URLs and IDs, robots directives, redirection settings, primary-term IDs, scores, and structured Schema settings are not translated as prose. Structured data needs a dedicated integration that distinguishes text from types, identifiers, URLs, and numeric values. Other scalar custom fields can be registered through the supported metadata filter.
If a field is missing, check the post type and Meta controls, confirm that the object is published or private and is not globally excluded, and save a non-empty source value. If the row translates but the page does not, check which field or fallback Rank Math is actually using.
Write for the target locale
Translate search intent, not just words. Review:
- local terminology and product names;
- title length and truncation;
- description length and call to action;
- variables inserted by the SEO plugin;
- consistency with the localized canonical URL;
- visible page content and heading.
Verify rendered output
Check the HTML source, not only the Translation Manager. SEO plugins can apply templates, separators, defaults, and fallbacks after reading the stored field.
Clear the SEO plugin's indexable or metadata cache after changing translations. Then verify one base and one target route with the same WordPress object ID.