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When I install my language files (nl_NL) in my Magento 1.9.2.2 install, in the head section appears a JS tag that starts with:

var Translator = new Translate({...

What follows is a whole lot of strings in English and Dutch. In my opinion, this is bad for SEO.

My questions are:

  • is it really not good for SEO to have a whole lot of English and Dutch strings in the head?
  • how can I get rid of these strings (e.g. by creating a new, custom csv-file with translations)?

Hope there is anybody out there that can get me on track.

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  • 2
    why would this be bad for SEO? It's just some javascript object. And if you remove this, your javascript messages will not be translated. Don't do it.
    – Marius ♦
    Dec 7, 2015 at 11:46
  • @Marius I have read about this being bad for SEO in an old thread here: link. One of the answers in this thread is from Magento-team and they say they are working on a solution. So now I am a bit confused although I tend to have more faith in your answers than in Magento's in general ;-)
    – Els den Iep
    Dec 7, 2015 at 13:43
  • This time I didn't offer and answer. I was just curious how it is bad for seo because I have no idea and it does not make sense to me. I'm not saying it's not bad. But I have no idea how you can remove these without affecting your website. Like I said, the js messages will not be translated if you remove that.
    – Marius ♦
    Dec 7, 2015 at 13:48
  • My idea of it being bad for SEO and indexing in search engines is that there are all kinds of keywords in the head tag. Btw I thought your answer was: Don't remove it. Now I am confused again. Any suggestions?
    – Els den Iep
    Dec 7, 2015 at 14:12
  • Sorry for the confusion. Yes, my answer is "don't remove it". If you do, all your javascript strings (alert messages, and other strings) will not be translated to Dutch.
    – Marius ♦
    Dec 7, 2015 at 14:14

1 Answer 1

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I have to agree with you that this is minimally not 'good' for SEO. Magento has to make sure that inline JS is made to a bare minimun. That this is inline JS is just lazy programming.

We put this JS in a separate js file. To do this follow these instructions:

Go to a random page and find (chrome: right click > view source) the JS with this var: 

var Translator = new Translate ({ "...other stuff.." });

Copy/paste this in translator.js in your theme js folder. (skin/frontend/package/theme/js)

In your template search for head.phtml > line 44:

<?php echo $this->helper('core/js')->getTranslatorScript() ?>

If you don't have head.phtml in your template copy paste it and remove the line above.

Now we have to add the translator.js to all the pages. Go to app/design/frontend/package/theme/layout/local.xml

Search IN the default tag for the reference with the name head. use this to add translator.js

<action method="addItem"><type>skin_js</type><file>js/translator.js</file></action>
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  • Note that this approach is only useful if you don't use multiple languages.
    – Fabian Schmengler
    Jan 15, 2016 at 15:36
  • @Wouter:Thanks Wouter (bedankt), in our case we do use multiple languages.
    – Els den Iep
    Feb 3, 2016 at 13:32
  • @fschmengler: thanks for the additional comment.
    – Els den Iep
    Feb 3, 2016 at 13:32
  • Well, you can do this for multiple languages also. We just have to make some small adjustments to the script. If I sort this out for you, do you accept the answer that I gave you?
    – Wouter Steenmeijer
    Feb 3, 2016 at 14:50
  • @Wouter: Thanks. Sure I would accept your answer! As long as the solution is update proof and according to Magento development guidelines.
    – Els den Iep
    Feb 19, 2016 at 8:09

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