Exclude specific pages from translation entirely. When a page matches an exclusion pattern, Universally returns the original untranslated HTML. No strings are extracted, no AI processing occurs, and no word count is used.
This setting lives on the project’s Translation Rules screen, in the Exclude Pages field. Enter one URL path per line.
How It Works
When a translation request comes in, the page’s URL path is checked against your exclusion patterns before any processing begins. If it matches, the original HTML is returned immediately.
This is different from CSS selector exclusion, which removes specific elements from a page while still translating the rest. Exclude Pages skips the entire page.
Pattern Syntax
Exact paths
Match a specific page by its path:
/terms-of-service
/privacy-policy
/admin
Trailing slashes are ignored: /about and /about/ are treated the same.
Wildcard patterns
Use /* at the end to match a path and everything under it:
/api/*
/blog/drafts/*
/internal/*
/api/* matches /api/v1, /api/users/123, and /api itself.
Examples
Common exclusions
/admin
/api/*
/terms-of-service
/privacy-policy
/cookie-policy
/sitemap.xml
/robots.txt
WordPress-specific
/wp-admin/*
/wp-login.php
/wp-json/*
/feed/*
Note: The WordPress plugin handles most of these automatically. You only need to add custom exclusions.
E-commerce
/checkout
/cart
/account/*
/order-confirmation
Documentation sites
/docs/api-reference/*
/changelog
When to Use
- Legal pages that must stay in the original language for compliance
- Admin or dashboard pages that are for internal use only
- API endpoints that return data, not pages
- Checkout flows where translated text could cause confusion with payment processors
- User account pages where personal data should not be processed
- Pages with mostly dynamic/JS content that won’t benefit from HTML translation
What a visitor sees
An excluded page is not just an untranslated page. Three things change on WordPress:
- Its translated URL redirects. A request for
/es/checkout/is redirected to/checkout/, keeping any query string. There is no/es/copy of the page for anyone to land on or link to. - A returning visitor is not sent to their language. The usual redirect from an unprefixed URL to the visitor's stored language is skipped on excluded paths, so they stay on the source page. See Existing URLs and redirects.
- The language switcher does not render. Every route is suppressed on an excluded page: the automatic switcher, the shortcode, the block, and the switcher script itself. A visitor on that page has no way to change language, so add your own link if they need one.
Search engines are still told the page has translations: alternate links are emitted for the excluded path too, and those URLs redirect back to the source. See hreflang tags.
Things to Note
- The exclusion is based on the URL path only, not query parameters or fragments
- Exclusion happens before any processing. No strings are extracted, no word count is used
- The plugin holds your exclusion list for up to 15 minutes, so a change may take that long to take effect on the site
- If you need to exclude just a section of a page (not the whole page), use CSS Selectors instead