You’ve installed a beautiful AJAX search plugin. Instant results, smooth animations, happy users. Then you add Weglot or another translation proxy, and suddenly… broken. JSON errors in the console. No results on translated pages.

Let’s understand why this happens and how to fix it.

Why AJAX Search Breaks

1. Response Translation

Translation proxies try to translate everything – including AJAX responses. When your search plugin returns JSON data:

{"results": [{"title": "Marble Tiles"}]}

The proxy may translate it to:

{"Ergebnisse": [{"Titel": "Marmorfliesen"}]}

Your JavaScript expects “results” but receives “Ergebnisse”. Parse error.

2. URL Conflicts

AJAX calls go to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php. On translated pages, this URL might become /de/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php – which doesn’t exist.

3. Database Language Mismatch

Even if the AJAX request works, the database only contains English content. Searching for German terms returns nothing.

Common Error Messages

• SyntaxError: Unexpected token < in JSON
• parsererror: Invalid JSON
• Empty results on translated pages
• “No results found” for valid queries

Typical “Fixes” (That Don’t Really Work)

Exclusion Rules

Adding AJAX endpoints to translation exclusion lists might stop JSON parsing errors, but then your search results aren’t translated at all.

Translate-Back

Weglot’s translate-back feature only works on form submission, not AJAX. No autocomplete or live search.

The Real Solution

You need an AJAX search that’s designed for translation proxies from the ground up:

• Pre-translated search index – No real-time translation needed
• Proxy-aware URLs – Correct subfolder handling
• Native language results – Search German content in German

Jokerist Search: Built for Clonable

Jokerist Search was built specifically for translation proxy environments:

• AJAX live search that works on translated pages
• Pre-translated XML indexes for each language
• Subfolder-aware URL handling
• No JSON translation issues

Stop fighting with broken search plugins. Download Jokerist Search and get multilingual AJAX search that actually works.