HubSpot Ideas

WarrenE

Home page should load in users language automatically

HubSpot allows creating of multiple languages for the homepage, but in order for a user to see the homepage in their own language (based on their browser localle) they need to manually change to their own language via the "language switcher" 

 

This does not provide a great user experience, my idea is that HubSpot load the relevant language homepage based on users locale.

 

We have implemented a client side JavaScript redirect work-around for this, but requires default page to load first, which is sub-optimal user experience.

21 Replies
Craig_Taylor
Member | Elite Partner

I support this too. This is definitely a key requirement for multi-language sites, especially as most other web platforms offer browser-enabled language translation based on the users location. 

hubspotmike
Member

+1, we thought this was already a capability of the HS platform when we signed on for some reason. Huge let down and I think we might have chosen to stay on WordPress had we thought otherwise.

LOIC_BURDET_IDE
Participant | Diamond Partner

+1 !!!

christophk
Participant

This would be great for us as well.

Jonas_Paymash
Participant

We would like to have this feature as well. 

IlkkaTuominen
Contributor

Giving this a follow as this is indeed a very much needed key feature to have.
This switch btw is confusing af..

 

Screen Shot 2018-06-28 at 9.56.00.png

I thought this was introduced already but apparently not.

SA2
Member

I thought it worked too but it doesnt 😞 Much needed for us European companies.

Gabvo
Participant

Much needed too!!

hkderek
Member | Elite Partner

+ 1

 

Any workaround? I only find the php code which hubspot doesn't support.

Gabvo
Participant

Hubspot's answer when proposing a workaround by including a javascript solution (navigator.languages ? navigator.languages[0] : (navigator.language || navigator.userLanguage)):

 

It's not currently possible (or at least, not reliable) to include client side Javascript that detects a user's preferred language, since that information is primarily passed in the Accept-Language header.

Not reliable but better than nothing --> any idea where and how to use this?

Denniscdejong
Member

We really need this feature too, as the proposed solution is not reliable and creates a bad user experience. Don't understand why HubSpot isn't supporting this out of the box.

tomirasanen
Member

 Definitely a function that should be there. I'm surprised that this is not a default thing in Hubspot.

Etienne
Member

We absolutely need this feature as well (very disappointed that it doesn't exist yet...)

juha-solteq
Member | Partner

Yes, definetly needed. Hoping that Hubpot will implement this soon.

Ossi
Member

+1 Here too. Much needed for export-oriented European companies.

LizBW
Participant

Definitely need this a lot. We went to the trouble of creating local-language versions of our site for all locations where we maintain offices, including header and footer nav, and serving this versions automatically is an absolute must.

Snaedis
HubSpot Product Team

Hello,

 

It sounds like you're assuming that someone's preferred language will be determined by where they're located - but over 40% of the world's population speaks at least two languages, and some countries have more than one official language (many others, of course, have very diverse and multi-lingual populations). I replied a while ago to a similar idea which I'll link to here (about auto-redirecting based on IP address)

 

I can imagine some situations where a setup like you describe could make sense for a website, but in most cases it's not going to be the best approach, so we don't plan to build an out-of-the-box option for this. I can imagine a future where we do offer something like a banner which you can put on your site (along the lines of the popup message you'll see if you visit an site that doesn't match your country, try adobe.fr or adobe.de), but it's a nice-to-have at this time. We have some more work to do to better support multi-market customers before we can tackle that one 🙂 

 

One other thing which might help: if you haven't already, you might want to consider purchasing the country-code top level domains for the countries your targeting, and either using them for your site or redirecting to the corresponding /subdirectory. That way, someone choosing to visit domain.fr can reasonably expect to land on a French page and they're unlikely to need to use the language switcher, though it's there in the header if they need it.

 

An example of the popup I describe, which is a nice feature if it makes sense for your website and visitors: 

Screen Shot 2020-08-14 at 12.50.28 PM.png

pdrolet
Member

Dear @Snaedis, I'm surprized about your position. From what I read here, Hubspot already supports preferred browser language for smart content.

 

I strongly disagree that detecting the browser language is a bad idea. Many countries have more than one language (Canada, Belgium, etc) and I can tell you first hand that customers are very sensitive to be served in their preferred language at first sight. In Canada, anglophones do not want to land on a page in French, and vice-versa. In Belgium, the tension between flemish speaking and french speaking is palpable. In addition, since it's in the same country, you can't register a different country TLD for each language.

 

I have just tested a few websites for large and small websites not hosted by hubspot in multilingual countries to see how it's handled. 7 out of 8 show me the content in the right language at first sight (check microsoft.com)

 

Also, until you support this, please make it clear in your documentation that you do not check for browser language preference.

 

Thanks!

Snaedis
HubSpot Product Team

@pdrolet yes, smart content supports browser language (and country), but this thread is suggesting "HubSpot load the relevant language homepage based on users locale" - the entire page. My response was about that use case, not smart content (which has a different purpose). As I wrote last time, there certainly are some cases where automatic redirection based on browser language makes sense, but there are a number of other approaches you could take to help a visitor get to the language they want, detailed in my previous posts on this topic (one easy option is using the smart content approach where you point a visitor to the page language that matches their browser -- note, smart content is not suggested for an entire page, for SEO reasons). 

 

This decision has been carefully considered. I've done a lot of research, heard from numerous multi-language HubSpot customers all over the world, consulted with the localization team here at HubSpot, and discussed this with other product managers. This particular feature may be revisited in the future, but at this time there are a number of other features that are more highly requested and urgently needed by customers.

 

If you'd like to discuss this further, please message me! I'd be happy to set up a time to speak with you and get into the details 😊

 

All the best,

Snaedis 

aeto
Participant | Diamond Partner

I agree, this is ver logical feature. I don't understand, that there is no option to turn it on. All good CMS have this feature. Why to force visitor to have on click more to switch language. I laso made an A/B testing for this in past, and it is definitly better, to switch the language depending on browser settings.

  • Yes, smart content have different purpose
  • If somewhere in stone shop start speak to me in his mother language, I dont ask him for preffered language to speak and I start speak in his language, it is natural