Hubspot multi-language variation automatic redirect based on location or IP address

In this article, you will learn some ways to drive your traffic to the appropriate Hubspot page language variation.

Hubspot doesn’t redirect users to any page language variation based on geolocation or IP address. While some may think this might be a major feature that Hubspot is lacking, here are some points we think why Hubspot doesn’t have and will not implement.

It would give bad user experience - For example, a user clicks on an ad that is already linked to the user’s preferred specific page language variation (i.e. yourwebsite.com/en/page) but unexpectedly got redirected to a different page language variation. This could result in the user exiting the page, especially when there is no option to switch back to the previous content.

IP address and/or geolocation is not always equal to the user's preferred language. A market segment could be located in a specific region in any given point but actually uses or prefers a different language. Thus, creating a redirect would force the user to a page language variation that they did not ask for.

Here are some ways we recommend in driving users to the correct Hubspot page language variation:

Add a “Language Switcher” module in your templates or pages. This will allow users to select their preferred language and when they browsed through your website, links will automatically link to their preferred page language variation. Make sure to make the language switcher module obvious if necessary.

If necessary, purchase country-code top level domains for your target regions. This could not only help your local SEO and authority but can also be used for creating redirects from your country code domain to your primary domain without altering the user experience, i.e. yourwebsite.com.au can be redirected to yourwebsite.com/en-au

Use Hubspot smart content. There could be instances where you have content variations served to users depending on the user's location or region. While this should be done by properly promoting the correct direct links to your page language variations to appropriate target users, there can be occasions when users could land on the wrong content. Hubspot smart modules or content is a great way to resolve this by creating calls to action that will lead the users to the correct content based on their location, i.e. a one-time popup that appears when a user lands on a content that is not originally intended for the user’s location or region.

Of course there are cases where redirection of users based on geolocation or IP is needed. This can still be done in the Hubspot frontend, but it will require help from a developer to set up the use of a third party IP geolocation tool on your Hubspot website.