Testing a Language-Adapted Greeting on the Homepage

You can tell the default-language greeting feels distant to part of the audience from noticeable bounces among visitors whose browser runs in another language, frequent use of the language selector, and support tickets about language. If the adapted greeting lands, these visitors stay on the page and move on to the main action without reaching for the selector. If the real issue is that the rest of the page is not in their language, plan the translation first, because translating only the greeting is not a lasting fix.

Primary action completion rate

Compare completion to see whether a tailored greeting changes the target action.

Also track

• Bounce rateMake sure a language mismatch does not increase exits.
• Language change rateTreat manual language changes as preference information; not every change is a failure.
• Page load timeMake sure detection does not add delay.
• Conversion by languageReview which languages show a gain and which do not.

• GreetingPersonalize only the greeting using a predefined browser-language match.
• Existing choicePreserve the visitor's explicit language preference in both arms.
• Page contentKeep the rest of the page fixed and record language mismatches.
• Fallback and controlKeep a visible language selector and a default for unsupported languages.
• InterpretationReview supported languages separately before expanding the approach.

1. 1Weigh any lift in completed primary actions against the bounce rate; if wrong language guesses push more visitors out, the gain is not solid. Do not treat a higher language change rate as failure on its own, and check that detection does not slow down page load time.
2. 2Base the match on browser language only; do not infer language from location or use a greeting that implies you know where the visitor is. Even if the variant wins, it does not show the effect of a fully localized page.
3. 3Read conversion by language separately for each supported language, and do not carry a gain in one language over to the others. If a low-traffic language could leave the result unclear, estimate the traffic it needs with the sample size calculator; if the traffic falls short, report that language as inconclusive rather than as a win.