Google Analytics - Visitor Languages

At face value, the Languages report seems pretty basic - it's a report that tells you the preferred language of your visitors based on their browser settings. However, this is more than a simple list language-region combinations, this is valuable insight into how your site performs by segment, and where you should be concentrating your marketing efforts.

Clicking on a language takes you to a drilled-down report for that language, giving you a breakdown of the percentage of total visitors, as well as comparative values for Average time on site, Bounce rate, Pages per Visit, and % New Visits. In the brackets beside the metric you see the percentage compared to total volume. You can also click the Goal Conversion tab to see the relative performance for that language group.

Segmentation

As with other reports, you can segment by:

• Source
• Medium
• Campaign
• Keyword
• Ad Content
• Visitor Type
• Landing Page
• Continent
• Sub Continent Region
• Country
• Region
• City
• Browser
• Operating System
• Screen Colors
• Screen Resolution
• Flash Version
• Java Support
• Network Location
• Hostname
• Connection Speed

This is just awesome, as it can provide you with the insight you need for localized SEO/PPC campaigns. For example, you may know which keywords to target in English. But you don't speak German, and there's not enough statistics in Overture or WordTracker in German to be of use. So, you could drill down to German visitors, and segment by Keyword. This would provide your list of keywords that you should use!
Another way that the Languages report can help you is by making a case for website translation. For example, one site I'm tracking has around 5% German visitors, but there's no German translation. This is now a priority because the report also tells us that visitors with localized/translated content convert better.

So, as you can see, it's not a simple list, it really is a valuable tool for understanding your visitors and optimizing your marketing spend!