Content audits and categorisation

Many organisations believe they know exactly what content they produce — but when asked to list it by category, language, owner, or compliance status, the reality often tells a different story. In most cases, visibility is patchy and limited to marketing materials, leaving vast areas of content production untracked.

A content audit changes that. By mapping all content across the organisation — from Sales & Marketing, Regulatory & Reporting, and Product, to Legal and HR — you gain a clear, centralised record of:

• Source file formats
• Content creation platforms
• Distribution formats
• Content owners
• Compliance status

This visibility is the foundation of a structured content operating model. It allows you to analyse the effectiveness of your localised assets, identify inefficiencies, and uncover risks.
Audits often reveal content components being manually repurposed, creating inconsistencies that increase translation management complexity and business risk. Variations in source materials can undermine the accuracy of translation memories and lead to inconsistent customer communication.

A thorough audit enables you to:

• Prioritise high-value content for premium localisation (e.g., marketing campaigns that require transcreation).

• Optimise regulated content through more cost-effective methods (e.g. via translation memories or automated workflows).

• Identify which content types are best suited for AI or automation — such as standardised regulatory updates, FAQs, or repetitive reporting templates — freeing up skilled linguists to focus on high-impact, creative content.

By following content through its entire lifecycle, you can measure performance, maximise the ROI of high-value content, and retire low-value or redundant material. Without this, many organisations continue to translate the same content repeatedly, with little understanding of its actual impact.

In short, a content audit is not just an operational exercise — it’s a strategic investment. It delivers quick returns, improves localisation efficiency, reduces cost, and ensures you are communicating with customers in a consistent, high-value way.