blog-locale-audit

Blog Locale Audit, Multilingual Quality Control

Audits a directory of multilingual blog content to ensure every language version is complete, consistent, correctly tagged, and SEO-optimized. Catches international content issues before they hurt rankings.

Workflow

Phase 1: Discovery

1. Scan the target directory. Group blog posts by language using:
   • Subdirectory names (en/, de/, fr/).
   • Frontmatter lang and translatedFrom fields.
   • hreflang-map.json if present.
2. Build a content matrix mapping which post exists in which languages.
3. Detect the source language (most common translatedFrom target, or the sourceLanguage field in hreflang-map.json if present).

Phase 2: Completeness Audit

Show which translations are missing:

### Translation coverage matrix

| Post (EN) | DE | FR | ES | JA |
|-----------|----|----|----|----|
| how-to-avoid-ai-slop | ok | ok | missing | missing |
| content-marketing-2026 | ok | missing | ok | missing |

Coverage: 60% (6 of 10 expected translations present)
Missing: 4 translations needed

Phase 3: Content Parity Audit

For every post that exists in multiple languages:

Check	What	Severity
Section count	Same number of H2 and H3 sections	Critical
FAQ count	Same number of FAQ items	High
Image count	Same number of images	High
Chart count	Same number of charts (SVG figures)	High
Word count ratio	Within expected band for language pair (DE +20% to +30%, JA -20%, ES +10%)	Medium
Link count	Similar internal and external link counts	Medium
Citation capsule count	Same number per H2 across versions	Medium
Frontmatter parity	All required fields present per version	High

Flag every significant deviation as an issue.

Phase 4: SEO Parity Audit

For every language version verify:

Element	Check	Severity
Title tag	Present, correct length for the language	Critical
Meta description	Present, correct length, contains a stat	Critical
lang attribute or frontmatter lang	Present, valid ISO 639-1	Critical
Schema inLanguage	Matches lang	High
Schema translationOfWork	Points to the source URL	High
Alt text	Translated (no English alt in non-EN posts)	High
Slug	Localized (no English slug in non-EN posts)	Medium
Tags	Localized	Medium
Keywords	Localized	Medium

Phase 5: Hreflang Audit

If hreflang-tags.html, hreflang-sitemap.xml, or hreflang-map.json exists in the directory:

Check	What	Severity
Self-referencing	Each page references itself	Critical
Return tags	Every relationship is bidirectional	Critical
x-default	Present, points to source language	Critical
Language codes	Valid ISO 639-1 (with optional region)	High
URL consistency	Same protocol, same trailing-slash convention	Medium
Completeness	Every language version represented	High

If no hreflang files exist, report it as a critical gap and offer: "Run /blog multilingual <topic> --languages ... to regenerate, or create hreflang-tags.html manually."

If seo-hreflang from claude-seo is installed, suggest running it for deeper validation.

Phase 6: Freshness Audit

For posts with translatedDate in frontmatter:

Check	What	Severity
Source updated after translation	Source modified after translatedDate	Critical
Translation older than 90 days	May need refresh	Medium
lastUpdated mismatch across versions	Versions out of sync	Medium
File mtime newer than translatedDate	Content changed without frontmatter update	Warning

Emit actionable commands per stale file:

3 translations are stale:
- de/ki-trends-2026.md (source updated 2 days ago)
  -> Run: /blog translate en/ai-trends-2026.md --to de
- fr/ki-trends-2026.md (source updated 2 days ago)
  -> Run: /blog translate en/ai-trends-2026.md --to fr
- es/tendencias-ia-2026.md (translation > 90 days old)
  -> Run: /blog translate en/ai-trends-2026.md --to es

Phase 7: Report

Output as markdown by default. If the user passes --html, also write the report to locale-audit-report.html with the same content.

## Multilingual content audit report

### Summary
- Posts audited: [N] across [N] languages
- Overall health: [score] / 100
- Critical issues: [N]
- Warnings: [N]

### Translation coverage
[Matrix from Phase 2]

### Issues found
#### Critical
- [Issue with file references]

#### Warnings
- [Issue with file references]

#### Passed
- [Checks that passed]

### Prioritized fixes
1. [Highest-impact action]
2. [...]

### Stale-translation alerts
[Runnable commands from Phase 6]

### Quick fixes
- Run `/blog translate <file> --to <missing-langs>` for [N] missing translations.
- Run `/blog multilingual` to regenerate hreflang assets.
- Run `/blog localize <file> --locale <code>` for weak cultural adaptations.

Error Handling

Scenario	Action
Empty directory	"No blog posts found in [path]"
Only one language present	Report coverage, suggest target languages
No hreflang files	Flag as critical gap, offer regeneration
Unrecognized file format	Skip with a warning

Cross-References

• Fill missing translations: /blog translate <file> --to <missing-codes>
• Deepen weak adaptations: /blog localize <file> --locale <code>
• Regenerate hreflang assets: /blog multilingual <topic> --languages <codes>