How to Find Translation Gaps in Your Help Center (Before Customers Do)

Translation gaps are silent killers. A customer searches for help in Spanish. The article exists in your help center, just not in Spanish. They either struggle through English, contact support, or leave.

You probably don't know how many gaps you have. Most teams don't. Finding gaps manually means checking every article in every language. Nobody has time for that.

Here's how to audit your help center for translation gaps, and fix them before customers notice.

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What Are Translation Gaps?

A translation gap is any article that exists in your source language but not in a target language. If you support German customers but your billing FAQ only exists in English, that's a gap.

Gaps happen because:

• Content changes faster than translations. You update the source article, translations become stale.
• New articles skip translation. Urgent content gets published in English first. Translation comes later. Sometimes never.
• Languages get deprioritized. German customers complain, so you focus there. French gaps grow silently.
• Nobody tracks coverage. Without visibility, gaps accumulate.

The result: customers get inconsistent experiences. Some find help in their language. Others hit a wall.

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Why Most Teams Don't Know Their Gap Count

Finding translation gaps manually is painful:

1. Open your help center admin
2. For each language, list every article
3. Compare each language list to your source articles
4. Mark which articles are missing
5. Repeat for every language you support

With 50 articles and 5 languages, that's 250 comparisons. Nobody does this. So gaps grow until a customer complains.

The fix: automate the audit.

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How to Audit Your Help Center (3 Methods)

Method 1: Free Audit Tool (30 Seconds)

The fastest approach. Use our free Help Center Audit Tool:

1. Paste your public help center URL
2. Get instant results showing gaps per language
3. See coverage percentages at a glance

No signup required. Works with any public Intercom help center.

Pros: Instant results, visual coverage breakdown, shareable URL for your team.

Cons: Only works with public help centers. For private content, use Method 2 or 3.

Method 2: Spreadsheet Comparison (Manual)

If you need to audit a private help center or non-Intercom platform:

1. Export article list. Get all articles from your help center admin. Include IDs and titles.
2. Export per-language. Pull the same list for each supported language.
3. Compare in Google Sheets. Use VLOOKUP to find articles that exist in source but not in target.
4. Count gaps. Each missing match is a gap.

Pros: Works with any platform, audits private content.

Cons: Manual effort. Easy to miss gaps. Doesn't scale.

Method 3: Built-In Platform Reports

Some platforms have coverage reporting:

• Intercom: No built-in translation gap reporting (hence our tool).
• Zendesk Guide: "Content Completeness" report shows missing translations by language.
• Help Scout: No native reporting. Use spreadsheet method or third-party tools.

Check your platform's analytics. If they track translation coverage, use it.

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What to Do After Finding Gaps

Once you know where gaps exist, prioritize fixes:

Tier 1: Critical Gaps (Fix This Week)

• Top 10 most-viewed articles missing translations
• Billing and payment content
• Getting started guides
• Security and compliance pages

These articles get the most traffic and handle high-stakes topics. Missing translations here cost you customers.

Tier 2: High-Value Gaps (Fix This Month)

• Product feature documentation
• Troubleshooting guides
• Integration setup instructions

Core product content that customers reference regularly.

Tier 3: Long-Tail Gaps (Fix When Possible)

• Advanced tutorials
• Niche use cases
• Historical content

Nice to have, but not urgent. Backlog these for slow periods.

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Preventing Future Gaps

Auditing is reactive. Here's how to prevent gaps from forming:

Set Up Translation Workflows

When you publish a new article:

1. Article goes live in source language
2. Translation request is automatically created
3. Translation is completed within 48 hours
4. Article goes live in all languages

Tools like TranslateDesk simplify steps 2-4. Select articles, click translate, and you're done. TranslateDesk also flags when source content changes so you know when to retranslate.

Monthly Coverage Checks

Even with automation, run a monthly audit:

• Check coverage percentages
• Identify any articles that fell through
• Verify translations are up-to-date

Put a 15-minute calendar reminder. It takes 5 minutes with the audit tool, plus 10 minutes to review.

Track Metrics

Monitor these numbers monthly:

Metric	Target
Overall coverage	>95%
Time to translate	<48 hours
Stale translations	<5%

If coverage drops below 95%, investigate. Something in your workflow broke.

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Common Audit Findings

After auditing hundreds of help centers, here's what we typically find:

50-60% of teams have significant gaps. Usually 10-30% of articles missing translations in secondary languages.

New content is the biggest culprit. Articles published in the last 90 days are 3x more likely to be untranslated.

Language #3+ gets neglected. Most teams maintain their top 2 languages. Third language and beyond shows heavy gaps.

Nobody owns translation. Gaps happen when translation isn't assigned to someone. If it's everyone's job, it's nobody's job.

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Fix Gaps in 5 Minutes

Found gaps? Here's the fastest fix:

1. Sign up for TranslateDesk (free to start)
2. Connect your Intercom help center
3. Select the articles with gaps
4. Click translate and watch gaps disappear in seconds

DeepL quality translations at a fraction of agency prices. Most teams go from gaps to fully translated in under an hour.

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Summary

Translation gaps hurt customers and cost you business. But most teams don't know their gap count because manual audits are tedious.

Your action items:

1. Run a free audit to see your current gaps
2. Prioritize critical content (top-viewed, billing, getting started)
3. Set up a workflow to prevent future gaps
4. Check coverage monthly

Customers expect help in their language. Now you have no excuse not to provide it.

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Related Resources

• Does Intercom Support Translation? Everything You Need to Know
• Managing Translated Content: 4-Phase Workflow
• Complete Guide to Help Center Translation