Advice and answers from the Advanced Web Ranking Team
Search for articles
>
>
Your workflow for running SEO across Japan, Germany, France and Italy in one AWR account
AWR workflow for international SEO: one project per market, each teammate in their own language, one dashboard for Japan, Germany, France and Italy.
You're running SEO for a brand in four markets. There's a specialist in Tokyo, one in Munich, one in Paris and one in Milan, a SEO lead who needs the full picture, and clients in each country who want their own view. Everyone looks at the same data, but not everyone wants to read it in English.
With AWR's 19 interface languages, this workflow puts each person in theirs without splitting the data: one account, one project per market, and a team where everyone reads the data in their own language.
Setting up AWR for international SEO: the short version
To run international SEO in Advanced Web Ranking (AWR), create one project per market with that country's search engines and language, invite each local specialist with access to their markets, and have everyone set their own interface language. Then compare markets on one dashboard, give clients read-only accounts in their language, and build global reporting on exports and connectors, which always stay in English. Setup is straightforward, and the payoff is one source of truth that every market can read.
Before you start
Have these ready so the setup goes smoothly:
Your markets: for each one, the country, the cities or regions that matter, the language people search in and the keyword and prompt lists.
Your people: who works on which market, and which clients need their own login.
Your plan: custom dashboards that combine several projects are available on Agency plans and higher.
Once you have those in place, here's the setup step by step.
1. Give every market its own project
One project per market keeps engines, languages and update frequencies clean. Different countries, languages, and search engines are easier to manage as separate projects, even for the same website.
When you create the project, pick the engines people actually use in that market. Check which search engines AWR covers in each country. Here's a starting point for the four markets in this workflow:
Market | Traditional Search | Search language | Worth adding |
|---|---|---|---|
Japan | Google, Yahoo! Japan, Bing | Japanese | City locations such as Tokyo and Osaka |
Germany | Google, Bing | German | Mobile and desktop; city locations |
France | Google, Bing | French | City locations for local businesses |
Italy | Google, Bing | Italian | City locations for local businesses |
Set the language of each engine in its language and location settings, and add AI Search prompts written the way people in that market ask them. If a market is really several regional markets, use city-level tracking.
Start every project name with the market, like [JP] brand.com or [DE] brand.com. Project names are never translated, so the list sorts the same way for everyone, whatever language they use.
Home page in AWR, listing four projects for the same brand, one per market, each with its corresponding search engine.
2. Invite each specialist, in their own language
Each teammate gets access to their markets and works in their own language. Invite each specialist as a team member and use custom permissions to scope what they can see and edit.
On their first day, each of them sets their Interface language on the Profile page and, under Reporting preferences, the time zone their scheduled reports run on (the help article shows where). The Tokyo specialist works in 日本語, the Munich specialist in Deutsch, and the SEO lead stays in English, all on the same projects. Scheduled emails still arrive in English for now.
The [JP] project's Keyword Ranking, as the Tokyo specialist sees it (日本語).
The [JP] project's Keyword Ranking, as the SEO lead sees it (English).
3. Align on one SEO vocabulary for cross-market calls
Four languages on screen need one language in meetings. Metric names are translated in each specialist's interface, so the same number shows up as Sichtbarkeit in Munich, Visibilité in Paris, and Visibilità in Milan. Before the first cross-market call, share a one-page term list: the English metric names from the AWR Metrics Index (Visibility, Click Share, AI Visibility, Market Share) with each market's on-screen label next to them. Use the English names in calls and written updates.
4. Compare markets on one dashboard
A custom dashboard puts every market side by side. Go to Dashboards and set up a new dashboard, then drag widgets onto the canvas and pick a different project for each: Visibility for [JP], [DE], [FR] and [IT] in one row, or any other metric you're interested in for each market..
AWR custom dashboard comparing Visibility for Japan, Germany, France and Italy.
The SEO lead gets the global view; each specialist can build a market dashboard of their own and read it in their language.
5. Give each client a view in their language
Clients read AWR in their own language when they have their own login. Create a read-only customer account for each client contact and give it access to their market's project. The client signs in, switches AWR to their language, and sees live data, with your whitelabel branding if you use it.
AWR in Deutsch as seen by a German read-only client user.
Share links and scheduled PDFs go out in the account's language, so keep them for stakeholders who read that language. A client you report to every month in their own language gets the login: it is the only view they can switch themselves.
6. Build global reporting on the English data layer
One analyst, one global report, whatever language the markets use. Because connectors keep their English structure, the analyst who maintains the global report in the Looker Studio connector or BigQuery builds it once, and it keeps working when the Tokyo specialist switches to Japanese. Pull all four market projects into the same report, so leadership reads one set of numbers.
What the finished setup looks like
Once everything is in place, you have four market projects tracking the engines each country uses, four specialists each working in their own language, one dashboard that compares all markets, clients reading their own view in their own language, and a reporting pipeline that nobody has to touch.
Weekly and monthly rhythm
With the setup in place, the ongoing work splits naturally across the team. Here's who checks what, how often, and in which language:
When | Who | Where in AWR | Language |
|---|---|---|---|
Weekly | Each specialist | Keyword Ranking and AI Search for their market | Their own |
Weekly | SEO Lead | Cross-market dashboard | Lead's choice |
Monthly | Each specialist + client | Market dashboard, read-only client login | Client's own |
Monthly | Analyst | Looker Studio or BigQuery global report | English data layer |
Quarterly | SEO lead | Market Share and competitor review per market | Lead's choice |
Adapting the workflow to your team
The workflow above covers four markets as an example, but not every team looks the same. Here are a few ways to adapt it:
In-house team: give local marketing managers read-only accounts, each in their own language.
AI Search first: if a market cares more about AI answers, lead each market project with prompts written in the local language and track ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini next to Google. See AI search across markets.
More markets: the pattern scales. Add a project and a specialist per market; the dashboard gets one more widget per row.
International SEO checklist in AWR
Use this checklist as a final pass through your setup. If anything is missing, you'll spot it here:
One project per market, named with the market prefix
The engines each market uses (Yahoo! Japan and Bing next to Google for Japan), in the local search language
City locations where regions behave differently
AI Search prompts written in the local language
Each specialist invited with custom permissions for their markets
Interface language and scheduled-report time zone set per person
A shared term list: English metric names from the AWR Metrics Index
One cross-market dashboard, plus market dashboards
A read-only account for each client contact
Connectors and exports feeding the global report
Do you have any further questions or need more information about this product update? Don't hesitate to get in touch with our dedicated support team.
Frequently Asked Questions
How should I structure AWR projects for several countries?
Should each market specialist have their own AWR login?
How do I compare several countries in one report?
Should a multilingual country like Switzerland be one project or one per language?
stay in the loop