.ca site ranking above .com site in USA

Google is ranking the wrong (international) site for brand searches

[periscopeUP]

On 12/26/11 when searching for "Example Company Name" from within the USA, Google started listing example.ca ABOVE example.com. We had made some minor changes to Example.com, by adding a button and links to allow users to switch to the Canadian site. There were no links built to Example.ca so far as we know.

In reading Google Webmasters about Geotargeting, Matt Cutts explains that Google gets its information from the top level domain (in this case .com and .ca) and from Google Webmasters, and Google Places. [support.google.com...]

Has anyone else seen this before and do you have suggestions?

[edited by: goodroi at 1:18 pm (utc) on Mar 6, 2012]
[edit reason] Please no specific urls [/edit]

[atomitservices]

Google easily recognize country specific domain than .com, But we can set geo-targeting in Google webmaster to improve ranking results in a particular region.

[amyperez]

My problem is: <snip> dot com

For keywords: <snip>

I have results (first page)in google.com but I need results in google.ca. What I need to do to get rankings in .ca?


Thx

[edited by: goodroi at 1:20 pm (utc) on Mar 6, 2012]
[edit reason] Please no specific keywords or urls [/edit]

[goodroi]

Here are some basic tips:

#1 - Make sure you are using the correct country specific tld
#2 - Use a hosting company in that country
#3 - Verify Google Webmaster Central account and set your location
#4 - Verify your Google local listing (if available)

Here are some other actions you can take to make yourself a bit safer:
#5 - Submit your site to country specific directories
#6 - Gain links from websites that are specific to your country.
#7 - State your address twice on your web pages
#8 - Use geo microformats

If all else fails then you can always use ip delivery to redirect visitors from Google to the the country specific tld.