Y.com vs Y.ca

Canadian biz lists (much) lower on .ca searches

[tlibson]

I look after a site for my wife for a home party business here in Canada. Anyone who searches y.com or google to book this type of party (ie: sales presentation) will find my wife's site listed #1. But if they search on yahoo.ca, her site drops out of sight!
Her general location is referenced on the home page and elsewhere on the site. I would have expected that yahoo would see this URL as being even more relevant for a Canadian search than on a y.com search - not less!
My best guess is that y.ca puts an enormous relevancy premium on .ca domains for Canadian searches. If that's right, I'm afraid Canadian users are in for very disappointing results.
Any insights from anyone?

[Skier]

I just compared two keywords for a .ca site on the US and Canadian Yahoos.

One keyword put the site at #10 on both.

The other keyword got #8 on the US Yahoo, and #4 on Yahoo Canada. However, the top three positions above that (on yahoo.ca) were all .com sites.

There is some of the effect you report, but not what I would call "enormous differences". (Based on a very small sample)

[tlibson]

In the case I'm dealing with, the site slides from #1 "on the Web" at yahoo.ca to a no-show in the first 7 pages (ie: not listed among the top 140.)
Luckily, her site is referenced through a few links in regional shopping directories that do appear on the first couple pages.
Her friend, who runs a similar business in the Maritimes, doesn't appear in the Canadian rankings at all. I write both sites and a lot of the content is the same, optimized on the same keywords.
Very odd.