.com Outranking my ccTLD's and cannot figure out why.

[DRSearchEngOpt]

So I have a client that has a number of sites for a number of different countries with their specific ccTLD.  They also have a .com in the US.  The problem is that the UK site hardly ranks for anything while the .com ranks for a ton in the UK.  I have setup GWT for the UK and the .com to be specific to their geographic locations.  So I have the ccTLD and I have GWT showing where I want these sites to rank.  Problem is it apparently is not working....Any clues as to what else I could do?

[DiTomaso]

I think we'd need some more info to provide a helpful answer.

• Is the content the same between the sites?
• What does the backlink profile look like for the sites?

If you have all your links and great content on the .com and nothing (or worse,duplicate content) on the .co.uk (for example), then I'd absolutely expect the .com to rank, especially if you have UK-specific links pointing to it, regardless of what you set in GWT.

Does that help a bit?

[DRSearchEngOpt]

The content is fairly similar as we sell most of the same products in all the locales but the problem I have is this is true for all my regions but the UK is where I am seeing most of the trouble.  The backlink profile is pretty garbage for the UK site.

Would using the rel=alternate tag on the XML sitemap for the .com help any you think?

[DiTomaso]

I would definitely try the rel=alternate tag in this instance, and start working on some decent links from .co.uk sites to the .co.uk site. Good luck!

[DRSearchEngOpt]

The problem I see with the rel=alternate tag is how do I set this up for a locale versus just setting this up with the hreflang?  Both are english so it really doesn't qualify as alternate in a different language.

[DiTomaso]

rel=alternate works for GB vs US, for example. I don't see it as a problem!