Multilingual sites: Canonical and Alternate tag implementation question

[Amiee]

Hello,

I would like some clarification about the correct implementation of the rel="alternate" tag and the canonical tag.

The example given at http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=189077 recommends implementing the canonical tag on all region specific sub-domains, and have it point to the www version of the website Here's the example given by Google.

My question is the following. Would this technique also apply if I have region specific sites site local TLD. In other words, if I have www.example.com, www.example.co.uk, www.example.ca – all with the same content in English, but prices and delivery options tailored for US, UK and Canada residents, should I go ahead and implement the canonical tag and alternate tag as follows:

I am a bit concerned about canonicalizing an entire local TLD to the .com site.

[RobertFisher]

Since you are using ccTLD's I do not believe you have to use rel=canon to the .com. If you have three distinct sites, the way you have the alternate here is correct. In the .com you would set geotargeting in WMT. Go to site configuration, click settings, choose geographic target and set for the US. This will insure that the .com is for U.S. and prevent confusion since you have the other two ccTLD's. 
You won't have duped content issues this way.

As to choosing the rel=canon, you could do it each for its own domain, or if you want to share content, etc. you could do a cross domain rel=canon.