Webmaster tools International Targeting

[roberthseo]

Hello there,

If we have country specific websites such as:

usa.domain.com (For the US)

uk.domain.com (For the UK)

fr.domain.com (For France)

Should each of the above sub-domains be set up separately in webmaster tools?

With "target users in" for each of the specific countries?

Thanks

[MattAntonino]

Yes, it should.  Target each internationally & specifically.  Sitemaps for each, as well.

If the content is similar/duplicate, also make sure you're setting up hreflang tags.

[gfiorelli1]

Correct, apart the last phrase (If the content is similar/duplicate, also make sure you're setting up hreflang tags).

If content are duplicated, than use cross-domain canonical, being the href of the canonical tag the one of the most important site.

Hreflang, though, must be implemented in order to tell Google to show one URL to its specific geotargeted audience, despite of the canonicalization being present.

Why, because hreflang and rel="canonical" are two different things and hreflang does not substitute rel="canonical".