.ca for Canada-specific business currently using .com?

[ArborMemorial]

I work for a Canadian company and we are re-doing our website (corporate and branch sites) and the question has come up if we should change our current main domain from .com to .ca for local SEO benefits since we don't target an international audience.  We own both versions but the .ca re-directs to the .com and we use .com in all our marketing materials.

My understanding is that we can specify in Google Webmaster Tools that the focus of the site is Canada and I feel that switching to the .ca as the main domain isn't necessary, but I was wondering if there are real SEO benefits to make us seriously consider the change?

Thanks,

Taira

[RyanPurkey]

If all your marketing materials reflect the .com I'd keep that; however, you can consider rolling out the .ca for localized branches.  Still, there are trade offs there as well, for example, if you're currently hosting your local branches on the .com main site they're likely experiencing a boost from its domain trust and authority. Things like that would be in play specifically for the branches. For corporate I'd leave it at .com.  Cheers!

[ArborMemorial]

All the branch websites have their own domains at the moment but with the new CMS they will all be under the same domain (each with its own directory and also re-directing the old domains and every old url here with a 301) which we plan to continue being the .com (currently in use for the corporate site).

I'm afraid that moving everything to the .ca we would lose what authority the .com has acquired over the years (not a ton of traffic but in use since 1997) and unsure that the boost we could get on google.ca for using a .ca would be enough to offset this.

Does anyone know if the domain authority can get fully transferred if we switched from .com to .ca as the main domain?

[MiriamEllis]

This post from one of my favorite Canadian Local SEOs, Jim Rudnick, is quite old, but I think you may find it relevant to your question:

http://canuckseo.com/index.php/2010/04/to-dot-ca-or-not-to-dot-ca

In your shoes, I'd actually consider reaching out to someone like Jim for some consulting if he's available, as he knows Canadian Local like few other pros. You're making a big decision, and some professional advice could be very valuable at at time like this.

[ArborMemorial]

Thank you for all your suggestions.

Does anyone know how well a domain's authority can be passed to another in case you decide to switch TLD after having been using one for years?

Is it like in the case of 301 re-directs, you lose a bit but not that much, or are you essentially starting over with Google?

Thanks,

Taira