The question is: how can I target a specific country whithin the domain name? Answers I know: - host the site in the country (IP) - choose the extension of the country Did I miss something here? (is linking from some websites in the country a solution too?) If I do so, how will that affect my international traffic?
Yes, all three are very good, important points. It will affect your traffic, because international search engines will give priority to your site when someone searches on their country only (e.g. Pages from Canada)
Then, What is in your opinion the best way to get the most traffic? - buy a .com and host it in canada - buy a .ca and host it anywhere - buy a .com and link to it from .ca sites - ... any better idea?
If the country you want target is not an english country, you need to have the site in the country language. Link from country sites is not important I have an italian site that is in the first 3 positions and is linked only from english sites. The same is for IP I don't think is important. So from my experience is the following(the order is what I think is priority): English site Target United Kingdom 1)Use an U.K domain 2)U.K. IP Non English Target to Italy 1)Italian Language site 2).it Domain 3)Italian IP