My site ranks very high (#1 and #3) for two very competitive search terms in Google.ca but doesn't show up in the first 100 results for either term in Google.com. Why would that happen, and is there any way to improve my rank in Google.COM without messing up my Google Canada rank?
This is because google has more than 80 data centre and google.ca and google.com has also different data centre. due to this reason you get different result for same keyword in different data centre
The principle of geotargeting is playing a major role in your case. According to Google, your website is more appropriate for Canadian audience for the targeted keywords. This is done on the basis on the domain name, the links pointing to your website, the physical local of the server where the website is hosted, and many more. The question here is: are you targeting the Canadian market - if yes than there is no reason to worry, If no then you might look to address the above mentioned factors.
Hmmm.... it used to be really high in the US so not sure what changed, haven't changed web hosts... but appreciate the insight. Will check into it.
There was a similar thread recently about someone who was ranking highly on google.in. Obviously a slightly different scenario but a lot of the suggestions would apply to your situation too. http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1006413&highlight=ranking+india
One difference I have noticed between Google.ca and Google.com is that google.com favors .com websites, while google.ca doesn't seem to have the same preference. What is your domain extension?
My site is businesscarddesign.com - I'd like to rank high for "business card design" (used to hover between 1 & 2 for that in Google.com) and "business card" or "business cards." At least when I posted this initially, there was a significant difference in ranks. Haven't checked lately (death in the family, just now getting back to work again...) Thanks for the advice!
I hate when this happens, biztips, it drives me insane. I have rankings on several foreign servers and then US randomly drops off. The US servers usually follow trends of foreign servers after some time.
Goolge have own different data base so it is displaying like. Everyone have to optimize local and specific keyword.