Switch to Separate URL Configurations for International SEO?

[westcoastcraig]

We run an ecommerce website and sell to customers in the US and Canada. We recently realized that the way we serve content to our users isn't Google's recommended way. We use locale-adaptive pages in that some content changes slightly depending on where we think the user is located based on their IP address. But the URL doesn't change. Google's stance on locale-adaptive - https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6144055?hl=en&ref_topic=2370587

That being said, the changes are quite minor. It is usually only pricing and currency that changes depending on if we determine the user to be based in Canada or the US. However, I understand that there can be problems related to this configuration because of GoogleBot primarily using a US-based IP.

We decided that the best course of action for us is to serve US content as our default content on all of our existing URLs. And Canadian content would be served using new url paths such as: example.com**/en-ca/**product1. All of this would also be configured to use hreflang tags.

The problem we have run into is that it is a pretty huge development challenge to reconfigure how the site serves content when we have been using locale-adaptive for over a year. So developer resources would be taken away from other tasks and put toward this one for a relatively long time.

Based on this information and the fact that we would like to both rank better in Canada and to follow Google's recommendations, how important would you say this change would be? I realize this isn't a black and white question and it depends a lot on business goals and preferences. However, I need to be able to gauge as best as I can how necessary it is to do this in order to make the decision of whether to do it or not.

Any input is greatly appreciated!

[westcoastcraig]

Thank you for your response! I appreciate your input.

[katemorris]

The importance is based on how important it is for you to have your Canadian users see the "Canadian" content in search results. If you are in a highly competitive search space in which price markup in SERPs is important, this might be worth your time.

BUT if you don't mind that the US page shows in search results and the IP redirect takes care of things once the user is on the site, you are fine with your setup. Like you said at the end, this isn't the "preferred" route, but if the content isn't really changing, then it shouldn't be an issue.

The issue really lies in when the users need to see very different content.

Additionally, consider IP detection, but using a cookie after confirming with the user that they are in the US or Canada to show the right content to that specific user.