Google displaying root domain instead of country locale
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Hi,
For many months now, Google refuses to display the relevant locale in many markets, and instead shows the root domain as number 1 result. The country locale isn't even in the SERP in some countries(!).
This only applies for branded searches. It appears Google is treating the root domain as an international landing page or something, while this isn't the case - visitors get redirected automatically based on their Geo-IP to the relevant country locale if they enter the root domain, there is no "flag selector" that people or bots can choose.
Site: example.com
If someone searches for "example" from Google Canada, they should be met with example.com/en-ca/ as the first result for branded searches.
Instead, example.com is ranking, and example.com/en-ca/ is nowhere to be found.
This problem is in all our English markets; Canada, India and UK. For non-english countries, branded searches return the relevant locale, but the root domain is often the 2nd result as well. This isn't as bad as the case with the English markets, but still.
Any help whatsoever would be greatly appreciated, or if you can recommend great reading assets. I have researched this thoroughly and tried different technical solutions, but nothing has worked so far.
Thanks!
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