Why Most Ecommerce Websites Don’t Rank on Google (India)

First, Understand This: Ecommerce SEO Is NOT Blog SEO

This is where most brands go wrong. Indian ecommerce founders often:

• Hire content writers who only know blogging SEO
• Or agencies that do service-website SEO
• Or freelancers who focus only on backlinks

But ecommerce SEO is completely different.

Google SEO for ecommerce revolves around:

• Category pages
• Product pages
• Internal linking
• Crawl efficiency
• Buyer-intent keywords

Blogs alone cannot rank an ecommerce site.

If your SEO strategy is: “Har week 2 blogs likh do” then You’re already losing.

1️⃣ Thin, Duplicate & Lazy Product Pages (The Silent Ranking Killer)

Let’s be brutally honest. Most Indian D2C product pages look like this:

“Premium quality material
Lightweight and durable
Perfect for daily use”

That’s it.

Now multiply that same description across:

• 20 colors
• 10 sizes
• Multiple collections

From Google’s perspective:
👉 Nothing unique
👉 Nothing useful
👉 Nothing authoritative

Why Google Ignores These Pages

Google asks three questions for every page:

1. Is this page unique?
2. Is it helpful?
3. Is it better than others?

Most product pages fail all three.

Real Indian Scenario

A skincare brand had:

• 60 products
• Same structure
• Same language
• Only ingredient names changed

Result? Only the homepage ranked. None of the product pages did.

What Actually Works for Product SEO

High-ranking ecommerce product pages in India include:

• 400–800 words of unique content
• Use cases (Indian skin, climate, lifestyle)
• FAQs (shipping, COD, returns)
• Internal links from blogs & categories
• Real reviews and UGC

👉 Google ranks pages that help users decide, not pages that just exist.

2️⃣ Category Pages Are Treated Like Filter Pages (Big Mistake)

Category pages are the biggest SEO asset for ecommerce. But most Indian websites:

• Don’t write a single word on them
• Just show product grids
• Add filters and think SEO is done

Google’s POV: “This page has no information. Why should I rank it?”

Example:

Category page: “Men’s Kurta”

Contains:

• No introduction
• No H1 optimization
• No explanation
• No internal links
• No FAQs

That’s not a content page that’s a database view.

What Ranking Category Pages Look Like

Strong ecommerce category pages:

• 500–1000 words of contextual content
• Explain materials, use cases, buying tips
• Target Indian buyer searches like:
  • “men kurta for wedding India”
  • “cotton kurta for summer India”
• Include FAQs and internal links

📌 Category pages should be written for humans first, Google second.

3️⃣ Wrong Keyword Targeting (Traffic ≠ Buyers)

One of the most damaging SEO mistakes Indian ecommerce brands make is targeting the wrong keywords.

What Most Brands Target:

• “What is skincare”
• “Benefits of organic food”
• “Types of shoes”

These keywords bring:
❌ Students
❌ Researchers
❌ Zero purchase intent

What Google Rewards for Ecommerce:
Buyer-intent keywords like:

• “Best ___ for ___”
• “Buy ___ online India”
• “___ price in India”
• “___ for ___ skin type”

Real Example:
❌ Blog: “Benefits of Face Serum”
✅ Blog: “Best Face Serum for Oily Skin in Indian Summer”

The second one:

• Matches real searches
• Solves a problem
• Leads naturally to products

👉 SEO traffic without intent is useless for ecommerce.

4️⃣ Competing With Amazon & Flipkart Like a Beginner

Many Indian D2C brands try to rank for keywords like:

• “Buy shoes online”
• “Protein powder”
• “Face cream”

You’re competing with Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra and Nykaa. You will lose.

Not because your product is bad but because:

• Their domain authority is massive
• They own search intent already

Smart SEO Is NOT About Fighting Giants

It’s about:

• Finding gaps
• Owning niches
• Capturing long-tail intent

Example:

Instead of:

❌ “Shoes online”

Target:

✅ “orthopedic shoes for senior citizens India” or

✅ “shoes for flat feet India”

These convert better and rank faster.

5️⃣ Technical SEO Is Ignored (Especially on Shopify)

This is extremely common in India. Most D2C brands use Shopify or WordPress + WooCommerce and assume: “Platform SEO friendly hai, bas content likho.”

Wrong.

Common Technical SEO Issues We See:

• Slow mobile speed
• Heavy themes
• Too many apps
• Duplicate URLs
• Filter pages getting indexed
• Poor Core Web Vitals

Remember: 👉 75%+ ecommerce traffic in India is mobile.

If your site is slow on mobile, Google quietly demotes you.

Reality Check

No amount of blogging can fix:

• 6-second page load
• Broken internal links
• Crawl budget waste

SEO content sits on top of technical health.

6️⃣ No Internal Linking = No Authority Flow

This is one of the most ignored areas. Indian ecommerce brands:

• Publish blogs
• Publish products
• Publish categories
• But never connect them

Result?

👉 Pages become orphans

👉 Google doesn’t know what’s important

Proper Internal Linking Looks Like:

• Blog → Category page
• Category → Top products
• Product → Related blogs
• FAQs linking across

This tells Google: “This category matters” and “This product matters.”

Without internal linking, Google treats all pages as equally unimportant.

7️⃣ SEO Is Done Like a One-Time Task

This is cultural. Many Indian brands think:

“3 mahine SEO karwa lo, phir band.”

Ecommerce SEO doesn’t work like that.

Realistic SEO Timeline:

• 0–3 months → foundation, indexing, fixes
• 3–6 months → early rankings
• 6–12 months → compounding growth
• 12+ months → predictable organic sales

Brands that stop early:

• Never reach momentum
• Never build authority
• Never see ROI

SEO rewards consistency, not shortcuts.

8️⃣ No Clear SEO Funnel (Everything Is Random)

Most ecommerce SEO looks like:

• Random blogs
• Random keywords
• Random backlinks

There’s no funnel.

A Proper Ecommerce SEO Funnel:

• Top funnel → problem-based blogs
• Mid funnel → comparison & buying guides
• Bottom funnel → category & product pages

If blogs don’t lead to products, SEO doesn’t sell.

The Real Reason Ecommerce SEO Fails in India

SEO doesn’t fail. 👉 Execution fails.

Most Indian ecommerce websites:

• Copy content
• Ignore intent
• Skip technical SEO
• Compete blindly
• Expect fast results

Google rewards:
✔ Depth
✔ Relevance
✔ Structure
✔ User satisfaction

How Digi Suggest Fixes Ecommerce SEO Properly

At Digi Suggest, we don’t do “blog SEO”.

We build ecommerce-first SEO systems for Indian D2C brands.

Our SEO Approach:

• Category & product page optimization
• Buyer-intent keyword research
• Technical SEO audits
• Internal linking architecture
• Content that actually drives sales

🎯 We fix why Google is ignoring your store.

If your ecommerce website isn’t ranking despite SEO efforts, you’re likely fixing the wrong things.

👉 Identify why your pages aren’t ranking

👉 Build SEO that brings traffic and revenue