How does SEO work in India?
Google handles almost all Indian search, and while English dominates commercial and B2B intent, Hindi and regional languages (Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, and others) carry significant weight in consumer and local-service queries, making hreflang and regional-language content valuable for many verticals beyond pure B2B software. Most businesses use .in or .com domains. Justdial and IndiaMART remain hugely influential local directories for services and B2B lead generation, alongside Sulekha and Google Business Profile, more so than in most Western markets where directories carry less weight. Flipkart and Amazon.in compete hard for ecommerce search clicks across nearly every retail category. Competition is intense in IT/SaaS, ecommerce, and ed-tech, while real estate SEO stays highly city-specific across India's distinct metro markets, from Mumbai's premium segment to Pune's IT-driven housing demand. Bengaluru and Hyderabad lead IT and SaaS competition specifically, while Mumbai anchors finance and premium real estate search nationally.