Homepage Not Ranking for Core Commercial Query After Sudden Drop – Intent Reassignment?

[accelerating_knowled]

Hi everyone,

I’m dealing with an unusual ranking situation for an established ecommerce website in a competitive adult retail niche.
Since November 2025, the homepage stopped ranking for our primary commercial query (short head term, high volume).

Important details:

• No manual action in GSC
• No security issues
• No domain-wide traffic collapse
• Other commercial keywords recovered
• Categories rank fine
• Brand queries rank normally

What changed:
For the core head term, Google no longer shows the homepage.
Instead, it ranks product categories.
It looks like a query-to-category intent reassignment rather than a penalty.
The query has strong local/store intent.
Local Pack appears above organic results.

Possible factors we’re investigating:

• Homepage being too broad
• Weak store-intent semantic signals
• Entity trust recalibration
• Local relevance shifts

Has anyone experienced a similar homepage demotion for a head commercial term where Google seems to prefer category pages?

Would you: A) Re-optimize homepage for stronger store intent
B) Create a dedicated landing page targeting the core term
C) Strengthen local entity signals instead
Looking forward to insights.

 

[zackrobinson]

This is likely Google refining intent, not demoting you. Optimize the page Google wants to rank (category), and reinforce local/entity signals instead of trying to force the homepage back.