How to Optimize Your Ecommerce Site for AI Search

With tools like Google’s AI Overviews or AI Mode and ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini, traditional search engine results pages (SERPs) are increasingly competing with AI-powered responses. In a recent Adobe survey, 53% of people said they planned to use generative AI for online shopping that year. That means the strategies that once helped ecommerce businesses get found online need to adapt.

This is where ecommerce AI SEO comes in. AI SEO for ecommerce focuses on helping AI systems understand your content, trust your brand, and prioritize your product listings when generating search responses. As more shoppers start to use AI-assisted search to discover and compare products, your site’s discoverability depends on how well it meets these new standards.

What is AI SEO or AIO?

AI SEO is the practice of optimizing a website or web page so that it’s more likely to appear in AI chatbot responses and AI search summaries. The space is relatively new, so you’ll also see it referred to as AIO (artificial intelligence optimization), GEO (generative engine optimization), AEO (answer engine optimization), and LLMO (large language model optimization), among other terms. You’ll typically see us using AIO across Squarespace. 

This shift creates both challenges and opportunities. Right now, many strategies that apply to SEO also apply to AIO, but it’s an evolving space. To stay visible in AI search results, you need to be ready to adapt how you structure, describe, and support your products. 

Read our intro to AIO strategies for websites

How online businesses appear in AI search

Product and shopping searches in AI search can act as a personalized research aggregator, processing forum conversations, recommendation websites, and customer reviews to produce results for a search. Like traditional search, AI sends bots across the internet to “crawl” websites and understand their content. If you want to appear in results, you need to allow AI bots to crawl your site.

Instead of showing a list of links like in traditional search results, AI synthesizes content across the web to generate summaries and responses to your searches. You can think of this as the recommended products result in Google search results on a much larger, more customized scale. Instead of a neutral mix of products, links, and businesses, AI results might share recommendations based on your conversation history, summarize reviews from forums, or even take someone from search to purchase all within the AI chatbot window.

There are a few common ways a business can appear in these results:

• Product listing: Similar to the way products appear in traditional search results, you’ll see a product photo and name, with a link to the retailer website. Chatbots often explain why they’re recommending specific products too.

• Overview list: A list synthesizing recommendations from across the web, with explanations and sometimes split into categories like “best for budget” or “best for travel”.

• Local listing or map: For local searches, like “dry cleaner in NYC,” you might see a list of businesses and descriptions or an interactive map listing a description, hours, contact information, and website URL.

Knowing how you can appear in results and how AI tools choose content is the first step to tailoring your site for improved visibility and increased traffic.

6 ways to prepare your business for AIO

There are several strategies you can try to improve your store’s visibility in AI search results. Remember: You don’t need to do everything at once. Start with a few tasks that feel easy to tackle, spread them across a few days or weeks, and go from there. 

While there are paid tools to help you monitor appearances in AI results, you can also monitor whether a tactic’s been successful by testing different search phrases related to your product and seeing whether you appear.

See our tips for measuring AIO without a tool

1. Use structured data to describe your products

Structured data, also known as schema markup, helps AI and search engines understand the content of your product pages. It labels important details like product names, prices, reviews, and availability in a format machines can easily read.

Most ecommerce platforms, including Squarespace, automatically add basic schema to your product listings. But it’s worth checking to ensure your pages include:

• Product name and description

• Price and currency

• Inventory status

• Customer reviews 

When you have structured data, AI tools are more likely to highlight your listings in shopping carousels or summarized product comparisons. Keeping these updated and accurate also makes sure AI results represent your product and pricing correctly.

2. Optimize for conversational search queries

AI-powered searches tend to be more natural and question-based than traditional searches, meaning your target keywords will be different. Instead of searching "ceramic coffee mug," someone might ask "What’s the best ceramic mug for gifting under $30?"

To optimize for these types of searches:

• Add FAQ sections to product pages or a standalone page on your site.

• Use complete, natural-sounding sentences in descriptions.

• Include variations of common customer questions in your copy.

For example, if you sell eco-friendly kitchenware, include language like, "This biodegradable utensil set is ideal for campers looking for sustainable gear." This could help your products surface in searches like “What are good eco-friendly utensils for camping?” or “What sustainable products should I bring camping?”

3. Strengthen off-site visibility of your products

AI tools factor in how your site is referenced across the web. These off-site signals play a role in how often your products appear and how they’re presented to searchers.

This applies to both formal sources like trusted blogs and news sources and community forums like Reddit and Quora. To improve your off-site credibility:

• Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews on third-party platforms.

• Reach out for backlinks from trusted blogs or content creators in your niche.

• Get in touch with review sites or popular reviewers.

• Participate in community forums, but make sure to provide value before directly pitching your products.

• Ensure business details are consistent across directories like Google Business Profile or Yelp.

If multiple sources cite your products or content, AI systems are more likely to trust and surface your pages. What people say about you on those third-party sites is often summarized or repeated in results too, so it’s important to ensure information is both correct and positive whenever possible.

4. Keep your website updated

Keeping your site and store content up to date has always been important, but with AI chatbots, it can impact whether your website shows up at all. Chatbots often determine whether to show something based on the freshness of a page’s content. 

You don’t have to make updates for the sake of making a change, but try setting a monthly reminder to check in. Confirm the accuracy of your store and product information and FAQs, or consider whether you have any news, content, or updates to share.

5. Follow E-E-A-T principles

Sites that publish relevant, trustworthy content consistently tend to perform better in AI-generated results. A good guideline is to create content that reflects experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). These could include:

• Adding certifications or awards to your website.

• Add real customer reviews and star ratings to product pages.

• Encourage customers to share personal notes or experiences like, "We used this bag on a 10-day trip."

• Post easy-to-find contact info, business credentials, and refund policies.

You can also create content that builds your authority in your specific ecommerce niche. These could be blogs or social media posts. 

• Write blog posts answering common product questions.

• Publish comparison guides between products or categories.

• Create how-to articles that link to your products.

• Share content that shows how to get the most out of your products.

For instance, a skincare brand might publish a post titled "How to choose the right moisturizer for sensitive skin," linking to relevant items in their store.

6. Improve technical performance and user experience

Fast, responsive, and well-organized websites tend to perform better with both customers and AI systems. For site visitors, it makes your products easier to browse and consider. For AI, it makes it easier to understand and summarize what’s on your website for a potential customer.

A few simple ways to improve your user experience are:

• Compressing product images for faster load times

• Making navigation intuitive on mobile devices

• Updating or redirecting out-of-stock pages to active products

• Avoiding intrusive pop-ups or auto-play videos

Adapting to AI-powered search isn’t about rewriting everything at once. It’s about helping search engines understand why your ecommerce store is worth showing and giving customers a clear, trustworthy experience that makes them want to return.

AIO is developing alongside AI search platforms, so best practices may change over time. You can find our newest content in our AIO hub and trust Squarespace to keep blogs updated as information changes. By integrating these ecommerce AI SEO strategies now, you’ll be positioned to perform well as AI search continues to evolve.