AI overviews fundamentally changed how products are found online. Keywords alone are not enough, and even top-ranking pages need updating to stay relevant.
This post shows you precisely what AI crawlers look for in your website, what to do to show your product in Google’s AI overview, and how to future-proof your Shopify AI strategy.
AI SEO is here to stay
By October 2025, approximately 10% of all ChatGPT conversations were related to shopping. Meanwhile, according to a study by Bloomreach, more than 61% of consumers have used general-purpose AI tools like ChatGPT or Gemini to assist with online shopping.
Google itself is now a gigantic semantic search engine. If in the past search engines looked for keywords and their variations, they now consider the full range of the topic and how relevant the website is in addressing all shoppers’ queries, questions, and worries.
Put simply, crawlers from all sides now dig deeper than ever to find what a shopper needs. Ranking high helps, but doesn’t guarantee your site will be the one to show.
The formula is incomplete
E-E-A-T will never get old, yet we can add to it for the conversation of Shopify AI SEO. There is one crucial element missing that ties them all together for AI SEO: Relevance.
There are two sides to keeping relevant.
- Keeping your content relevant to your audience
- Staying relevant with what AI looks for on your site
In practice, staying relevant means:
- Regularly updating your content to match SERP changes
- Keeping up the technical SEO to match AI crawlers’ needs
- Setting up automated AI systems to automate SEO efforts
- Optimizing site performance continuously
- Keeping updated with Google’s best practices on important information and helpful content
Let’s dive into the nuts and bolts of how all this blends in with your product showing on Google’s AI overviews.
What changed with AI overviews?
Fast forward a year from the first time the AI overview appeared on search, and Gemini has become the most downloaded App on the Play Store. What initially was thought of as Google’s way to catch up to ChatGPT turned out to be more important for users (especially shoppers) than a dedicated AI.
We asked Google itself how the overview works. We got what we expected, and it’s very similar to how traditional SEO works in showing users what they need.
Google Search VP Robby Stein, who led the launch of AI Overviews, confirmed in an interview on Lenny’s Podcast that the core purpose of search hasn’t changed.
What has changed is the way people search. AI has expanded the types of questions users feel comfortable asking, especially longer, more complex, natural-language queries that weren’t commonly typed into search engines before.
A study from advanced web ranking of over 8000 keywords confirmed what Stein said with hard data:
- Longer conversational queries most frequently trigger an AI Overview.
Five-word queries worked better to trigger an AI overview. It generally means that search engines find it more reasonable to provide a summarized answer or a step-by-step process when questions and context are typed in.
- No AI Overviews show up for brand-related queries.
Google recognises Shoppers who have a clear intent and judges it unnecessary to show a summarized version or guide.
- Navigational intent keywords are less likely to display AI Overviews.
Same as above, when keywords are navigational (searching for a specific product or site), there is no need for an overview.
The outcome: AI is keeping the core SEO elements intact, but is fundamentally changing the way and depth at which users search on Google. Start thinking about what people are using AI for and what kind of content would be best to answer those needs.
What appears on AI overviews?
Image from Advanced Web Ranking
Google AI overviews consist of a short piece of text (around 170 characters) and the sources from which the text is taken. Not all elements shown in the image above appear all the time, and the overview looks different depending on what you are looking for.
For example, when typing ‘best hiking backpack’, Google recognizes the need to instruct what a good backpack is, choose trusted sources on the internet, and even go deeper into sub-topics (the core of semantic SEO) like multi-day backpacking.
When inputting the query ‘hiking backpack for kids’, Google doesn’t recognize the need for an overview, besides suggesting products on the Google product carousel, which we will get into shortly.
Let’s dig deeper and ask, ‘What hiking backpack should I choose for my child?’ Google recognized the need to explain and instruct. This time, stores are among the sources cited by Google in the snippet on the right side and in the text.
The source takes us to the seller’s blog post on ‘Children’s hiking backpack: what to consider’ and precisely on the guide towards the weight of the backpack.
The outcome: Undoubtedly, the page with the most comprehensive contextual information about a topic provides the most detailed insights. That will most likely be your Blog or a very well-optimized product or collection page that best answers the question.
For the specific example above, Google gathered various sources for different product specs. Your PDP, if you are selling this item, should include information on all these specifics and clearly explain what you are selling, for whom, and why they should choose it.
Below is an example of a lengthy PDP that covers all the information that shoppers might be looking for regarding the products and their usage.
From (SEO) to AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)
Google is not betting on AI; they already know it’s working for them and have ‘enforced’ it already. There’s no opting out of AI overviews, and nothing suggests that AI mode is anything but expanding.
From traditional SEO as we know it, the focus is shifting towards answer engine optimization (AEO). Shoppers now want direct answers and no fluff. This all leads to a very possible future where:
– Voice and visual search are meant to go mainstream
In 2025, voice shopping consumers are projected to spend an estimated $81.8 billion worldwide. Voice search is not the future; it’s a solid reality. The same can be said about visual search, whose potential, when combined with AI, is enormous.
– Overviews will become more personalized
AI personalization has just started, and context is the new keyword when it comes to semantic search. While today search history still plays a role, it’s expected that purchase decisions will dictate directly what an AI overview shows after each search as the AI gets ‘trained’ on the shopper’s data.
– Automated, adaptable content will be needed
As search overviews become more dynamic, website content needs to adapt to continually stay relevant. For this, dedicated AI tools and frameworks will become the standard for stores of every size.
Now that we have a picture of the future, let’s go through what we can actually do to stay relevant.
How to optimize a Shopify store for AI overviews and AI SEO
Optimizing for AI overviews ties directly to your overall SEO strategy and whether you have included AI SEO as part of it.
You first need to have the basics of traditional SEO in place – after all, the top 10 ranking sites in Google for a search (whether primary or related) are the ones where AI overviews get the most reference from.
Taking that aside, the following are the next steps.
1- Structure your content for AI
You are effectively optimizing your content for Google Gemini AI crawlers. It’s the former, or a similar technology, that does the ‘searching’ for you to show overviews.
LLMs have distinct tastes when it comes to how they want content to be written and structured. We tested this successfully when we indexed products on Perplexity and ChatGPT. The same formula will work for Google as well.
The table below illustrates how AI crawlers prefer content to be formatted:
| Standard SEO | LLM-Optimized | |
|---|---|---|
| Paragraphs / Length | Short paragraphs or bullet points; often dense with keywords | Clear, organized sections with defined purposes: title, intro, transformation bullets, long description, Q&A, reviews |
| Sectioning | Minimal; usually just features/specs list | Multiple structured sections to improve readability for humans and AI, often including: intro, outcomes, FAQs, reviews, structured data hints |
| Flow | Feature-first; no particular narrative | Logical flow from what the product is → who it’s for → why (outcomes/benefits) → supporting details |
| Headings / Subsections | Rarely used, sometimes bullets only | Headings and subheadings clearly label sections to guide AI and users through content |
2- Implement structured data (Schema) for all pages.
Research by Aiso has shown that LLMs extract more accurate data from pages with schema markup, with a 30% improvement in quality. It not only helps show you the product as a featured snippet on the AI overview, but also:
- Displaying price, offers, reviews, and shipping information on the SERP
- Help AI discover reviews and use them as a basis to summarize your product strengths
- Making your product eligible for product carousels and FAQ dropdowns
- Improve overall SEO score
Structured data (often referred to as schema markup) is a way of labeling (marking) your store’s data in a language that Google understands. It uses schema.org, which is simply a vocabulary (set of labels) used by all search engines to standardize the way structured data is added to a website.
All possible schema markup is listed in Google’s official documentation
The table shows a recap of the process to follow. The full guide dives deep into it.
| Action | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Check your theme for built-in structured data | View page source → search for application/ld+json → check for Product, Review, Price |
| 2 | Add JSON-LD structured data | Option 1: Use Shopify apps (e.g., Smart SEO, Ilana’s JSON-LD) Option 2: Add manually in product.liquid or product-template.liquid |
| 3 | Validate structured data | Use Google Rich Results Test to ensure proper implementation |
| 4 | Track results | Monitor “Enhancements” in Google Search Console for Products, Reviews, FAQ |
| 5 | Maintain & update | Keep data fresh, add FAQs, how-tos, and other relevant schema to stay AI/SEO friendly |
There are several methods for verifying structured data. Besides using Google itself (see the link in the table above), another easy way is to test in real-time by using a Chrome extension. I usually use the Ahrefs SEO toolbar browser extension.
3- Rewrite old content
Making your content AI-friendly means adapting to what they look for. In the AI era, your content should be intelligent, contextual, and machine-readable.
To keep this focused, I highly recommend reading this post from our friends at Orbit Media, which explains how to resurface content from older blog posts. The same logic can be applied to eCommerce products and categories.
For now, let’s focus on product pages as the first ones that need re-vamping.
| Standard Product Description | LLM-Optimized Product Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Focus Shift | Keyword-focused; lists features, sizes, and specs | Focuses on meaning, context, user intent, and outcomes. Helps AI and search engines understand what the product is for, who uses it, and why it matters |
| Language & Tone | Marketing-heavy; adjectives like “premium,” “amazing” | Plain, human-friendly language, focused on practical outcomes |
| Semantic Context | Repeats keywords (e.g., “kids guitar, children guitar”) | Uses semantic terms, synonyms, and related topics that reflect real search intent (e.g., “guitar for small hands, beginner guitar”) |
| AI & SEO Friendly | Optimized for Google via keyword placement only | Optimized for both AI assistants (ChatGPT, Perplexity) and search engines. Includes context cues, Q&A, internal linking, and structured data for better AI recommendations |
Below is an example of a rewritten product page, incorporating the above tips and using our AI prompt for semantic SEO.
Notice how the focus shifts from the product alone to including related topics and how the structure is easier to scan and read.
Case Study: F-Musiikki
After migrating to Shopify Plus and processing over 15,000+ products and hundreds of categories with Verbalic AI, our AI framework for rewriting PDPs, the new online store achieved a 130% higher average order value and a 30% increase in conversion rate.
4- Ensure AI crawlers can crawl your site
While Google already has access to your site, your best move is to make it as open as possible for all AI crawlers to scan through your content. A future where different LLMs dictate over each other’s findings is not far away.
The table below shows an overview of the three main steps to allow crawlers on your site. If you haven’t already, dive deeper into the process.
| Action | Purpose / Why It Matters | |
|---|---|---|
Update robots.txt
|
Allow AI crawlers such as oai-searchbot, GPTBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot
|
Ensures AI models can access your pages to index and recommend them |
Create llms.txt file |
Include brand name, short description, and links to top products, collections, and blogs | Acts as a sitemap for LLMs, guiding them to the most important pages for AI recommendations |
| Upload to root domain | Place llms.txt at yoursite.com/llms.txt
|
Makes the file discoverable by all AI crawlers automatically |
| Keep file updated | Add new top-performing pages or remove outdated content | Maintains relevance and ensures AI always has an up-to-date view of your site |
5- Connect collections, products, blogs, and reviews
As all the examples of AI overviews show, Google prioritizes pages that have the most valuable information for the user, not necessarily products or collections.
You need to turn your website into a semantic net of Information about topics related to the products you sell. Whether you’re operating in a niche market or not, a strategy for doing so, along with the proper internal and external linking, is a must.
What’s the next step?
You now have an idea of what is happening and what’s bound to happen in the near future of Shopify SEO. The first thing is to make sure you have all the above set, but that alone won’t be enough.
You need to find a long-term solution that puts you ahead of other stores. Book a complimentary call with our team to get a full SEO audit of your store, including a clear step-by-step action plan.
