Google isn’t just a search engine anymore. It’s a shopping engine. With AI Overviews, voice and visual search, Shopping Graph integrations, and answer engines like ChatGPT… search is now multimodal, personalised and highly transactional.
For eCommerce brands, showing up in the right place at the right time takes more than just ranking well.
You need to be discoverable, trustworthy and shoppable across every surface that matters, from organic listings to product feeds to AI-powered results.
This is your updated SEO playbook for eCommerce in 2025. No fluff. Just what works.
Why eCommerce SEO is Now About More Than Your Website
We’re rapidly moving into an API-first era of commerce—where the point of discovery, consideration, and even purchase is happening off your website.
As Jes Scholz, Growth Marketer and SEO Futurist points out:
“Product discovery and purchase decisions will more often than not happen off your website, on platforms like Google Merchant Center powered surfaces—not only Google Shopping but its integration into AI Overviews and AI Mode—as well as on ChatGPT, Amazon’s Rufus, and other AI-enhanced shopping interfaces.”
In this new environment, two things matter most:
Product Eligibility: Do You Even Show Up?
It’s no longer enough to just “index” your products on Google. You need to match the user query with product eligibility, and that means having a richly optimised product feed and PDP. If your listing lacks key attributes or fails to present them in a structured, citable format, your product simply won’t surface in response to AI-driven or query-matching engines.
As Jes puts it, “To even enter the consideration set, your PDP and the associated feed must be enriched with all buyer-relevant attributes—often beyond what other offers of the same or similar product can describe. With as much as possible marked up in graph-based structured data.”
This is where Merchant Center feed optimisation, schema, and content enrichment become non-negotiable. It’s not just for rankings—it’s about eligibility to compete.
Brand Salience: Are You the One They Choose?
Even if you win a placement, you’re often still competing—sometimes against identical products offered by different retailers.
Without strong brand preference, users default to price. And that commoditises your offer, dragging margins down.
Jes calls this out clearly: “To avoid this race to the bottom, you need to win on brand salience (being the chosen one in the buying situation).”
And the time to build brand salience? Before the user is shopping. That means publishing high-quality, helpful content during the research phase. It means reinforcing your brand value at every stage of the journey, so when users do encounter you in a comparison set, they already trust you.
Technical SEO that supports discoverability
1. Map keywords to intent, not just categories
Use tools, SERPs, and your own site search data to understand what users want to do: compare, explore or buy. Build content and pages around those moments.
2. Get your site structure and internal linking right
Use breadcrumb navigation and link from high-authority pages to subcategories and product pages. This helps Google (and AI tools) understand your site relationships.
3. Use site search queries to build new pages
If users are constantly searching for “travel skincare” or “wireless gym headphones,” that’s your cue. These are landing page opportunities, not just internal queries.
4. Keep out-of-stock pages live
Don’t redirect unless the product is permanently discontinued. Instead, show availability, offer alternatives, and include a back-in-stock alert. This preserves SEO value and keeps users engaged.
- Only redirect if discontinued: use a 301 to a relevant alternative or category page.
- Avoid 404s or temporary 302 redirects: these reduce long-term SEO value.
Handled thoughtfully, out-of-stock pages can continue to drive organic traffic and build long-term customer loyalty.
Make Google Merchant Center work for you
Your product feed is no longer just for ads. It powers Google’s understanding of your inventory across Shopping, Discover, and AI Mode.
5. Activate free product listings
They can appear in organic results, Shopping tabs, and even AI-generated recommendation panels. Submit your feed, opt into Surfaces Across Google, and make sure your data is accurate.
To activate free listings:
- Submit your product feed in Google Merchant Center
- Opt into ‘Surfaces across Google’ in your GMC settings
- Ensure your product data (titles, descriptions, pricing, imagery) is accurate and complete
- Keep inventory and shipping information up to date in real-time.
Why it matters in AI Mode:
Google’s free listings now support far more than the Shopping tab. In AI Mode, products from free feeds may appear:
- As AI-generated recommendations
- Within ‘Helpful things to know’ carousels
- In visual search or price tracking panels
By enabling free listings, you’re not just getting organic Shopping placements, you’re becoming eligible for visibility in rich, multimodal, and AI-curated experiences.
6. Optimise your Shopping feed
Your product feed — whether through Google Merchant Center (GMC), Bing, or another API — will not only fuel traditional shopping engines but also power emerging agentic commerce flows. AI agents will query your feed or APIs to validate stock, price, and shipping, and may even call checkout endpoints if enabled. Ensuring real-time accuracy is now mission-critical.
To improve your feed:
- Craft titles using a proven format: [Brand] + [Product Type] + [Key Attributes] + [Size/Colour/Variant]E.g., “ASICS Running Shoes Men’s Gel-Kayano 30 Black Size 10”
- Prioritise attributes shoppers search for (e.g. material, use case, gender, fit)
Front-load high-intent terms — especially important for mobile truncation
Avoid keyword stuffing or repetition between title and description - Upload multiple images — include angles, lifestyle shots, and variants
- Write clear, benefit-focused descriptions
- Ensure price, stock, and shipping data is accurate and up to date
- Provide GTINs and MPNs for strong product matching
- Regularly audit your feed against the latest Google requirements.
Why it matters in AI Mode:
Google’s AI Mode and Shopping Graph rely heavily on product feeds to generate personalised, AI-driven shopping recommendations. Structured, accurate, and rich product data increases the chance of being surfaced in:
- AI Overviews
- Product carousels
- Agent-driven ‘Buy Now’ flows
- Visual and voice-powered search results
Your Merchant Center feed isn’t just powering ads or Shopping tab placements anymore, it’s the core foundation of how Google understands and recommends your products across multi-surface search.
7. Work toward Top Seller status
Don’t just optimise your product feeds – make sure you’re applying the recommendations within Google Merchant Center to reach top seller status. This includes:
- Adding more product images, including lifestyle and alternative views
- Offering faster shipping and accurate delivery windows
- Improving site speed and user experience
- Including more complete product attributes in your feed.
Earning Top Seller status can unlock a range of search benefits – from richer product snippets to more prominent positioning in Shopping and organic product results. It’s an overlooked SEO lever that’s increasingly important in Google’s quality scoring.
For more tips on earning Top Seller status – check out Brodie Clark’s guide.
8. Run Merchant Promotions
Google Merchant Promotions let you display special offers – like discounts, free shipping, or gifts – in Shopping listings (paid and free). These can increase clicks and make your listings stand out.
To activate promotions:
- Enable them in Merchant Center (manually or via a promotions feed)
- Use clear, accurate promo titles and valid codes
- Ensure offers meet Google’s requirements and apply site-wide or to specified products.
Even simple promos like ‘10% off’ or ‘Free shipping’ can give your products a competitive edge in the SERP.
Build smarter category and product pages
Your category and product pages are doing more heavy lifting than ever. Treat them like landing pages, shopping assistants and search engines all rolled into one.
9. Structure your categories around real search behaviour
Organise your product catalogue in a way that reflects how users search. Group products into broad categories and refine them into subcategories where needed. This helps search engines understand your site architecture while improving the user experience. For example, under ‘Skincare’, you might include subcategories like ‘Face Serums’ or ‘Travel Packs.’
10. Write helpful intros for category pages
Treat category pages like landing pages. Above-the-fold copy should set context, explain the category’s purpose, and offer helpful guidance. Google is becoming the category page – so yours needs to justify why it deserves the click.
11. Match Google’s Shopping experience
Look at the options on Google’s Shopping tab – filters for price, size, colour, ratings, and more. If your store features high-volume product categories, replicate this experience. Make it easy for users to refine product discovery using on-page filters that align with how people already expect to shop.
12. Optimise product pages for purchases
Make your product pages fast, scannable, and complete:
- Descriptive, unique titles
- High-quality images with alt text
- Clear CTAs
- Specs, sizing, and availability
- Schema markup.
13. Optimise product pages for AI discoverability
AI-driven and semantic search surfaces, including LLMs, rely on rich product details. When users ask tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity for recommendations, they often include specific requirements. Make sure your product pages:
- Include all relevant attributes (e.g. size, use case, material)
- Feature images for every colour or variation
- Use structured markup for product specs
This increases the likelihood that your products will be recommended by AI models or surfaced in entity-aware discovery engines.
14. Get eligible for SERP features beyond the link
Google’s eCommerce results span far beyond traditional listings. Your products may now appear in Shopping carousels, People Also Ask (PAA), brand knowledge panels, ‘products nearby’, and even visual search. These SERP surfaces offer significant visibility, but only if your data is structured and rich enough to be pulled into them.
To increase eligibility across surfaces:
- Use structured data types such as Product, Offer, AggregateRating, and Review
- Ensure your product titles and descriptions are keyword-relevant and specific to the query types triggering SERP features
- Keep product data complete and current, including stock status, delivery windows, and price
- Optimise for local and mobile where relevant (e.g. ‘products near me’ and local availability feeds)
- Include multiple product images that may surface in visual search
- Avoid blocking assets or text required for rich result generation
By aligning with the expectations of each SERP surface, you expand the reach of your products beyond traditional rankings into formats where purchase decisions increasingly begin.
15. Leverage Google Seller Ratings
Google Seller Ratings are aggregated reviews collected from verified sources that reflect the overall customer experience with your store. While often associated with paid ads, these ratings can also enhance your organic search snippets when properly implemented.
They offer several SEO and UX benefits:
- Improve visibility in organic listings through the appearance of star ratings
- Act as a trust signal that increases click-through rates and brand credibility
- Support structured entity clarity, helping search engines better understand your site’s reputation.
To qualify:
- Collect at least 100 verified reviews per country in the past 12 months
- Maintain an average rating of 3.5 stars or higher
- Use a Google-approved review aggregator or Google Customer Reviews.
These measures not only improve your chances of visibility through seller ratings in search results, but they also help reinforce trust at a glance, supporting your broader organic strategy.
Scale visibility with content, brand and off-page SEO
16. Use Digital PR to earn visibility and trust
Building brand awareness and improving search visibility go hand-in-hand. Digital PR campaigns, whether tied to product launches, seasonal moments, or data stories, can generate media coverage, backlinks and social mentions that expand your footprint.
When done well, they help:
- Strengthen your site’s authority
- Introduce your brand to new audiences
- Drive top-of-funnel traffic that boosts recall later in the buying journey
17. Create content that supports real decisions
Content remains essential – but its role has expanded. Use it to:
- Address early-stage research and shopper questions
- Help users compare products or choose providers
- Establish topical authority in your niche
- Create engagement-focused assets that earn attention on social and Discover.
As LLMs and Google continue prioritising helpful content, always ensure your pages are built for users, not just algorithms. Use clear language, real product insight, and avoid over-optimising for keywords. Think: ‘Would this help someone make a decision?’
18. Get referenced across trusted sources
AI and LLMs learn from what’s mentioned and trusted online. Increase your chances of being recommended by:
- Getting your products discussed in blogs and influencer content
- Seeding authentic discussions on platforms like Reddit
- Ensuring consistent product representation in third-party reviews and roundups.
Optimise for AI and LLM discovery
19. Strengthen your brand entity
LLMs and AI-powered search engines are discovering and recommending content by recognising and connecting entities, not by keywords. This means that your brand, products, and content topics must be described consistently.
20. Pay attention to non-Google discovery
Shoppers use ChatGPT, TikTok, forums and review platforms to research before ever landing on your site. Create content that mimics these formats – FAQs, pros and cons, side-by-side comparisons.
ChatGPT, Perplexity & AI Overviews: Ensure your category pages establish topical authority and contain structured data to make them machine-readable. Use language that mirrors how users phrase their product-related questions. Think of these pages as training data for LLMs.
Reddit & Forums: Authentic discussions, personal comparisons, and product roundups regularly outrank retailers in search results. Mimic this style by including FAQs, pros and cons, and user perspectives directly on your site.
YouTube, Influencers & Review Media: Consumers often trust creators and third-party reviews. Embed video reviews, link to credible guides, and visually display any awards or expert recommendations to support trust and visibility.
21. Simplify product URLs to reduce crawl waste
Avoid excessive URL variations by removing category subfolders. Canonicals help, but simplifying the structure reduces unnecessary crawling.
22. Make your product detail pages machine-readable
AI-driven search is becoming more nuanced. When users ask tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity for product recommendations, they’re often looking for very specific attributes. Ensure your product pages include:
- All relevant product attributes (e.g. size, material, use cases)
- Multiple images, including every colour or variant
- Clear, structured specs for machine readability
23. Optimising for the era of AI agents
As AI evolves, ChatGPT no longer just answers — it acts. With its new Agent Mode, it can browse, interact, and execute multi-step workflows on behalf of users.
In her Search Engine Land analysis, Jes Scholz describes this as a shift “from retrieval to action,” where assistants begin completing tasks — including purchases — rather than simply recommending options.
For eCommerce brands, this changes SEO from being about discovery to being about execution — ensuring AI agents can find, interpret, and transact your products safely. As OpenAI rolls out Instant Checkout and agentic commerce integrations, the ability to make your store agent-ready will soon become a competitive advantage.
To prepare:
- Provide agent-accessible APIs, tokenised checkout endpoints, or feed integrations.
- Keep product data (inventory, pricing, variants) live and accurate.
- Embed user-consent or confirmation flows for critical actions.
- Add guardrails to limit what agents can’t do automatically.
Are you prepared for agentic shoppers?
Because what happens next isn’t theoretical — it’s already measurable. As Andrea Volpini explains,
“Agent-readiness is now part of the SEO and e-commerce baseline. If an agent cannot buy from you, a growing share of customers won’t either.”
His latest Agentic Friction study revealed that even advanced models like Gemini 2.5 struggle to complete basic purchase actions — from adding to cart to finding a returns policy — on most retail sites. The issue isn’t content; it’s structure. CAPTCHAs, hidden buttons, modals, and dynamic scripts block AI agents mid-journey, while clear markup, consistent layouts, and crawlable policies enable both humans and machines to transact smoothly.
Want to keep up to date with agentic eCommerce? Follow Andrea Volpini
and Jes Scholz on LinkedIn.
The bottom line
eCommerce SEO in 2025 is about showing up where it counts — in SERPs, Shopping, AI Overviews, voice, and chat.
As search merges with commerce, assistants are learning not just to recommend products but to complete the journey. Being visible now means being understandable, trusted, and executable — ready wherever the next click (or prompt) happens.
You’re no longer just optimising for search engines. You’re signalling to Google — and every AI assistant — that your product is the right answer.
Need help putting this checklist into action? Reach out for a AI strategy session. We’ll help you turn AI-powered search into a real growth driver.
