The ecommerce SEO landscape is transforming at lightning speed, and it’s not just about keeping up anymore—it’s about staying ahead. AI-driven technologies like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini are reshaping how we think about search and strategy, challenging ecommerce businesses to adapt or risk being left behind.
Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or an entrepreneur navigating the complexities of ecommerce, the pressure to pivot has never been greater.
That’s why we brought in the experts. In our recent webinar, Dan Hinckley, Partner, and Chris Long, VP of Marketing and Sales at Go Fish Digital, an Agital company, shared actionable insights and real-world examples of how AI can unlock new opportunities in the ecommerce space. They didn’t just talk theory—they provided practical steps you can take today to drive better results.
Here’s your guide to leveraging AI for ecommerce SEO success, with strategies tailored for this rapidly evolving space.
The rise of AI is no longer just buzz—it’s becoming a cornerstone of how search engines understand, categorize, and rank content. For ecommerce businesses, this shift represents both a challenge and an opportunity.
AI-powered tools and updates like Google’s Gemini don’t just prioritize keywords anymore; they analyze context, intent, and relevance at an unprecedented scale. That means a well-crafted AI-driven overview could be the key to securing higher visibility and better engagement with your target audience.
AI is revolutionizing the way users interact with search engines, making them more conversational, intuitive, and personalized.
“ChatGPT grew faster than any other platform in the past, reaching 100 million users in record time,” noted Hinckley, highlighting a shift in how quickly consumers are adopting AI technologies. This rapid adoption created a ripple effect, prompting tech giants like Google to rethink their approach to search.
In response, Google introduced Gemini, an AI-powered system designed to generate highly relevant and contextual overviews directly within search results. This move is a game-changer, fundamentally altering how users discover products and brands.
Instead of relying solely on traditional links and snippets, users now get AI-curated summaries that streamline decision-making, making it easier than ever to find what they’re looking for. For ecommerce businesses, this evolution means adapting to new search behaviors and optimizing for AI overviews is no longer optional—it’s essential.
Google is transforming its search results into shopping hubs. Hinckley explained, “Google’s search results are now more product-focused, including filters for categories, colors, and prices, mimicking the shopping experience on Amazon or Walmart.”
For marketers, this shift means rethinking how content is structured to align with Google’s AI-driven search features.
Broad targeting wastes ad spend by reaching users who aren’t genuinely interested in your products.
Choosing where to concentrate your efforts depends on your goals. While Google remains a dominant force in search, ChatGPT and other AI-driven platforms are carving out niches by offering conversational, highly interactive experiences. Understanding the strengths of each can help you allocate resources effectively and maximize your ecommerce visibility.
Google’s search results prioritize paid content. Hinckley observed, “Google integrates ads into the top fold, requiring users to scroll to reach organic results.” For businesses, maintaining a balance between paid and organic strategies is essential.
ChatGPT offers a cleaner, ad-free experience, prioritizing affiliate sites and retailers. Chris Long noted, “Unlike Google, ChatGPT delivers responses from affiliate sites and retailers without ad interruptions, creating a purely organic experience.”
Businesses should prepare content that works well on both platforms—focusing on strong organic content for ChatGPT while leveraging paid strategies to capture Google’s ad-driven traffic.
As AI-driven tools become more integrated into daily life, the way users search is shifting dramatically. Voice and conversational AI searches are quickly gaining traction, with consumers expecting quick, natural-sounding answers to their queries. Optimizing your content for these emerging formats can give your ecommerce business a critical edge.
Language models like ChatGPT are revolutionizing voice search by making it more intuitive, conversational, and personalized to the user’s needs. Unlike traditional search, which often requires users to sift through multiple links and pages, these models deliver concise, relevant, and actionable answers in real-time. Hinckley illustrated this shift with a practical example:
“I asked ChatGPT for gift ideas for a 17-year-old soccer enthusiast. It didn’t just give me a generic list of soccer-related products—it offered tailored suggestions based on my query, highlighted customization options, and even provided user reviews, all within one seamless interaction.”
This level of personalization transforms the user experience, making it faster and easier to find exactly what they’re looking for. For ecommerce businesses, this means optimizing content to align with these conversational searches, focusing on detailed product descriptions, relevant keywords, and user-centric answers to ensure your brand is part of the AI-driven conversation.
To capture the voice search audience, businesses should:
To stand out in a competitive ecommerce market, your content needs to do more than rank—it needs to engage and guide users through every stage of their journey. By addressing your audience’s needs at each touchpoint, from initial discovery to post-purchase support, you can turn casual visitors into loyal customers.
Google rewards content that supports every stage of the buyer’s journey, from initial awareness to post-purchase loyalty. As Hinckley explained, “Google’s organic algorithm is structured to reward websites that participate in every stage of the buyer’s journey.” This means that businesses focusing solely on transactional or bottom-funnel content are missing out on significant opportunities to rank and connect with potential customers.
To align with Google’s expectations, ecommerce businesses need to craft content that speaks to each phase of the journey. For awareness, this could include educational blog posts or trend-driven articles that introduce your brand to a broader audience.
Consideration-stage content might involve comparison guides, product roundups, or testimonials that help shoppers evaluate their options. For the decision phase, detailed product descriptions, reviews, and FAQ pages can seal the deal, while post-purchase content such as tutorials, loyalty programs, and engaging email campaigns keep customers coming back.
By supporting users at every stage, you not only enhance your SEO rankings but also build trust and loyalty, positioning your brand as a go-to resource throughout the buyer’s journey.
AI models like Google Vertex AI are redefining how search engines evaluate and rank content. These models use embeddings to convert text into numerical representations, enabling search engines to calculate the similarity between a user’s query and your content with remarkable precision.
As Long explained, “Embeddings convert text into numeric values, allowing search engines to measure the similarity of content to user queries.” This approach goes beyond basic keyword matching, focusing instead on the semantic relationships and contextual meaning within your content. By integrating advanced AI models into your strategy, you can create more relevant, search-friendly content that directly addresses user needs.
A semantic content audit is a powerful way to evaluate how well your existing content aligns with your core business topics. Go Fish Digital uses embedding models to take this a step further by running large-scale analyses to identify underperforming or irrelevant content.
Long noted, “We scrape client content, run it through embedding models, and graph its similarity to core business topics, helping identify low-quality content.” This data-driven method not only highlights gaps in your content but also provides actionable insights to optimize or replace pages that aren’t contributing to your SEO goals.
Clear and accurate product listings are essential to ensure your products appear in relevant search results. Optimizing descriptions, names, and tags to reflect user intent can make a significant difference in visibility and conversions.
Hinckley emphasized the importance of precise categorization, advising, “Avoid categorizing products incorrectly—for example, tagging a ring as ‘black’ when only a small part is black—since Google favors exact matches.” By fine-tuning product listings to match how users search, you can increase your chances of appearing in targeted search results and drive more qualified traffic to your site.
Leveraging the right tools can transform your ecommerce SEO strategy from good to exceptional. By incorporating advanced technologies, businesses can uncover deeper insights, streamline workflows, and stay ahead in an ever-evolving digital landscape.
The future of ecommerce SEO is here, and AI is leading the way. From optimizing your content for Google’s evolving algorithms to preparing for ChatGPT-driven search, the strategies shared by our experts are your roadmap to success. Don’t get left behind—take these insights and transform your approach today.
Want to dominate AI-driven search in 2025? Schedule a free consultation with our team or explore our suite of AI-powered tools to optimize your content strategy!
If you missed our webinar, “Boost Your Ecommerce SEO: Navigate the AI Maze with Confidence” with pros Chris Long and Dan Hinckley, it’s not too late!
Listen to the recording to discover strategies for maximizing your SEO performance, boosting your ROI, and ensuring every keyword counts.
