So you want to get into an AI overview, or get your website, brand, or one of your products to show up as an output through an answer engine like ChatGPT or some other AI system.
What goes into eCommerce AI optimization services, at least from the perspective of content, is not altogether that different from traditional SEO.
Here’s how it works, step by step.
Research, Identifying a Target Query
With traditional SEO, one of the first things you need to do is find a keyword you want to target. AI SEO is similar but instead of a keyword, you’re going to be looking at a whole question, or a series of questions targeting a keyword.
The reason for this is that most users don’t enter short-tail keywords into AI platforms. They enter long-tail queries in the form of full interrogative statements into AI models.
So, instead of searching for “logger boots,” a user might enter a search for “what are the best logger boots?” or “what brand makes the highest-quality logger boots?”
Then the AI-powered engine will curate a specific answer to that question.
So, first, eCommerce AI optimization services providers will look for long-tail queries like this, or questions in which the desired target keyword is embedded. For this, they can use search AI tools or other marketing tools like SEMRush, or even look at the People Also Ask section of Google for a given keyword.
Drafting the Copy
Once a target keyword, more specifically, a long-tail query, or a series of queries have been identified, the marketing team will draft up copy in the form of a blog, CMS page article, or a series of FAQs centered around those questions, with the answers succinctly listed.
All other SEO best practices generally apply here, with a few other considerations. For one, author attribution and an intact, credible citation chain are highly desirable by many AI engines. On top of that, conversational tone in writing is usually preferred by some of these engines, like ChatGPT.
Publishing and Optimizing the Copy
Once a provider of eCommerce AI optimization services has drafted the copy it intends to use as material to be scraped and sourced by answer engines, it’s time to publish the copy.
While uploading the copy, the marketer will likely include images that have also been enriched and optimized with alt data and compressed, so as to make them attractive to search engines, and then to be used by answer engines.
AI optimization services providers are also careful to make sure that structurally, the copy is well-arranged, with proper page structure, metadata, and title and header optimization, as well as any relevant internal links that will improve indexing as well as performance through any relevant answer engines.
After publication, it becomes a waiting game. Digital marketers may request indexing through Google Search Console to speed up the time it takes to get a page live in the search results, since answer engines use the search results for reference, but otherwise, it just takes time – just as traditional SEO always has.
Working with a Provider of eCommerce AI Optimization Services
As you can see, the only real difference between traditional search engine optimization and eCommerce AI optimization services is that longer-tail queries are targeted, and that the only reason consideration is content, whereas in SEO, there are still some technical considerations.
Truly, the two channels are closely and inextricably linked – it’s just that, if it’s possible to say so, there is a greater emphasis on content marketing in AI SEO than there is in conventional SEO. That is, content is still king.
Anyway, at the end of the day, working with an eCommerce AI optimization services provider can improve the chances that your website, brand or products populate as outputs through answer engines, bringing you additional traffic, and potentially new revenue streams.
