Informational queries are being answered on the results page. "Best nappies for sensitive skin", "how to remove limescale", "what micron pallet wrap do I need" — the kind of question that fed blog traffic for a decade — now produces an AI Overview, and often a shopping carousel, before any organic link. For e-commerce brands this is not the end of SEO. It is a change in what SEO is for: being the source the AI cites, and the product the AI recommends. Here is how we are adapting client content and product data in 2026.
What has actually changed
- Informational click-through has fallen — on our client accounts, 20–40% on queries that now trigger an Overview, most of it on top-of-funnel "how to" and "what is" articles.
- Commercial queries are more resilient. "Buy", "price", brand and specific product queries still show classic results and Shopping ads prominently.
- Citations are the new rankings. AI Overviews link to sources; ChatGPT and Perplexity cite them. Being cited gets a smaller but far more qualified click.
- AI shopping surfaces — Google's AI Mode shopping, ChatGPT's product recommendations, Perplexity shopping — pull from Merchant Center feeds, structured data and review data. Product feeds are now an SEO asset.
How to get cited by AI answers
Across the pages of ours that get cited consistently, the pattern is clear:
- Direct answers in the first 60 words under a question-form heading. The AI extracts the answer; the rest of the page supports it.
- Specific numbers, dates and named entities. "Amazon UK referral fees are 15.3% in this category" gets cited; "fees vary" does not.
- Original data or first-hand experience. Case-study results, test outcomes, your own benchmarks. Models prefer sources that add information not already everywhere.
- Clear structure: H2 questions, short paragraphs, tables for comparisons, FAQ blocks with FAQPage schema.
- Entity clarity: who wrote it, who the organisation is, what it does — Organization and Person schema, a real About page, consistent naming across the web.
- Freshness: a visible updated date and content that reflects it. Pages last touched in 2023 are rarely cited for 2026 questions.
Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Mode ten questions your customers ask. Note which sources are cited. If competitors appear and you do not, look at what their cited pages do differently — it is usually specificity and structure, not authority.
What content to write now
- Comparison and decision content ("X vs Y for [use case]") — AI answers summarise these but frequently cite and link them.
- Experience-led guides with results, photos, tests. "We tested 6 stretch films on a 1.2-tonne pallet" outlives "what is stretch film".
- Local and UK-specific content: regulations, delivery, pricing in GBP, UK sizing. AI answers to UK users prefer UK sources.
- Product-adjacent FAQs on collection and product pages — answering "is this safe for…", "does it fit…", "how long does it last" where the purchase happens.
- Stop writing generic definitional posts. "What is Klaviyo" will never be clicked again.
Product data for AI shopping
AI shopping assistants choose products from structured sources. Make yours legible:
- Complete Product schema on every product: name, brand, GTIN, price, availability, shipping details, return policy, aggregateRating.
- A clean Merchant Center feed with free listings on — see feed optimisation. Google's AI shopping features draw from it directly.
- Reviews with text, not just stars, rendered in HTML. Models summarise review content when recommending.
- Descriptive attributes: materials, sizes, compatible with, suitable for, certifications. The more specific the attributes, the more specific the queries you can be recommended for.
- Consider a merchant llms.txt and clear crawl permissions for AI bots (GPTBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended) in
robots.txt— blocking them removes you from the answer.
Measuring AI visibility
- Search Console now separates some AI Mode impressions; watch impressions vs clicks on informational queries to size the Overview effect.
- Referral traffic from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, copilot.microsoft.com in GA4 — small but growing and high-converting. Set up a channel group.
- Citation tracking: a monthly manual check of your 20 key questions across three AI tools, logged in a sheet. Tools exist; a sheet works.
- Brand search volume — AI recommendations often produce a brand search rather than a click. Rising brand queries with flat referral traffic is a sign it is working.
Agentic shopping: the next step
AI agents that browse, compare and buy on a user's behalf are now live in limited form (Shopify's agentic checkout, Google's agentic features). They need machine-readable product data, transparent pricing and delivery, and a checkout that works without a human. Everything above prepares you; the additional step is making sure your store's structured data and checkout do not depend on JavaScript quirks or hidden fees. The AI customer service guide covers the support side of the same shift.
SEO used to be about ranking for the question. Now it is about being the answer's source and the answer's product. Both reward the same thing: being specifically, verifiably useful.
Frequently asked questions
What is generative engine optimisation (GEO)?
GEO is optimising content and product data so AI-powered search systems (Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity) cite your pages as sources and recommend your products — through direct answers, specific data, structured content, schema and clean product feeds.
Do AI Overviews reduce e-commerce traffic?
They reduce clicks on informational queries — often 20–40% on affected terms. Commercial and product queries are less affected. Brands that get cited in Overviews receive fewer but higher-intent visits.
How do I get my products recommended by ChatGPT?
Ensure complete Product schema, a clean Merchant Center feed with free listings enabled, text reviews rendered in HTML, and specific product attributes. ChatGPT and similar tools pull from structured data and crawlable pages; do not block AI crawlers in robots.txt.
Should I block AI bots in robots.txt?
Not if you want to be recommended or cited. Blocking GPTBot, PerplexityBot or Google-Extended removes your content and products from those answers. Most e-commerce brands benefit from allowing them.
Want this done for you?
Groweyo builds and runs the full e-commerce growth stack for UK brands — Shopify, paid media, Klaviyo, marketplaces and analytics. Free 30-minute consultation, no pitch deck.
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