TL;DR
Google’s AI Overviews are transforming search, shifting focus from rankings and clicks to visibility and authority within AI-generated answers. To stay visible, brands must structure content in concise, schema-supported chunks, strengthen their online entity and brand signals, optimize images, videos, and product data for multimodal search, use tools like llms.txt to control and guide AI access, and measure success by brand mentions and AI visibility rather than traffic. In short, SEO isn’t dead—it’s evolving, and mastering AI search optimization is how forward-thinking ecommerce brands will stay ahead.
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As we’ve seen and experienced over the last 6-12 months, Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) and AI Overviews are redefining search visibility for every ecommerce brand. Instead of ten blue links, brands now compete with AI-generated summaries that often answer the question before a user ever clicks. As many ecommerce businesses have come to experience, this is both a threat and an opportunity.
For many, traffic patterns are already shifting. As AI snapshots dominate top-of-page real estate, click-through rates for many informational and product-intent searches have dropped. But here’s the truth: SEO isn’t dead, it’s evolving… fast. Visibility inside AI-generated results is the new frontier, and the brands that adapt early will build brand awareness and own the conversation.
This post outlines five actionable tactics to help your brand optimize for AI search, strengthen its authority, and remain visible as Google continues to integrate generative AI across search.
The New Reality of AI Search
AI Overviews aren’t just a feature; they’re a shift in how Google interprets and delivers information to the customer. For users, it means faster answers to our questions and solutions to our problems. For brands, it means that you might experience fewer clicks to your website. I’ve seen some studies estimate that up to 30% of clicks could disappear for queries where AI-generated answers dominate. That’a a pretty big hit.
Yet within that disruption lies opportunity. Instead of optimizing solely for rankings, ecommerce marketers now need to think in terms of visibility (impressions in Google Search Console), attribution, and authority within the entire ecosystem. The goal is no longer just to be ranked #1, it’s to be visible and to be THE answer.
This shift rewards brands that are consistent, credible, and context-rich. Your job as an ecommerce SEO or content marketer is to make your content easy for the search engines and for AI to understand, reference, and trust.
How Google AI Results Are Triggered
AI Overviews typically appear when users ask complex or multi-step questions that don’t have a single clear answer.
Think of searches like:
- “What’s the best cooler for camping trips in hot weather?”
- “How to choose an ergonomic office chair for helping with sciatica pain?”
- “Which air purifier is best for houses with shedding dogs?”
(Yes, these are all real based on my recent search history… LOL)
My queries combine comparison, context, and intent, exactly the kind of input Google’s AI models are trained to process.
In short: To trigger AI results, users generally enter long-tail, informational, or question-based searches that require synthesis or explanation rather than a simple fact.
SGE often appears automatically for users in enabled regions, and these AI Overviews pull data from trusted, structured, and well-referenced pages. That’s why your content’s clarity, formatting, and authority directly influence whether it appears in AI results.
Building Trust Through E-E-A-T
The foundation of AI search engine optimization is trust and helpfulness. Google’s AI systems rely heavily on signals from the E-E-A-T framework: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
Here’s how each element translates into visibility in AI search results:
- Experience: Demonstrate real-world usage or testing of your products. Include original photos, firsthand insights, and authentic customer stories. With the right email automations in place, you can put this on autopilot.
- Expertise: Feature author bios or contributors with relevant credentials or experience. Google and AI models increasingly recognize bylines as signals of expertise.
- Authoritativeness: Build backlinks, brand mentions, and references across the web. The more often your entity is cited, the more likely AI will reference it. This is why SEO and online PR efforts are absolutely critical to ranking in traditional and AI search.
- Trustworthiness: Maintain accuracy, cite credible sources, and ensure consistency across your web properties (domain, social profiles, and Google Business Profile).
Example: One of our clients, a D2C outdoor brand, improved visibility in AI Overviews after rewriting its content to include frequently asked questions across the entire buyer journey well as real customer use cases (including imagery and video).
When your content checks these boxes, AI systems are more confident using your site as a trusted reference.
Five Tactics to Optimize for AI Search
The next evolution of SEO is about becoming discoverable not just by humans, but by AI machines. These five tactics position your brand to be cited, summarized, and surfaced within AI-driven results.
1. Structure Content for AI Consumption
We believe that AI models read the web in chunks, not pages (like the search engines). They extract meaning from tightly organized, modular content.
To help AI interpret your site:
- Start each key section with a direct answer paragraph: 40 to 60 words that concisely address a question or topic.
- Use clear subheadings (H2s) that mirror how users naturally phrase queries.
- Implement FAQ Pages and How To schema to mark up question-and-answer or step-by-step content.
- Format lists, bullets, and short paragraphs so AI models can easily segment ideas.
- Tools like Also Asked can help identify question clusters and optimize structure.
Example: One of our clients, a home goods brand, restructured its product pages with FAQs and concise section summaries, increasing its inclusion in AI Overviews by more than 20%.
2. Build Verifiable Authority and Entity Strength
AI search SEO isn’t just about content; it’s about building brand and identity. Large language models (LLMs) rely on a knowledge graph of recognized entities (people, organizations, and brands). If your brand isn’t consistently represented across the web, it’s harder for AI to trust and showcase you.
To strengthen your entity signals:
- Maintain a consistent digital footprint: identical business name, address, and details across all platforms. This also helps with your Maps Optimization/Local SEO efforts.
- Optimize your Google Business Profile and ensure your Knowledge Panel is accurate and complete.
- Earn brand mentions (even unlinked) on reputable sites, Reddit, and niche communities.
- Publish content that clearly associates your brand with specific topics and industries.
- Tools like Google’s Knowledge Graph API can help evaluate how your brand is recognized online.
3. Go Beyond Text: Optimize for Multimodal Search
Google’s AI isn’t limited to text; it’s multimodal, meaning it pulls from images, video, and product data. Brands that optimize across these formats gain broader exposure.
Here’s how to prepare:
- Images: Use descriptive filenames, keyword-rich alt text, and keyword-rich content around the image. Optimize resolution for Google Lens discovery.
- Videos: Upload transcripts and add VideoObject schema. Include chapter markers that clearly answer key questions.
- Products: Ensure product feeds are linked through Google Merchant Center and use Product schema with detailed specs and reviews.
Example: One of our apparel brands saw its product imagery repeatedly featured in AI answers after updating all alt text and Merchant Center attributes to better match search intent.
Multimodal optimization helps your brand surface visually within AI-generated summaries, not just textually.
4. Control Your AI Narrative with llms.txt
As AI models increasingly crawl the web for information, llms.txt gives brands a way to guide how their content is accessed and represented, similar to robots.txt, but for AI systems. Instead of blocking crawlers, this file helps you highlight what you want AI to understand about your brand.
To make the most of it:
- Guide AI visibility: List the key pages or directories (like /products or /guides) that represent your brand best.
- Provide context: Add short descriptions or notes so AI systems understand your content’s purpose or authority.
- Establish transparency: Include contact details or licensing information for attribution and content use.
- Future-proof your brand: Even though adoption is early, implementing llms.txt now positions your site as AI-ready as models begin recognizing and respecting these files.
For Shopify or WordPress sites, simply host the file at your root domain (yourbrand.com/llms.txt). It’s a small step that reinforces control, clarity, and credibility as AI search evolves.
5. Measure What Matters in a Zero-Click World
Traditional SEO metrics like organic sessions and click-through rates no longer tell the full story. In the AI era, visibility, mentions, and authority are the new KPIs.
Here’s how to track success:
- Use Google Search Console to track your impressions from day to day.
- Use Peec.ai, SEMRush, Ahrefs, etc. to monitor brand mentions within AI Overviews.
- Identify which queries trigger AI results in Google Search Console and track your performance against them.
- Watch for brand lift metrics, like direct traffic and search volume, as AI exposure often increases recognition even without clicks.
Pro Tip: measure influence and brand awareness, not just traffic.
The Future of SEO for AI Search Engines
I think it’s pretty clear that AI search is not a passing phase; it’s the new standard that brands need to be optimizing for. As Google integrates generative answers deeper into search, the brands that will win are those that combine traditional SEO fundamentals with entity optimization, multimodal assets, and measurable authority.
The core principle hasn’t changed: create content that helps users answer their questions and make better decisions. What’s changed is the way that help is delivered, through AI summaries, voice answers, and visual cues. The next phase of SEO isn’t about chasing algorithms; it’s about shaping how AI understands and represents your brand.
The opportunity is massive: if you become the brand that AI trusts, you won’t just survive the evolution of search, you’ll dominate it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What triggers Google AI search?
AI Overviews are typically triggered by complex, question-based, or comparison-focused queries that require context or synthesis rather than a single fact. These often appear automatically for users in supported regions.
How do I appear in AI search results?
Focus on the following:
- Structuring content for clarity and schema support
- Building strong entity and E-E-A-T signals
- Optimizing multimedia assets
- Monitoring visibility through AI-specific tracking tools
Can Google detect AI-generated content?
Yes, but Google’s stance is that helpful content matters more than authorship method. Whether written by a person or assisted by AI, it must demonstrate expertise, originality, and accuracy.
Greg is the founder and CEO of Stryde and a seasoned digital marketer who has worked with thousands of businesses, large and small, to generate more revenue via online marketing strategy and execution. Greg has written hundreds of blog posts as well as spoken at many events about online marketing strategy. You can follow Greg on Twitter and connect with him on LinkedIn.